Van Pools Blog
VPSI Eases VA Workers’ Commutes After Relocation
March 17th, 2011 0 Comments
In early March, VPSI partnered with OhioRideShare to assist the Louis Stokes VAMC Cleveland staff with their commutes. The Brecksville location is being closed and nearly 1,200 employees will be moved to the downtown Cleveland Wade Park campus. The relocation has created a need for some creative ways to assist with the new commutes the staff will soon face. Rising gas prices were another driving force for the staff to look for ways to not only save money on their commute, but to reduce their carbon footprint, as well the employee parking requirements at Wade Park.
Over the course of 2 days, nearly 200 people registered into the vRide program, which allows users to create their own “pools” based on where they reside, their work schedule and their new work location. While the original focus was on helping the Brecksville staff get to the Wade Park Campus, as word spread around about the events, existing Wade Park staff started forming their own pools.
Some of the comments received about the registration events were:
- “The people were happy the VA made this happen”.
- “The event was extremely well organized”.
- “After we registered, we kept going back online to check responses. We were anxious to see if anyone else had joined our pool”.
Since the events were held, many more VA employees have signed up. As we work through the various transition dates of the move, we are confident we will be able to help many people find an efficient “pool” to get to work. Kudos to the Louis Stokes VA staff that helped organize the event and it is now something that they can “check off their list” of tasks to accomplish for this consolidation project.
Colleen Donnelly, transportation planner at OhioRideShare, said she is excited about the program.
“The partnership between OhioRideShare and VPSI will help hundreds of VA staff save a lot of money on their commutes and we are pleased to be able to offer this wonderful service to them,” she said.
Congratulation to Mary Latino who won the Grand Prize of a $499 Apple Gift Card!
Twenty-Two Vanpools Later
August 9th, 2010 5 Comments
Our VA vanpool started six years ago. Five brave souls willing to try giving up the independence of our personal vehicles and share a ride with strangers, in an effort to save money. Word spread through the VA hospital where we worked and our eight passenger van was soon full.
We started an alternate rider list, calling the alternates when one of the regular riders was on vacation or sick leave. The waiting list grew and our vanpool separated into two vanpools. Over the next six years our vanpool was responsible for helping to start six other vanpools through word of mouth. The original three vanpools at our VA has expanded to 22 and is growing. Read More
VPSI Launches VAvanpool.com
June 18th, 2010 0 Comments
Since VPSI’s military-focused website, MilitaryVanpool.com, continues to grow and attract a steadily increasing number of visitors, we’ve decided to launch a companion site, focusing on helping VA employees find commuter vanpools traveling to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ vast network of hospitals, clinics, regional benefits offices and veteran centers.
“VPSI presently operates over 330 vanpools with groups of VA employees traveling to 48 different VA Medical Centers and regional offices around the country,” observes Michael Norvell, VPSI’s Vice President – Business Development. “In some locations, like the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, we have over 70 vanpools commuting to the facility. We wanted to provide a website where VA employees can find existing vanpools in their area and give additional support for those who want to form new ones.” This spring, VPSI launched www.VAvanpool.com to accomplish these objectives.
VAvanpool.com features a Vanpool Listings page showing the total number of vanpools in service at a particular VA Medical Center, as well as the city or town where they originate. For those wanting more information, contact information for the local VPSI customer service office is provided for each VA location listing.
Like its companion military-focused site, VAvanpool.com will be updated as new vanpool groups are organized and placed into service at VA facilities throughout the country. VPSI can provide vanpool services to virtually any of the over 140 VA Medical Centers and 57 Regional Offices throughout the country, even in Hawaii and Alaska. Our new website is one more tool to help enlightened, cost-conscious commuters take advantage of the VA transit benefit of up to $230 per month.
The program is available to all VA employees who commute on a daily basis using qualified mass transit, including train/subway, bus, vanpool or ferry. Employees receive a direct, tax-free subsidy for their monthly, qualified transit expenses of up to $230 per month. For the majority of program participants this equates to a free commute (including fuel) to and from work. For more information, visit VAvanpool.com today.
VPSI Launches New VA Medical Center-focused Website
May 20th, 2010 0 Comments
As MilitaryVanpool.com, VPSI’s military-focused website, continued to grow and attract a steadily increasing number of visitors, the company decided to launch a companion site focusing on providing information to VA employees traveling to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ vast network of hospitals, clinics, regional benefits offices and vet centers. “VPSI presently operates over 330 vanpools with groups of VA employees traveling to 48 different VA Medical Centers and regional offices around the country,” observed Michael Norvell, VPSI’s Vice President – Business Development. “In some locations, like the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, we have over 70 vanpool groups commuting to the facility. We wanted to provide a website where VA employees can conveniently obtain information about existing vanpools commuting to the VA facilities in their area or give them additional support if they want to form new vanpools”, he added. Earlier this month, VPSI took its new VAvanpool.com site live to accomplish these objectives. Read More
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