Carpool Wednesday: Cut Down on Traffic

``Carpool Wednesday" coming up again in the Valley, and some companies are way ahead of the game.

U-Haul's John Ungerer is letting many employees work at home and said their reaction is ``thrilled to death." ``All the internet questions and everything that come through the U-Haul system, they've been doing at home," he said.

Including the roadside emergency calls.

``We've got a phone system we put together with it, to where we can see not only what the agents are doing on their screens, but also have the audio that goes with it." The employees save on gas, insurance, food and childcare expenses. Telecommuting frees up office space and parking space at the U-Haul Towers.

Ungerer said telework gets a lot of interest from job seekers. ``Probably, within a five-day period, I could have 300 to 500 applicants across the country." He would highly recommend teleworking to other companies, saying it's not as difficult to implement as one might think and employees are happier.

If teleworking's not an option, there are other ways to reduce commuting problems.

At Arizona Public Service Co.'s Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, about half the employees van-pool. ``We have about 165 vans right now that are operating, and there's about eight to 10 people in each of the vans," said APS's Betty Dayyo.

She said all of the utility's employees are encouraged to car-pool.

``We have more than 200 people that participate in the car-pool program," Dayyo said. ``We provide them with free parking if the do car-pool."

Bus riders are rewarded as well.

``If people want to take the bus, the company pays for bus costs."

Valley Metro said 43 percent of residents share a ride or telecommute at least one day a week.