Engaging small businesses to join the ORCA employer transit program in Greater Seattle

Ranked on the INRIX Traffic Scorecard at 64 worldwide, Greater Seattle Area residents lose an average of 79 hours per year to traffic-related delays. As a result, the region has been heavily focused on promoting investment in more sustainable means of transportation, alongside spearheading forward-thinking initiatives and programs such as the Small Business Incentive.

Launched as a pilot in 2018, the Small Business Incentive (SBI) is a program funded by the Washington State Department of Transportation and managed by Seattle area transit agencies including King County Metro, Pierce Transit and Community Transit. The SBI provides a 50% subsidy on ORCA for Business, which provides all-access transit and vanpool service to employees whose businesses have joined the program. 

The program harnesses the unique approach of utilizing trained Business Advisors to perform direct outreach across the three Seattle-area counties in conjunction with broader online and social media marketing. Strong emphasis is placed on encouraging businesses in the region to change their policies towards commute benefits, with the advisors being there to facilitate and ease that process.

Our involvement

Our team created a strategic work plan to attract and engage with small businesses and non-profits (under 100 employees) from around the Seattle area who are not currently signed onto the ORCA employer transit program. The team also helped to facilitate market feasibility as well as coordinate marketing, outreach programs and one-to-one contact with small businesses.

Successes & outcomes

The WSDOT SBI Program has set a new precedent for best practices when it comes to inter-agency transportation projects in the Greater Seattle Area. The lead agencies have established a framework of communication, responsibility, policy, and guidance, which partners in the area have attempted to replicate where possible.

Key outcomes over the past 18 months include:

• Provided transit benefit subsidy for 248 small businesses throughout Greater Seattle.
• Extended ORCA transit benefits to 2,600 individual employees.
• Participation in the program by individual employees led to a reported 80% increase in overall transit use and a nearly 75% reduction in driving.
• The program was extended for 2 additional years to 2021 as a result of the pilot program’s success.

More recently, the program has been instrumental in getting small businesses connected with resources to help them navigate the COVID-19 crisis, and the program will be working increasingly with partners both on the SBI program and others to advise on transforming prior and existing initiatives and deliverables to better fit the post-COVID transportation world.

In August 2020, WSDOT and its transit agency partners were recognized for the success of the Small Business Incentive program by the Association of Commuter Transportation (ACT) with an award for best Public Transit program at their 2020 International Conference.