Transportation benefits for essential workers

For many workers, having a reliable, safe and affordable way to get to and from work has been a constant source of stress.

As automotive breakdowns hit car owners with unanticipated and often unaffordable costs, they also disrupt life and inflict stress and anxiety.

This pandemic has reminded us that millions of American workers are unsung heroes — patiently coping with conflict, stress, and frustration as they keep doing what they do, day after day. When you combine normal workplace challenges with the constraints of quarantine and the pressures of personal life, you can end up in a hard place. Nevertheless, in spite of everything, Americans have stepped up.

Still, they could use a little help.

One place where help is urgently needed — though it was already a challenge pre-COVID and will remain one long after — is transportation.

Related: Should housing, food and transportation be covered health costs/?

While some employees have been able to work remotely over the past year, many others — from essential workers in health care and emergency services to staffers in supermarkets, shops, and restaurants — haven’t had that luxury. For them, the need for a reliable, safe, and affordable way to get to and from the workplace has been a constant concern — and, for many, a constant source of stress.

What’s more, once the pandemic winds down, enterprises will start rolling back the remote work option. As a result, millions of workers will go back to their habitual commutes — and that will only accentuate the problem.

For many onsite workers, the bottom line is simple: their work lives don’t work without a car of their own, and that car needs to be both reliable and affordable. Public transportation doesn’t work for many people in the best of times, not to mention during a pandemic with contagion top-of-mind. The same is true for ride share services like Uber and Lyft, which can be prohibitively pricey while putting drivers’ and riders’ health at risk. Add to all that the flexibility that comes with owning your own vehicle, and the question answers itself.

But while car ownership provides a solution, it also presents a problem. To be blunt, cars break — and this tends to happen at the worst possible moment. That fact puts added pressure on workers to invest in and maintain their personal vehicles.

Beyond the financial and logistical problems posed by unexpected vehicle repairs, they also can take a serious emotional toll. As automotive breakdowns hit car owners with unanticipated and often unaffordable costs, they also disrupt life and inflict stress and anxiety. Taking those disruptions, stresses, and costs off the table would be a boon to car owners and everyone around them, families and employers included.

Before disregarding the emotional component of the problem — and its effect on employers as well as employees — it’s worth looking at the measurable costs of stress in the workplace. The effects of organizational psychology and stress on workplace productivity have been known since the Hawthorne Studies in the 1920s. Today, according to the American Psychological Association, more than $500 billion and 550 million workdays are lost to the U.S. economy each year due to workplace stress, and stress causes between 60% and 80% of workplace accidents. It seems obvious that removing a significant source of employee anxiety would benefit all concerned.

Solution: Address the risk in advance

One sure way to mitigate these financial, logistical, and psychological downsides is to remove the uncertainties by addressing them in advance.

That’s exactly what vehicle service contracts are all about. By covering a range of possible automotive failures and spreading the financial risk of unexpected — and expensive — repairs, they can turn a stress-inducing disaster into a mere inconvenience for a vehicle owner. Not many employees can afford $900 for a broken fuel pump or $6,600 to replace a transmission out of the blue — and even those who do have the cash on hand will be feeling the pain. Removing that threat can save your budget, minimize disruption, and buy some peace of mind.

Representative costs covered by vehicle service contracts

But there’s still a three-part problem here. First, direct-to-consumer service contracts typically carry a significant price premium and thus are more expensive than many workers can afford.

Second, offerings are all over the map, and it’s not easy for consumers to compare their options — especially if they’re making their decision at a dealership in the middle of a vehicle purchase.

Finally, the add-on charges that apply in most cases just add to the confusion and expense. Clearly, a more affordable, transparent alternative to the conventional service contract approach is needed — one that’s provided with maximum clarity and minimum markup, so workers can know what they’re getting and have one less reason for stress.

So what can employers do to help?

Service coverage as a corporate benefit

Employers already partner with their employees in important ways to enhance stability, relieve stress, and offer support in reaching personal, financial, and career goals. From stock plans and health coverage to child care subsidies and parking perks, employers provide a generous range of benefits — and reap the rewards in the form of employee loyalty, retention, and productivity.

There’s no reason why employers couldn’t offer vehicle service coverage to workers in exactly the same way: as part of a benefits package designed to help employees plan and provide for a stable, productive, and prosperous future.

In fact, offering service coverage as a corporate benefit fits neatly into the current paradigm — solving an employee problem seamlessly and scalably while strengthening the employer-employee relationship and boosting productivity.

Consider these facts:

Furthermore, such an offering won’t just strengthen an employer’s bond with current employees, reducing attrition and improving productivity by giving employees peace of mind. It also serves as a recruiting magnet, lowering acquisition costs while attracting higher-quality candidates. In the competition for talent, what employer wouldn’t take the opportunity to differentiate?

Choosing the right approach

If employers provide tools to help workers address the financial and emotional stresses of unexpected vehicle repairs, both employers and workers will benefit. But it’s crucial to deliver a solution that hits every target — affordable, simple, and transparent. The goal is to save money, manage risk, reduce stress, and achieve transparency in a part of the marketplace that’s famous for unclear choices, vague benefits, and hidden costs.

Here’s the reality of what’s needed to deliver vehicle service coverage to workers as a corporate benefit that solves the problem for employers and employees:

By stepping outside the conventional wisdom about which employee challenges and concerns deserve our attention and how they should be addressed, we have an opportunity to innovate new approaches that support workers and strengthen our workplaces and our businesses. Deepening the relationship of synergy and support between employer and employee isn’t just good for workers — it’s good business, too. If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past year, it’s that we need to have each others’ backs. When we do that, everybody wins.

Jeffrey Danford is chief executive officer and co-founder and leads SnoopDrive, Inc. a digital automotive protection company. Jeff has over 30 years of automotive and direct-to-consumer experience.

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