A'dam employers agree on staggered starting times to prevent rush hour crowds
With their eye on the coronavirus and sustainability, a group of over 20 Amsterdam employers made agreements on how to spread out the times at which their employees travel to work. This includes spreading out starting times, and encouraging employees to travel outside rush hour, ANP reports.
Participating employers include the municipality of Amsterdam, the province of Noord-Holland, the Amsterdam Transport Region, Loyens & Loeff, ABN Amro, and Royal Schiphol Group. Together they employ over 40 thousand people in the Amsterdam region.
Working from home will remain the norm, but employees who do travel to the office will be encouraged to do so outside rush hour, the employers agreed. For longer distances, the means of transport will also be alternated between public transport, bicycle, and car or shared car.
"We now have the opportunity to definitely reorganize where we work and when we travel there. Many people now work from home and will continue to do so at least a few days a week. This spread ensures noticeably less congestion on the train, bus and tram, on the road and on the bicycle path," Sharon Dijksma, the Amsterdam alderman responsible for traffic and transport, said to the news wire.
The participating employers also called on other companies to renew their mobility policy.
"It is important that working from home and spread travel is a topic of discussion between employer and employee and becomes part of an organization's sustainable mobility policy. Then the chance is much greater that working from home will really become commonplace. During this period we will continue to look at how things can be done in a smarter way," Schiphol CEO Dick Benschop said.
