Rising Fuel Prices Prime Pump for More Telecommuting, Virtual Meetings

摘要

The tipping point on gas prices came about a month ago for Bill Lucas, an IT engineer at Milwaukee-based utility We Energies. He stopped using his car for his 35-minute commute and instead started taking a bus, which costs $2.50 each way thanks to a ticket subsidy from the utility. Lucas said he has plenty of fellow riders. Meanwhile, Jim Bagozzi, associate vice president of business solutions at Canadian Tire Corp., said that the Toronto-based retailer and financial services firm is expanding its support for working remotely. Canadian Tire found that in order to entice some new employees with specialized skills, it had to set them up to work in satellite offices instead of requiring them to commute to headquarters.