Program Overview
Businesses can offer RideMETRO Cards as a substitute for taxable salary, a supplemental benefit or a combination. With no initial investment required, you can allow employees to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for expenses related to commuting to and from work.
Employer Benefits
Discover how the RideSponsor program can help support your organization's needs and goals.
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Cost & Tax Savings
Providing transit benefits is often cheaper than parking subsidies or mileage reimbursement. Employee contributions are payroll-tax exempt.
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Go Green
Supporting public transit use can help companies reduce their carbon footprint and achieve their corporate sustainability goals.
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Attraction & Retention
Reducing daily commuting stress can improve job satisfaction and make working in certain business centers more attractive.
Employee Benefits
Find out why employees want their companies and organization to join the RideSponsor program.
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Cost Savings
Reducing commuting cost including gas, toll, maintenance and parking expenses. If you use payroll deductions to fund your cards, you can pay less in taxes.
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Less Stress
Avoiding the negative effects of driving can improve mental well-being and work-life balance. You can use the time to relax, read or reconnect.
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Increased Access
Employees without personal vehicles or those who prefer not to drive benefit from reliable and affordable transit access.
Common Questions
Requirements
Any organization with a tax ID can be part of the program.
- Private employers
- Nonprofits
- Government agencies
- Educational institutions
No. There’s no required participant size. However, your organization must have at least 25 employees to become a RideSponsor.
Your organization can purchase cards for $2 each and assign them to participating employees. Alternatively, employees can purchase their own cards and provide the card information to an account manager so it can be added to your organization’s RideSponsor account.
Account Management
Your organization can assign/designate any individual(s) you want to manage the RideSponsor account.
You can have multiple administrators who can assign cards and administer funds. There is one super admin who can create, block, remove and change admins. They are also in charge of managing the account settings.
You can choose to be invoiced for the prior month’s transactions. Full payment will be due within 30 days of the invoice date and can be made with check, debit/credit card or ACH payment.
Alternatively, you can make immediate payments by debit/credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover).
Yes. Bulk actions allow account administrators to save time by applying actions to multiple cards simultaneously.
Examples include:
- Managing participants: add participants; update participants; remove participants; add cards to participants
- Managing cards: lock cards; unlock cards; add cards; remove cards
- Managing products, passes and autoloads: add money; add passes; add multiple products to multiple cards; add autoloads; edit autoloads; remove autoloads; pause autoloads; resume autoloads
- Managing groups: add participants to group; remove participants from group
Card Management
An account manager can do the following:
- Set up automatic card reloads
- Lock and unlock cards
- Assign and reassign cards to participants
You can manage your participants' RideMETRO Cards online through the METRO RideSponsor portal. You have the option to set up an automatic reload to participant cards based on factors like balance or choose a set day of the month. Alternatively, you can do manual reloads to the cards. Loading cards can be performed on an individual card basis or through a bulk fare load using a CSV file.
Yes, a card can be loaded with both. Employers who load value using pre-tax paycheck deductions may select the pre-tax option so the funds can't be transferred to another card.
Pre-tax funds get spent first if a card has a combination of both.
Other
No. RideSponsor participants cannot convert their issued cards to a virtual card or use the app to pay their fare.
However, the RideMETRO app is useful for trip planning, checking arrival / departure times and viewing service alerts.
Yes. To help manage payroll and budgeting, RideSponsors can generate reports showing fund disbursements, usage and active participants.
Yes. Participants in the RideSponsor program will be able to add their own funds to RideSponsor-issued cards.
Next Steps
Step 1: Contact Us
Fill out an online inquiry form, email us at [email protected] or call us at 713-739-4015 to set up a meeting with a RideSponsor representative. They'll review the program with you, answer your questions and help you get started.
Step 2: Sign Up and Attend Training
Once you've joined the program, your RideSponsor representative will walk you through how to use the portal and help you set up account features.
Step 3: Share the Benefit
Your RideSponsor representative can help promote the program and riding METRO by providing marketing materials you can distribute and hosting presentations for employees.
Step 4: Stay Connected
Your RideSponsor representative will be your direct line to support. You can call or email them with questions, request additional staff training, or get assistance with the portal.