Car Pooling Brings Extra Pay to Denny’s Employees

Some of the nearly 500 employees at the corporate headquarters of Denny’s Restaurants are getting paid before they even come to work.

Starting this month, nearly a third of the work force at the Irvine office has become eligible to earn up to an extra $40 a month by joining van pools or car pools or by taking the bus.

“Not every company pays you to come to work,” said Luis Imperial Jr., transportation coordinator for Denny’s. Workers “like it and I know new employees ask for enrollment forms.”

He said Denny’s Restaurants, the Irvine-based operator of a chain of 1,268 eateries, instituted the payment program in response to the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s plan to clean up the region’s air by mandating company car-pooling programs.

The district has set a goal of 1.5 passengers per car in Orange County, up from the present average of 1.1 passengers, said David Rutherford, a district spokesman.

Companies with a low number of car-pooling employees are required to submit and institute a plan to increase participation, he said. But only 1,500 of the 7,000 companies in the South Coast air basin that are required to file plans--those with 100 employees or more--have been contacted by the agency so far.

Some companies, like Denny’s, are instituting cash incentives to entice employees into car pools, while others are trying staggered work shifts or four-day work weeks as ways to ease freeway congestion and air pollution, Rutherford said.

Denny’s Imperial said 168--or roughly a third--of the 498 headquarters employees have signed up for the program. Employees who participate for 19 work days each month earn $40 for riding in the van pool, $30 if they ride in a three-person car pool, and $20 for a two-person car pool or for riding the bus. Those who car-pool to work between 11 and 19 days a month receive smaller payments.