The safest—and most cost-conscious—way for your employees to commute to work may be to not drive at all. Employees who participate in vanpools can save between $2,000 and $4,000 each year, says Steve Pederson, vice president of VPSI, Inc., the largest private provider of commuter vanpools.

Because the cost is shared, vanpooling is typically much less expensive than driving to work alone. In addition, vanpoolers are eligible for special federal tax incentives. Some regions of the country offer various types of incentives to share the ride.

Pederson adds that “vanpooling is probably regarded as the safest mode of public transportation” with a fatality rate of less than 1, compared with 5.2 for busses and 39.3 for commuter rail. What’s more, vanpooling results in a dramatically lower use of energy than most other forms of mass transit.

Pederson has his own theory about vanpool safety. He believes that because van drivers know their passengers personally (unlike, say, public bus drivers), they’re more accountable and behave more safely on the road.

The benefits accrue not only to individuals, but to their employers, according to Pederson. Vanpooling permits companies to recruit people from greater distances. And vanpools result in less absenteeism because unlike individual cars, they go every day. And, Pederson adds, employees arrive at work fresh and ready to go, not exhausted and stressed from fighting traffic and looking for parking.