Two innovative cities tackling growth issues in the greater Nashville region have adopted the Hytch Rewards app to incentivize employees to share rides and reduce traffic. The City of Franklin rolled out its partnership with Hytch in early 2019, following in the footsteps of The City of Brentwood, which deployed Hytch in fall of 2018.
Hytch is a Nashville-based technology company focused on accelerating the use of shared mobility solutions in urban and surrounding areas like the ten county Middle Tennessee region. Using the free Hytch Rewards app available for Android and iOS smartphones, Hytch uses gamification, interactive education and incentives to promote the social, economic, and environmental benefits of shared mobility.
“Employees with the City of Brentwood are intrigued with the Hytch platform and usership is growing. In the first six months of our launch, we have already reached half our total goal. We feel proud that we are helping incentivize our employees to do their part to help ease traffic congestion in Middle Tennessee,” said Kirk Bednar, Brentwood City Manager.
By partnering with Hytch, fast growing cities like Brentwood and Franklin are able to take steps today to reduce congestion when mass transit options are a distant conversation. Participating cities can cut congestion and pollution without building additional transit or infrastructure. In fact, building the equivalent infrastructure in one city would cost more than the Hytch solution in 30 cities. Hytch has partnered with other employers in the region including Goodwill Industries of Middle TN, Onin Staffing, Lipscomb University and HG Hill.
“We are excited to launch this pilot program that provides an incentive for carpooling among our more than 750 team members. This will help take cars off the road and reduce the competition for parking spaces. This program demonstrates our commitment to all employees, whether they live inside Franklin or drive from surrounding counties,” said Eric Stuckey, Franklin City Administrator.
Everyone in the City of Franklin is eligible to earn rewards by using the app, but City of Franklin employees have access to additional cash rewards through their employee reward program. City of Franklin employees can earn these rewards by sharing a ride to work, ending their trip within the city limits and using their employee ID number as a promo code. All Hytch users can redeem their cash rewards from the app after they have accumulated $10.
“America is a car centric culture. Everyone can now feel the debilitating impacts of congestion. Leaders can see that people who share a ride are actually solving the problem, in real time, and these commuters deserve a reward,” said Hytch Co-founder and CEO Mark A. Cleveland. “We should celebrate every time we see two or more people in a car. We look forward to working on this problem with every major city, every major employer and anyone looking for immediate, climate friendly solutions to traffic.”
ABOUT HYTCH
Hytch LLC is a Nashville-based social impact technology company that rewards people to lower carbon emissions, protect clean air and reduce traffic congestion through logging their shared commutes with the Hytch Rewards platform. By using the free app for iPhone and Android, Hytch promotes the habits of sharing a ride by enabling users to “Save Trees” and earn cash rewards when available in sponsored markets. Recognized as a pioneering platform, Hytch received a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Hytch also earned the Nashville Technology Council’s Emerging Company of the Year, the Tennessee Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award, the Sustainable Transportation Award presented by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and recently was recognized by the Nashville Entrepreneur Center with the 2018 NEXT Award for Social Enterprise and Sustainability Startup. To learn more about Hytch, visit www.hytch.me or contact [email protected].
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