VPSI takes advantage of high gas prices, grows
Troy-based VPSI is probably the only transportation company that doesn’t mind seeing gas prices rise. The van pooling firm has been taking off this year, adding 500 new van pools and expects to hire more people to accomodate this growth this year.
Gas prices can’t go high enough for VPSI. The largest van pooling company in the world is experiencing rapid growth as the motorists everywhere cope with skyrocketing energy prices.
The company was started by a couple of Chrysler employees in 1977, during the first energy crisis, to help reduce traffic, commuting costs and pollution. Today it is the largest vanpool company in the world, with nearly 4,500 vanpools in service.
One vanpool can take as many as 14 cars off the road and save users thousands of dollars in annual commuting costs. Last year VPSI helped eliminate nearly 6.9 million vehicle commuting trips, conserve more than 26 million gallons of fuel and eliminated more than 275,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
And it uses these saving to create jobs. The company has 139 employees, including 41 at its Troy headquarters, and expects to add a lot more sooner rather than later as its business grows. It has added more than 500 van pools since January and has exceeded its growth goals for 2008 six months early.
Source: VPSI
Writer: Jon Zemke
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