Articles, CSR, Experience Design

Meet The Lumberwagon. It may not look like much, but it’s the pride and joke of three young Alberta workers. After realizing that daily trips to work would rack up unnecessary miles on their own vehicles, the three twenty-something’s pooled their money together and dropped a whopping $600 on this jalopy. With its custom gear shift, outrageous (but fake) NOS system and extravagant decals, it attracts constant onlookers and hollers from passersby’s’. It was sponsored by the company junk bin and hours of the guys’ downtime. By scouring the shop for unusable parts and using their knowledge of cars (all are automotive apprentices) they have created a cheap and oddly pimped, ride to work.

Although it has become the butt of shop jokes, this junker has already sparked some friendly competition among co-workers in the automotive department. However, in all its flash and trash, the silver lining is that these young guys have made carpooling fun. They now enjoy their hour long commute to work, and are still coming up with more ways to redneck their ride.

Now for the “what if”. What if companies actually sponsored such initiatives? What if they encouraged their employees to carpool by doing more then creating a company sign-up sheet? This could lead to friendly competitions among company departments, the re-use of car parts and ‘junk’, not to mention the free advertising (via decals) for the sponsoring companies. The icing on the cake? Traffic times would be reduced, and big old oil men would actually be doing something good for the environment.