How would you like a 75-mile roundtrip commute? Sounds pretty awful, right? but Still, Mike Weaver found a great solution. Mike vanpools most days to Raytheon on Rita Road. All thirteen vanpoolers meet at a park-and-ride lot on the north side of town. At Raytheon, the vanpool gets a larger parking space near the entrance door, which just adds to the convenience.

Mike enjoys being a vanpool passenger, because he can sit back, relax and avoid the stress of driving.

He also enjoys all the money he is saving. Mike estimates that he saves about $1,500 each year on gas alone.

Mike is a member of a very unique vanpool, because the primary driver is one of the original vanpool drivers for the Pima County vanpool program. Captain Bob, as he is known in the vanpool, manages the money and his co-captain Phil, manages the driving schedule. It seems that everyone in this vanpool shares the driving, so no one has to drive more than twice a month. This sharing of responsibilities has probably contributed to the longevity of this vanpool.

Vanpooling has given Mike new opportunities to meet other Raytheon employees and learn about what’s happening around the company. This type of networking in the vanpool is a real benefit for companies like Raytheon. Other companies believe that this type of interaction leads to more productive workers.