There are thousands of public and private employers in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area who have for years distributed commuter benefits to their employees.
SmartBenefits® is the primary means for employers to provide transit benefits to their employees. SmartBenefits® is a Web-based program. Employers can use it to load the dollar value of their employees’ commuter benefits electronically onto their SmarTrip® cards. Advantages: SmarTrip® is permanent, and rechargeable. It is plastic, like a credit card, and is embedded with a special computer chip that keeps track of the value of the card. You can purchase a SmarTrip® card online here.
SmarTrip® cards are accepted by more than 100 bus, rail, and vanpool services in the region, including Metro, MARC, VRE, local bus systems, and registered vanpools. Additional information here.
I am an employer. How do I sign up to offer these benefits to my employees?
Complete the SmartBenefits application.
Federal legislation allows employers to provide employees with a tax-free or pre-tax transit benefit. SmartBenefits participants can use their SmarTrip® card for Metrobus, Metrorail, parking at Metro operated facilities, and participating van pools. Employees enroll in the new SmartBenefits® Official Travel program to assign value to SmarTrip® cards for employees to use for local business travel on Metro. Additional information here.
I am an employee. How do I sign up to get these benefits?
Find out whether your employer and/or vanpool participate in the program already. If they don’t, download the following Information Packages, print them, and approach your employer and/or vanpool operator to get them to join the program.
Federal legislation allows employers to provide employees with a tax-free or pre-tax transit benefit and a parking benefit. SmartBenefits participants can use their SmarTrip® card for Metrobus, Metrorail, parking at Metro operated facilities, and participating van pools. Employees enroll in the new SmartBenefits® Official Travel program to assign value to SmarTrip® cards for employees to use for local business travel on Metro. Additional information here.