Fighting gas pains | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

From August through December, 31 of the company's 36 employees will receive $50 Exxon/Mobil gas cards each month for their personal use.

"Companies can only do so much, but because we are still thriving in the industry, doing well, I thought it would be nice if we could at least give a token of appreciation back to the employees," said Dave Gable, president of Aggregate Transportation.

The company's other five employees are outside sales representatives, some of whom have company cars and all of whom already have company gas cars that they use to pay for fuel when traveling on appointments.

Aggregate Transportation Corp. is one of the top suppliers of bulk materials and transportation to Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The company sells crushed stone, sand, gravel, recycled products, fill materials, specialty aggregates, equipment rentals and disposal sites to the commercial, industrial and residential markets.

Many of these services are available through The Stone Store and StoneScapes & Design, both of which also have their headquarters in Hanover with parent company Aggregate Transportation.

Kimberly Himmel-Morris, the company's vice president and general manager, said the idea for gas cards came about from talking to employees and looking at company gas spending, which has increased $20,000 on company cars since lastyear. Some employees commute from as far away as Southern Maryland and Aberdeen.

"We feel the crunch," she said. "We run 48 to 60 trucks a day."

The trucks run on diesel, which averages $4.84 a gallon in Maryland.

Fran Schmidt, executive director of the Northern Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce, called Aggregate Transportation's gas card program an "innovative idea."

"By giving them a gas card that the money is specifically used to help them get to and from work, whereas if you do a pay raise, the intention would be to help with gas but they wouldn't know if it went towards gas," she said.

This is the first company in the area that Mrs. Schmidt has heard of that's offering the cards.

A sampling of some of the area's big employers - Southwest Airlines, Baltimore Washington Medical Center and Anne Arundel Community College - found that they do not offer gas card programs.

BWMC and the Maryland Transit Administration are working on a program to give hospital employees discounted bus tickets. Many of the workers ride the bus to work, BWMC spokesman Allison Eatough said.

The gas cards aren't the only thing Aggregate Transportation does to help out its employees. The company pays for 50 percent of its employees health care costs and contributes 50 cents to every dollar in employees' 401K accounts.

"There is an investment to make in employees at all times," said Mr. Gable. "We have to invest in them as long as they're willing to invest in us."

"I think we'll get a lot of mileage out of it," said Mr. Gable.