(Omaha World-Herald (NE) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 20--Robyn Binns quit her job rather than add 30 miles round trip to her daily commute and $200 a month to gasoline and other car-related bills.

Binns and her family live on an acreage five miles east of Crescent, Iowa. She drove more than 20 miles to ACI Worldwide in the Old Mill area near Interstate 680 and West Dodge Road. When ACI said it would move to a new building near 204th and Q Streets this summer, she started thinking of moving, too -- to a different job.

"I needed to be somewhere else by the summer of 2008. I figured gas would be $4 a gallon."

She left ACI at the end of 2007 and started Jan. 2 at PayPal, near Interstate 80 and Giles Road in La Vista. It takes Binns 30 minutes to get to work now, compared with 52 minutes to ACI's 204th and Q Streets location.

Binns' decision might be considered an extreme way to hold down commuting costs. Less aggressive approaches include switching to more fuel-efficient cars, biking, car pooling and parking the car altogether in favor of a Metro Area Transit bus.

And while it's far from a universal trend, some companies started or expanded telecommuting as fuel prices climbed.

In a survey for the Human Resource Association of the Midlands, 19 percent of more than 100 Omaha-Council Bluffs businesses of all sizes said they offered telecommuting to employees. The survey results did not say whether the practice was tied to easing commuting costs.

Binns' former employer now has 80 people, 13 percent of its work force of 622, working from home, ACI spokeswoman Judy Hartlieb said.

But even if Binns had stayed at ACI, telecommuting wasn't an option. Her rural home is out of reach of the landlines she would need for high-speed computer connections.

At PayPal it's not an option at all. Spokeswoman Jamie Patricio said the online payments company, a unit of eBay, based in Palo Alto, Calif., doesn't allow workers at its La Vista operations center to work from home.

ACI workers in England have worked from home two or three days a week for years to avoid long commutes, Hartlieb said.

An argument can be made that working from home makes people more productive, she said. On top of that, "I'm sure with gas prices as they are it's an added benefit."

Of the 600 hotel reservations agents employed by Marriott Worldwide in Omaha, 175 work from home, said Lisa Lane, the center's general manager.

"Once gas prices started to go up we decided we've got to do something for our associates," Lane said.

Some of those now working at home were hired on that basis. Others were in-house employees who opted to stay home.

Managers meet with at-home workers via video conferencing to discuss performance. They use similar methods to include them in other important events, Lane said. "We put them on the big screen."

Some administrative and IT employees also work from home at times but not exclusively, she said.

At Carlson Hotels Worldwide in Omaha, 5 to 10 percent of the staff of 280 telecommutes, said Christine Brosnahan, a vice president in Omaha.

None of the at-home workers are reservations agents. But that will change next year, she said, when the company introduces at-home reservation agents.

The call-answering business has a lot of flexibility, she said, and a younger generation is more interested in working from someplace other than an office.

"If that's what motivates them to be better sales reps, that's fine with us."

More than 20 percent, 150, of Convergys Corp.'s 550 customer relations agents in Omaha work from home.

The number of home agents has not increased directly because of the price of gas, said Bill Jacobi, who runs the call center for Cincinnati-based Convergys.

"We have seen an increase in applications, though," he said.

The agents handle customer relations for business clients via phone and e-mail. Some administrative employees also work from home, Jacobi said.

The home-agent program launched a few years ago by Omaha-based West Corp., a major third-party operator of customer services for businesses, has 15,000 contract workers nationwide.

Not many other employees telecommute, spokesman Dave Pleiss said.

Only 25 to 30 Mutual of Omaha employees out of an Omaha work force of about 3,500, telecommute, spokesman Jim Nolan said.

He said rising gas prices haven't prompted an increase in the number of people asking to work from home.

Most remote workers are in underwriting or human resources, he said.

The nature of an employee's work may not allow working from home, but if it does, maintaining productivity is key to making it work, Nolan said.

Spokeswoman Nancy Etheredge at First Data Corp. didn't have an estimate of telecommuting employees but said the company has not noticed an increase in requests to do so because of gas prices.

The company's location around 72nd and Pacific Streets makes for a relatively short commute whether employees are coming from west Omaha or Council Bluffs, she said.

The credit card issuing and processing company has 5,300 employees.

First National Bank, which has 4,000 employees in the Omaha area, has not seen an increase in requests for telecommuting tied to high gas costs, spokesman Kevin Langin said.

First National subsidizes bus fare by selling MAT tickets to employees at 25 percent off regular price. It also promotes the Metro Rideshare Program and provides a park-and-ride location for MAT at its business park near 144th Street and West Dodge Road.

Ameritas Life Insurance Corp., in Lincoln, part of parent company UNIFI of Cincinnati, is ramping up its work-from-home program, said Sherri Wimes, vice president for human resources at the Lincoln office.

The company's chief executive feels compelled to help employees save money, she said.

Some jobs could be done from home on a full-time basis, she said, but for now the company is limiting it to part time. There also is a 90-day trial period, she said.

She estimated that 100 of UNIFI's 2,200 employees work from home.

Binns, who anticipated $4-a-gallon gas, is satisfied with her early decision to change jobs, as tough as it was after 11 years at ACI Worldwide.

"I was very comfortable there," she said. "I enjoyed my job. I would have stayed forever but I just could not afford the move (to ACI's new location)."

The new job is working out well, too.

"I like it a lot at PayPal. I am enjoying what I'm doing."

And then there's the $200 a month she figures she's saving.

--Contact the writer: 444-1081, virgil.larson@owh.com

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