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The Role of Commuter Programs in the New War for Talent

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Hiring and retaining the right people is considered the most challenging problem companies face in the United States, especially in areas where talent competition is very high. The Silicon Valley is a perfect example of this. Many big companies have the resources and ability to recruit the top-tiered talent they require for their success. To compete, these large companies offer a multitude of benefits programs to their employees. These benefits include free lunch, gym memberships, flexible hours, to name just a few.

Employees have indicated that transportation to and from work is one of the top 10 most essential perks that their company can offer them.

One of the most significant challenges employees face is getting to and from the office in a safe environment. Not needing to worry about driving or limiting the amount of time wasted commuting is extremely important. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average commute time is 52 minutes per day. An employee commuting to and from work spends up to 4.35 hours a week and over 200 hours (nearly nine full days) per year in their car. Employees have indicated that transportation to and from work is one of the top 10 most essential perks that their company can offer. These commuter programs help eliminate stress in the employee’s daily lives and enable a portion of their day to be used for other purposes such as rest, relaxation, or work-based functions.

Corporate commute shuttles have proven to be the most efficient and sustainable corporate commuting solution for both employers and employees.

Corporations may offer several sustainable mobility solutions to their employees, but one of the most popular is corporate commute shuttles. Corporate commute shuttles have proven to be the most efficient and sustainable commuting solution for employers and employees, especially when the commuting distance exceeds 15 miles. Commuter Shuttles allow employees to make better use of their time while commuting, compared to commuting by car, and offer them more direct routes, compared to Public Transportation. 

In addition to the human factor, corporations need to offer a sustainable way for their employees to get back and forth from work. Sustainable mobility is becoming more critical for companies as governments worldwide impose new taxes and objectives to reduce pollution. Offering a corporate commuter shuttle is the perfect answer. A passenger car carrying one person emits 89 pounds of CO2 per 100 passenger miles, while a full bus emits only 14 pounds. Therefore, one of the most eco-friendly perks a company can offer is transportation.

Until now, only large corporations in the country have been able to afford corporate commute shuttles.

You may wonder why, if they are so effective, not all companies in the country are running their own shuttle commuting programs? The answer is simple: with the currently available options, only the largest companies can afford corporate shuttles. Not only is there the cost of hiring a bus for an average of 21 days a month, but companies running such programs need to hire people to manage them internally and technology to oversee them efficiently. 

Companies not capable of offering a compelling commuter program for their employees, lose competitiveness in terms of recruiting and retaining employees.

In the United States, 99.5% of registered companies have less than 500 employees. The budget and commitments necessary to running corporate shuttles are often too high for these smaller companies. The additional measures to operate these programs during the pandemic add an extra layer of complexity and human resources required, making it even more expensive to operate. Consequently, companies not capable of offering an effective commuter program for their employees lose competitiveness in recruiting and retaining employees.

With COVID, more and more companies feel the need to offer safe commuting solutions to their employees to ensure a smooth and safe return to the office.

COVID is bringing additional challenges for companies when it comes to getting their employees to work. More and more companies realize that they are not only responsible for the safety of their employees on the worksite but also for their safety getting there. 

A recent survey conducted by Edelman on workplace trust and the coronavirus shows that respondents had deep concerns about public transportation, with subway/metro at the bottom (29 percent) along with buses (29 percent), trains (31 percent), and taxi/rideshare (32 percent) thereby compromising any belief in commuting. Therefore, with Covid, more and more companies feel the need to offer safe commuting solutions to their employees to ensure a smooth and safe return to the office. 

When offering a corporate shuttle program in these pandemic times, companies need to put in place special measures to make sure that their employees are safe. These measures can include but are not limited to providing hand sanitizer, social distancing on the bus, requiring the use of masks, regular sanitization, or superior air filtering systems. 

Contract tracing enables companies to quickly identify who has been in direct contact with an infected employee to minimize the risk of contagion of the rest of the team and their loved ones.

An essential safety measure while commuting is contact tracing. It is almost impossible to prevent employees from getting sick. As they may eventually get sick, companies must ensure that they control and limit their team’s exposure level. Contract tracing enables companies to quickly identify who has been in direct contact with an infected employee to minimize the risk of contagion of the rest of the team and their loved ones.

Shared corporate shuttles enable both large and small companies to offer a more sustainable and safe commuting option for their employees for only a fraction of the cost.

At BusUp, we believe that all companies should have the possibility to offer safe and affordable corporate shuttles to their employees. That’s why we launched a new service: Shared corporate shuttles. Shared corporate shuttles enable both large and small companies to offer a more sustainable and safe commuting option for their employees for only a fraction of the cost. 

This new solution reduces the financial burden and gets away with all the internal management needed to run this mobility solution as it can be outsourced to us while ensuring employees’ security during their daily commute. It also allows corporations to control the cost and have everyone pay a fair share of the program. This enables small companies to compete on perks with larger companies while maintaining a reasonable price. That way, many more employees will enjoy a stress-free commuting experience.

This new shared corporate shuttle service has already been tested by many large US companies in Europe (such as Cognizant, DXC Technologies, Qualitest, Accenture, etc.) where they have smaller teams and cannot afford to have their fully private commuter programs as they would in the US.

Want to know more about our Shared Corporate Shuttle Service?

Feel free to contact us at thibaud@busup.com

Thibaud Kistler

CEO North America at BusUp Technologies