Idea was probably imported by Indian techies. A professional driver to pick you up and take you home again is a common perk for tech workers over there (largely because Indian traffic is so nerve-jarring to the non-professional driver)
If taxpayers aren’t paying for it, I don’t care
I live on a main drag in Silicon Valley. I see a LOT of these busses during the commute hours.
It’s always astonished me that the companies don’t have them covered with advertising.
They’re just about the only thing that isn’t!
I have been looking at changing to a different job in my company. I had to turn down a couple of positions which would have required me to move to California Bay Area. The company I work for is a tech company based out of Silicon Valley.
What has kept me from moving forward in the interview is a couple of items
- having to move and the very high cost of living in the Bay Area
- Not being able to work from home like I do now when I so choose
- Company does NOT have their own “in-house” transportation like Google or FB
If I was in my 20’s and single I would consider taking the job in the Bay Area with the caveat that I can totally bike and/or use their transit to go to work. I traveled to the Bay Area quite a few times and like the perk of Cal-Train and Capitol Corridor. But uprooting my family, the high cost of living and California liberalism has been a real turnoff. One time back in 2005, I interviewed for a position at Google but didn’t make it past the second interview. It would have been an interesting place to work at though. Nice thing where I am at is not having to follow a dress code like having to wear slacks and can wear shorts to work. Google would still be an interesting place to work at if politics is shoved aside since high tech is a big thing which I like.
One thing I want to add, if the job market keeps heading in the direction of going further into the toilet, I can see these amenities being taken away starting with the transportation and then with dress codes. Saw it at Lockheed Martin. When I was at LM, we had the pension, flex time, more casual dress code and today, flex time has been taken away all but in name only, stricter dress code where even casual Friday is gone and pension long gone as well. On dress code, they gotten picky even where a polo shirt is considered too casual and they want you in a long sleeved button down shirt and even khakis is also too casual and they want you in dark colored dress pants now.
The author missed a company. Genentech, a large bio-tech company located in South San Francisco (a seperate city on the south border of San Francsico), also runs these luxury motor coach shuttles. I see them daily, crossing SF Bay on the San Mateo Bridge. Unlike other companies, they actually display their company name, and shuttle’s destination, on the front and rear of each bus (via electronic signs). Their shuttles are bound for the suburbs of the East Bay (not the Silicon Valley), and usually display the name of the suburb to which they are travelling - I have seen them display destinations like Pleasanton, San Ramon, and Walnut Creek.
Hence, it is not only the “Urban Hipsters” in San Francisco who are being provided this type of transportation.
I addition to the Genentech busses, I also see the unmarked double-deck luxury shuttles, mentioned in the article. They are frequently travelling north and south along the East Bay freeways during commute times (probably to and from the Silicon Valley). Again, I am guessing that these coaches are not simply transporting SF twenty-somethings, as they are nowhere near “The City” (unless they came across from San Francisco via the Oakland Bay Bridge). Hence, these shuttles seem to spread out across the entire SF Bay area. I wish my employer would run one for us!!
I often wonder about these Bauer’s buses. Read later bump.