An organization has its own shuttle bus and provide free transportation for their employees is a very common service in China. Workers in schools, government agencies or private businesses all enjoy some sort of transportation tip free bus, taxi re reimbursement etc. on a monthly basis. However, it is quite rare here in North America. A recent article in New York Times exposed that Google is providing this service to the employees in the San Francisco region. I suppose it may be not as needed as in China since most people work in Google can afford cars but it is still a very thoughtful service due to high traffic in the cities. If you can hop onto a free ride and relax, surf on the Internet and get off right in front of your office, it s kinda nice isn t it Anyway, the article says, Google owns 32 buses, their routes cover over 10 cities and 6 counties around SF area. The buses provide free transportation to over 25% of the employees around 1200 people. They even have their own department of transportation I googled Google Bus, but only could find the Korean version of Google Bus, but I have to say this is a great idea to keep their employees and great advertisement
Beside free transportation, Google is doing the best to keep the employees: free cafeteria, free GYM, free rock climbing facilities, free swimming pool, free car wash, and free spa I need to forward this to my Microsoft friends