What is a Shuttle Service?

March 14, 2022
Daniel Leon Stern

As a part of safe return to offices, corporate travelers have reported being on the road 3 times more than in 2020. Of course, this means they’re wasting more time commuting than they used to spend on having a good breakfast with their family.

This is why employers are looking for different ways to facilitate their employees in commuting issues. Currently, transport solutions such as a private shuttle service to and from public transit, intercampus shuttle service, and on-demand commuter shuttles are becoming more popular among employees and employers.

While a corporate shuttle service reduces time wasted in traffic congestion, it also encourages productive work time on-board the bus. These buses also reduce various types of costs, giving a cheaper alternative to the passengers.

Let’s look at different types of shuttle and how they help people have a better commute experience.

Types of Shuttle

Many corporate shuttle services, such as campus circulators, regional transportation, and on-demand services, help passengers connect to their workplaces from transfer centers, commuter train stations, park-and-ride lots, and more. Not only companies but governments and universities also offer shuttle services to assist passengers in moving.

There are primarily two types of shuttles:

Scheduled Shuttle Services

These shuttles run back and forth between set stations or locations in a pre-scheduled loop. The shuttle that takes you from the airport gate to your hotel is an example of a scheduled shuttle service.

On-demand Shuttle Services

These shuttles move according to the passengers’ needs between different locations. Uber Pool is the most common example of an on-demand shuttle service. Like Uber Pool, these shuttles run to and from the passenger’s desired destination. However, they need to stop at multiple stations or locations along the way to cater to more passengers.

Shuttle Services Offered by Different Institutions

Various types of shuttles that cater to passengers daily include:

Regular Shuttles

A regular shuttle service offered by governments transports ten or more travelers from one place to another on a daily basis. The vehicles include buses or vans.

Airport Shuttles

Airport shuttles are considered a more affordable option to transport passengers to and from the airport. With the increase in vaccination rates across the country, air travel rose by 160% compared to 2020, according to the TSA. This makes airport shuttles a very profitable business idea as more and more travelers would want to commute to their destinations at affordable costs. Fortunately, airport shuttles are often cheaper than taxis and self-parking services.

Medical Transportation Shuttles

One type of shuttle bus service is NEMT business or medical transportation service. These shuttles carry patients or seniors to and from homes, hospitals, elderly care institutions. People who don’t prefer spending money on ambulances or expensive commute services usually prefer medical transportation shuttles as they are affordable, efficient, and curb traffic jams.

Campus Circulators

Many educational institutions, especially colleges and universities, provide their students and staff members with campus circulators to assist them in moving more efficiently. These shuttles transport people around the campus and between the campuses, saving a significant amount of their daily commute expenses. Several businesses also use campus circulators to facilitate their employees traveling to and from office and off-sites.

Corporate Shuttles

Companies that require their employees to work in dispersed teams offer corporate shuttles, like our HQ Shuttles, as a benefit. Businesses with tight schedules or operating from multiple sites also need an efficient employee transportation service to save time. These shuttles are usually on-demand ones but can also fall into the schedule category in some cases. Therefore, corporate shuttles can provide employees with flexible and dynamic routing. Moreover, thanks to technological advancement, some shuttle services also offer passengers real-time locations and ETAs.

How Do Employees Commute to Work Daily?

Whether employees commute to work in their own cars or use public transport, they face many hurdles and high costs. They need to pay for the fuel and maintenance. Well, not to forget the traffic congestion they encounter along the way.

Apart from their fuel costs, they also have to bear the parking costs. Adding all these expenses on a monthly or yearly basis makes a significant amount collectively.

On the other hand, employees who use public transport have to suffer physically, mentally, and financially. The situation gets even worse when the weather becomes extreme all of a sudden.

Public transportation usually makes the passengers wait long due to continuous arrival delays. On top of that, they are built on old models, so they don’t have basic facilities. For this reason, most companies located far away from the city’s center often fail in recruiting and retaining their employees. Luckily, the corporate sector is now looking for ways to help its employees come out of this nightmare. A shuttle service is the best alternative out there!

How Do Shuttle Services Provide an Alternative?

Shuttle service for employees offers significant benefits to the employer as well. While these buses reduce the daily commute expenses of employees, they also prevent the employees from the harshness of the outside world. As a result, employees arrive at their workplaces fresh and productive.

Some reasons why company shuttle bus service is the best option for transportation:

  • Reduces traffic congestion
  • Saves road and parking costs
  • Saves daily commute costs
  • Provides modern facilities
  • Ensures road safety
  • Lowers environmental harms
  • Reduces car traveling

 

But how do shuttles provide these benefits? When a private company or government starts a shuttle service it keeps the recurring costs as low as possible. This helps them generate more and more profits and offers passengers fewer costs. Moreover, the shuttle service providers also facilitate route planning, driver management, and route optimization proactively. As a result, they reduce costs, save time required in the management, and increase the efficiency and profitability of the shuttles.

HQ Shuttles:  How they Solve Corporate Commute

Transportation Issues

The problems of passengers aren’t hidden from anyone. Sudden arrival delays, traffic congestion, and hefty maintenance and fuel expenses – things aren’t as easy as they look. By looking at the daily commute issues of thousands of Americans, the masterminds behind HQ Shuttles stepped up to transform the whole scenario. To provide them with a better and hassle-free commute experience, we thought to offer the employees a better start of the day. With us, businesses can develop their own corporate shuttle plan.

Wondering how? Simply by choosing the days they want to run the shuttle and the people they want it to pick up. Yes, it is as easy as it sounds! Not only that, but we also allow the corporate sector to use our tech-first solution and help us find the best meeting point or stops nearby your employees’ homes.

Then, you can create a route that accommodates all of the employees and allows the driver to pick them up and drive them to the physical office. The best part is that you can customize and modify the usual route according to the availability of your employees. For instance, if some employees from similar or nearby blocks are not coming this week, our tech solution will adjust the route before every ride to save your employees time. HQ’s setup process is also super-easy. We require businesses to register their account with us, ask their employees to download our app, and start booking daily rides with HQ shuttles. Our pickup shuttle service is reliable, easy, and comfortable, with several premium buses ready to pick up employees from any nearby stop and drop them off at the office.

Here is a brief overview of HQ’s main goals for corporate shuttles:

Time is Money

We know that time is everything in the corporate sector. Every employee runs on the clock, which means they can’t afford to waste a single second, let alone several hours consumed in their daily commute.

With HQ corporate shuttles, neither you nor your employee has to miss your breakfasts to rush to the nearby pickup stops. Instead, whenever you’re ready to face the world, you can just track the shuttle through our app, and that too, in real-time. By doing so, you’ll get accurate ETAs, saving you from running to the stop or waiting in line.

Safe Transportation

The everyday hustle and bustle make it pretty hard for employees to keep up their sanity. This is why HQ’s main target is to provide such employees with the most comfortable yet safe commute experience in premium buses.

Our corporate buses are equipped with cozy leather seats, charging ports, significant space, and effective A/C service. Plus, the HQ Shuttles app tells them whether the shuttle has available seats or not, so no employee has to wait or travel standing up.

Stress-free Commute

Our lives are already full of stress caused by meetings, personal commitments, and fulfilling deadlines. A delayed bus arrival or poorly-equipped vehicles can only add more to this stress level. This is why our goal is to make your experience stress-free so that employees can focus on their job requirements more efficiently. With our smooth, on-time, and comfortable corporate bus shuttle service, your employees can take some time to relax and recharge. One thing is confirmed – shuttle service for employees is all about bringing comfort and relief to the passengers. This relief is not only from the financial aspects but also mentally and physically. This is why leading companies take help from HQ to facilitate their employees to travel to and from the office more comfortable and stress-free. This is what we are all about—giving employees a good start to the day so that they work more efficiently on their jobs.

Learn more about HQ Shuttles today, and give your employees what they’ve always dreamt of – a stress-free, safe, and sustainable commute!

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