Amazon employees get a two-wheeled commuter benefit

Nashville’s Amazon employees who choose to bicycle to its downtown offices will get a new commuter benefit that covers the cost of bike maintenance, rentals, and more.

The subsidy to cover costs associated with a bicycle commute include:

• Bike leases: Employees can lease a take-home bike, including e-bikes, for a monthly fee eligible for reimbursement.
• Bike share: Employees can expense costs for dockless or docked short-term, app-based rental bicycles.
• Maintenance: Employees can take advantage of two complimentary tune-ups each calendar year.
• Bike parking: Employees can access bike parking at public transit facilities or offices without Amazon bike cages.

These bike benefits are available to all employees who haven’t signed up for ongoing parking in an Amazon parking garage, according to the company. The new monthly bike subsidy ranges from city to city to correspond with local parking costs, which can be up to $400.

In addition to offering bike cages for employees to store their bikes, most of Amazon’s corporate offices also have showers for bikers to get ready at work.

“We are looking forward to welcoming our employees back to our offices and want to encourage them to rethink the way they get to and from work, so we’re creating new incentives to pick a greener way to commute — even if it is just one to two days a week,” said John Schoettler, vice president of Global Real Estate and Facilities.

“Reducing our carbon footprint is a multifaceted effort that includes building urban and well-connected campuses, designing buildings that use renewable energy, and making it easy for employees to choose public transportation over their single-occupancy vehicles,” Schoettler said.

Amazon has long embraced the benefits of downtown offices for their employees, creating dense and connected urban campuses, like in Nashville, rather than isolated office parks in the suburbs.

One of the benefits of this approach is sustainability, Amazon said. Employees can use public transportation to get to the office, and if they live nearby, they can walk or bike.

In Amazon’s original city, Seattle, more than 20 percent of its employees walk or bike to work and another 50 percent use public transportation or carpooling options — and the company provides free transit passes to all employees.