San Francisco commuter van operator Chariot has started a shuttle service for UCSF Mission Bay employees who commute from the East Bay. It’s the first such service funded by a public transit agency, and it aims to ease congestion on the Bay Bridge.

UCSF, one of the Bay Area’s largest employers, received a $750,000 grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which oversees regional transportation planning, to coax its workers into fewer cars. As part of the initiative, UCSF tapped Chariot, a subsidiary of Ford Smart Mobility, to operate two weekday shuttle routes between Emeryville and West Oakland and UCSF’s Mission Bay campus during the morning and evening commutes. The service began June 18 with eight Chariot vans, each carrying up to 14 passengers. The service will run for one year as part of a broader MTC initiative called “Bay Bridge Forward,” which is funneling $40 million to improve bus lines, parking lots and ferry routes. Most of the money is going to public transit operators, but a small slice is going to UCSF and Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser, headquartered in Oakland, received $150,000 to manage its workers’ commuting and parking patterns.

Chariot and UCSF officials said they don’t know how many employees will use the service. About 6,000 of UCSF’s 25,000 employees work at Mission Bay, and more than a quarter are estimated to live in the East Bay. The cost to UCSF employees for the new Chariot routes is $7.50 per ride.

“We want to help our employees get to work each day, while also easing traffic heading into the city,” Erick Villalobos, UCSF’s director of transportation services, said in a statement.

Chariot, recognized by its fleet of bright turquoise vans, was founded in San Francisco in 2014 and acquired by Ford in 2016 for a reported $65 million. The company charges employers and commuters to transport workers between designated residential stops and their offices. Some employers fully cover the costs for riders, and others subsidize portions of the trip.

In April, Chariot was issued San Francisco’s first private transit operator permit and, under the conditional permit, must share GPS and passenger data with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

The company operates more than 100 daily routes in San Francisco, New York, Austin, Texas, Seattle, Columbus, Ohio, and London. Fifty-five routes are in the Bay Area. Chariot declined to disclose how many commuters use its service.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho