Business bicycles for your staff

The Netherlands wants to be climate neutral by 2050. Travel accounts for as much as 27% of total CO2 emissions in the Netherlands. Over half of that comes from the kilometres we travel to and from work. If you switch to cycling, you reduce your company's CO2 emissions. Staff who cycle to and from work take an average of 1.3 fewer days off sick each year. So absentee rates go down, and so do costs – one thing less to worry about. You will also spend less money on fuel and parking. Convinced of the benefits? Make the transition to cycling as easy as possible for your employees. These tips will help you do just that. 

Make use of available schemes

There are 4 financial schemes that can help make biking more appealing for you and your staff. 

• 1. A company bicycle 

  You buy or lease bikes for your staff. Employees ride them as much as they want on their own time, and do not even have to come to work on them. 

• 2. Gross/net allowance

  Your employees buy a bicycle from their gross income. This is advantageous because they pay less payroll tax and contributions on the gross amount than on their net salary. 

• 3. Mileage allowance

  You pay your employees an allowance for the kilometres they cycle between home and work. The allowance is 23 cents per kilometre. 

• 4. Interest-free loan

  You lend your employee a sum of money to buy a bicycle. The employee can repay this amount with the untaxed mileage allowance. 

Provide good facilities for cyclists

Make it as pleasant as possible for your employees to come to work by bike. No one feels like sitting at their desk all day after a sweaty bike ride, so consider putting in a changing room with showers and the possibility of hanging out cycling clothes. 

And expensive electric bikes? Your staff will want to park them somewhere safe and covered, and if possible, charge them too. So you may have to invest money in that as well. For such investments, you can apply for subsidies. 

Communicate the options

Talk to your employees about schemes to encourage cycling and about amenities for bikes. Need help with this? Register your business for the government cycling-promotion programme Kies de Fiets (in Dutch), and get a free toolkit with promotional materials. By signing up, you indicate that you are trying to get 10% more employees to cycle. Get an organisation (in Dutch) to carry out a mobility scan of your business. They can use it to create an overview of your staff’s travel behaviour. After the scan, you will get tailored advice on how to get your staff to cycle more. 

Be flexible

Whether the bike is a good solution varies. It will depend on such factors as the distance between work and home, and on the type of work, but also on the employee’s individual situation. Be sure to offer your staff flexibility in the form of a mobility card for public transport, a car, or a bike. 

Be positive

Encourage your employees in a positive way to cycle more often. For example, organise a competition. The employee who has put in the most kilometres by the end of the year gets a prize. Or join a savings programme (in Dutch) in which your employees save up points for every kilometre they cycle. They could redeem these for discounts or products. 

Find partners

Short on space, or looking to split the costs? Why not work together with other business owners in the neighbourhood? You could install bicycle racks or charging stations, for instance, or share some bicycles or a car.