In these challenging times, promoting the Cycle to Work scheme can reduce your costs and help keep your employees safe and well.

Spring is always a good time to encourage your staff to get a bike through Cyclescheme because it’s the start of a new tax year and the weather is picking up. This year there’s a greater incentive: boosting cyclist numbers could help your business and the wider economy cope better with the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Finances are going to be tight all over for the foreseeable future, while social distancing in some form will likely be with us long after the lockdown ends. How does having more of your workforce on bikes help? By saving money – yours and your employees’ – and by enabling more people to maintain social distancing on essential, everyday journeys.

Let’s look at money first. With Cyclescheme, your employees will save 23-39% of the price of a new bike and/or equipment. And since they’ll pay in instalments, they can switch to cycling from another form of transport without an upfront cost. Once they’re on two wheels, they’ll make daily savings on their cost of their journey to work and back because cycling is the cheapest form of transport – aside from walking, which is impractical for many commutes.

Every extra Cyclescheme participant also saves your business money. For a start, it doesn’t cost you anything to run. While you initially pay for your employees’ bikes and equipment, they pay you back in instalments deducted from their gross salary. You recoup the cost. The savings come from the fact that you don’t make employer’s National Insurance Contributions – typically 13.8% – on the value of each Cyclescheme package. So an employee who gets a £1,000 bike through Cyclescheme saves you £138.

There are also indirect savings. Cycle commuters are more productive because they’re more punctual and take fewer days off sick.

Regular exercise improves health, which means a stronger immune system. Cyclists are also less likely to encounter viruses in the first place – something of paramount importance during and afer a pandemic. That’s because cycling promotes social distancing. Unless they’re deliberately riding in a group, cyclists will generally find themselves at least two metres away from other people by default. No one comes into contact with them or their bicycle. This is why cyclists are SIX TIMES less likely to pick up acute respiratory infections than users of public transport.

Cycling levels have been on the rise during the pandemic, numbers surging by 300% in places. More people are using bikes for their allotted daily exercise, while some are switching to bikes for essential journeys. Your staff may never be more receptive than now to the idea of getting a new bike and equipment for their journey to work.