With IntoCyclescheme and City Bike Hire alongside the standard Cyclescheme offering, there’s a way to help any employee start cycling to work.

As lockdown restrictions ease and more of your staff begin to return to the workplace, it’s an ideal time to encourage them to sign up to Cyclescheme. A fresh start is an opportunity to develop new habits, such as commuting by bike.

When an employee gets a bike through Cyclescheme and starts riding to work on it, there are huge benefits for them and for you – particularly now, given that cycling promotes social distancing. Cyclescheme doesn’t cost you anything to run and it’s hassle-free. It’s also wider in scope than other cycle to work schemes. Whatever the workplace, whoever the employee, there’s a Cyclescheme solution. 

Money saving

There are three different iterations of Cyclescheme, explained below. None of them costs you a penny. In fact, they save you money. The standard version of Cyclescheme and City Bike Hire both save you money directly, because you don’t pay employer national insurance contributions on the value of Cyclescheme/City Bike Hire package. That’s typically 13.8%, or £138 for every £1,000 your employees spend.

All three schemes save you money indirectly. Cycling staff are more punctual, more productive, and take fewer days off sick.

There are costs involved in making your workplace more cycle-friendly, but they’re modest. Cycle parking, lockers, and showers could easily be cost-neutral if you reduce staff car-parking at the same time. Each car-parking space has a business cost of several hundreds of pounds per year (and much more in some cities).

Your employees save money too, and not just on a bike and equipment. By cycling instead of using public transport or driving, they’ll save hundreds or even thousands of pounds each year. And both you and your employees can save even more money through Cyclescheme’s affiliate partnerships.

Simple to run

You can be up and running with Cyclescheme five minutes after registering. That tells you all you need to know about how easy it is to run. Cyclescheme does the logistical legwork: supplying the Certificate your employee will use to get a bike and/or equipment; working out their salary sacrifice deduction; and dealing with the ownership process. 

All you need to do is approve an employee’s application and then adjust the payroll for the salary sacrifice deductions. If you have any queries or problems, get in touch and Cyclescheme will sort them.

It makes sense to promote Cyclescheme at your workplace to maximise the uptake. There’s plenty of material on the MySchemes platform to get you started. Click on the ‘marketing’ tab. 

Don’t worry about liability. Even during the hire period, when the bike belongs to you, you’re not responsible for the bike or its rider for commuting or personal journeys. 

Standard Cyclescheme offering

This is the one you’re probably most familiar with. Your employee can get a standalone bike (or bikes), a bike with cycling equipment, or just equipment. Pretty much anything they need to get them or keep them cycling to work is allowed – any kind of pedal cycle or cycle clothing, plus mudguards, panniers, lights, locks, and more.

There’s no limit to how much they can spend unless you choose to set a maximum value for staff Cyclescheme packages. However, an employee still needs to be earning at least the minimum wage after any salary sacrifice deductions have been made. So, an employee earning £1,000 above the minimum wage can’t get a bike above this value. An employee earning exactly the minimum wage can’t have a standard Cyclescheme package (see IntoCyclescheme, below).

Your employee doesn’t pay tax or national insurance on the value of the package because payments are deducted from their gross salary, not their net salary. This is where the savings come from. During the hire period, a standard rate taxpayer will save 32%, a higher rate taxpayer 42%. 

Most employees will want to keep their bike and equipment after the hire period. There’s a charge for that called the ownership fee – either 3% or 7%, depending on the package value. Factoring in the ownership fee, total savings range from 25% (32 minus 7) to 39% (42 minus 3). On a £1,000 bike, that’s a saving of £250-£390! 

IntoCyclescheme

Not all employees are eligible for the standard Cyclescheme offering. They might earn the minimum wage, work part-time, or be on a temporary or zero-hours contract. IntoCyclescheme is designed for them.

IntoCyclescheme is a partnership between Cyclescheme and independent bike retailer, Cycles UK. Those signing up to it can save 20% on any Cycles UK bike up to £350 and, subject to approval, get 0% finance on any bike over £250. There are no payroll deductions: your employees simply get a killer discount and/or interest-free credit to help them buy a bike for cycling to work. Brands available include Raleigh, GT, Trek, and Freespirit.

IntoCyclescheme is available in store (in the south east of England), online, and for click-and-collect purchases. Your employee just needs to contact Cyclescheme to request an IntoCyclescheme registration code, which unlocks their Cycles UK discount code. 

Note that IntoCyclescheme was temporarily suspended during the pandemic. Find out more.

City Bike Hire 

City Bike Hire enables your employees who sign up to it to use Santander Cycles hire bikes in London for a much-reduced rate.

Annual membership of Santander Cycles is normally £90. Members can use any Santander hire bike in the city for 30 minutes at a time, as often as they want, for free (longer journeys are charged at £2 per additional 30 minutes). Thirty minutes will take you miles across London, so it’s ideal for everyday journeys.

City Bike Hire provides Santander Cycles membership with a saving of 32-42%. Instead of £90, standard rate taxpayers pay £61.20 per year and higher rate taxpayers £52.20. If those savings percentages look familiar, they should: City Bike Hire is a salary sacrifice scheme, like the standard Cyclescheme offering. As there’s no ownership fee of 3% or 7% to pay at the end, the percentage savings are that much higher. 

A Cyclescheme for every employee

You can offer any or all of the three options to your staff so that they can pick the one that suits them best. Some staff might want both a standard Cyclescheme package and City Bike Hire. Why? Perhaps they don’t want to risk leaving their expensive commuter bike on London streets. Maybe they’re only in London a couple of times a week and don’t want to have to wrangle their usual bike onto mainline trains into the city. Or perhaps they’re London-based and want a backup for when their own bike is off the road?