Is there a way to get Cycle2work without going to work

del420t

I am gutted that my work has finally decided that they will not participate in the cycle2work scheme. I cant believe, I work for this multinational which promotes the Green agenda to our customers and how they portray themselves but they have opted not to do participate in the scheme.

My question is though - Is there anyway around this do I have to go through my work? or is there another option for me.

cheers

blorg

Unfortunately you have to go through your employer and participation is voluntary on their part.

DePurpereWolf

Get someone to buy a bike for you who works at a decent company.

Civilian_Target

Interesting. Maybe we should start a list of companies that do and don't support the scheme.

Like a list of honour vs a name-and-shame.

DePurpereWolf

Good idea, I'll boo at all of the e-djits

If their problem is the admin time spent on the scheme point them towards the biketowork.ie website. Also get lots of other people who'd be interested to lobby your hr, not just you.

Explosive_Cornflake

They didn't do it where I work, because apparently they researched it, and thr answer they got back was, the bike would be the property of the company, so they would be liable in accidents, blah blah blah. The website said the opposite to that though.

Lumen

I'd guess that any organisation too stupid and/or bureaucratic to give it's employees free money from the government is probably not a very enjoyable place to work.

245

All you can really do is to try and get as many people as you can in work to enquire with HR about the scheme (all innocent, unconnected enquiries of course ). You should also contact the various groups that handle the scheme such as Raleigh To Work and Bike To Work and ask them to make some sort of marketing contact with your HR dept. Raleigh To Work did a fairly high powered job on my lot and it worked a treat (confusingly, its got nothing to do with buying a Raleigh so don't let the name put you off).

The above might not work, but at least you can say you've tried. IMHO any HR dept that actually considers the scheme can't fault it - the only issue might be if the actual number of staff participating is very low.

Birdsong

It does create a bit of work for accounts & payroll. My employer came up with the guideline was if you have a company car or if you don't live in cycling distance, (ie maybe live in Naas & work in Dublin) you're not going to get it .

I think so far I am the only person to have got it. I got all information together, got the bike & took the invoice in to accounts, really made it as painless for the payroll dept as possible because they just weren't going to do anything. Benifit i found is it means because i pay less gross now, all the new levies have gone down ( a little thing but everylittle helps ) need to push the positives in number terms for people who work in accounts i think !

LDB

Birdsong wrote: »

It does create a bit of work for accounts & payroll. My employer came up with the guideline was if you have a company car or if you don't live in cycling distance, (ie maybe live in Naas & work in Dublin) you're not going to get it .

Thats ridiclious. If they are going to have the scheme it should be open to everyone!

D!armu!d

Explosive_Cornflake wrote: »

They didn't do it where I work, because apparently they researched it, and thr answer they got back was, the bike would be the property of the company, so they would be liable in accidents, blah blah blah. The website said the opposite to that though.

Sounds like someone had a look at the paperwork they would have and pulled the first excuse they could think of out of the air. Email the cycle scheme on accident liability and send their reply on to your HR.

D!armu!d

LDB wrote: »

Thats ridiclious. If they are going to have the scheme it should be open to everyone!

They have a point in that if your round trip is 60k or are driving around in a company car you're not likely to be cycling to work, which you must be to get the bike.
Suppose you could prove otherwise to them if serious about it though!

LDB

D!armu!d wrote: »

They have a point in that if your round trip is 60k or are driving around in a company car you're not likely to be cycling to work, which you must be to get the bike.
Suppose you could prove otherwise to them if serious about it though!

The scheme also covers people cycling to a commuter train so if people live v.far away they might use that option.

TinyExplosions

On the flip side, how can I resist the cycle to work scheme -my new employer will take part and so I can get a bike anywhere, but do I need another one? Also, is it bad that I'm now looking at 1000 as a target to be hit, rather than an upper limit

I'm leaning towards this at the moment, but what else do ye recommend for a bad weather fixie with clearance for big tyres, full mudguards and rack mounting points etc? (the more 'niche' the better, I have an image to live up to!)

penexpers

TinyExplosions wrote: »

On the flip side, how can I resist the cycle to work scheme -my new employer will take part and so I can get a bike anywhere, but do I need another one? Also, is it bad that I'm now looking at 1000 as a target to be hit, rather than an upper limit

I'm leaning towards this at the moment, but what else do ye recommend for a bad weather fixie with clearance for big tyres, full mudguards and rack mounting points etc? (the more 'niche' the better, I have an image to live up to!)

This might be slightly outside your price range, but oh boy it's a really nice bike

http://www.surlybikes.com/1X1_ltd.html

penexpers

D!armu!d wrote: »

Sounds like someone had a look at the paperwork they would have and pulled the first excuse they could think of out of the air. Email the cycle scheme on accident liability and send their reply on to your HR.

The people who have the final say on the cycle scheme are revenue. Anything else is just opinion.

billyhead

Thats the sort of bike I think I would need. The only problem is that the Civil service has a list of approved suppliers to purchase from. What size as a matter of interest do you reckon that bike or a similiar cyclocross bike would suit someone 6ft in height. Also I presume the specialised tricross bikes are similiar to this.

TinyExplosions wrote: »

On the flip side, how can I resist the cycle to work scheme -my new employer will take part and so I can get a bike anywhere, but do I need another one? Also, is it bad that I'm now looking at 1000 as a target to be hit, rather than an upper limit

I'm leaning towards this at the moment, but what else do ye recommend for a bad weather fixie with clearance for big tyres, full mudguards and rack mounting points etc? (the more 'niche' the better, I have an image to live up to!)