Cyclescheme

This was the Head of Corporate and Social Responsibility's reply to my request. My Director was in favour, but couldn't change 'policy'.

[FONT=Helv][SIZE=2][FONT=Helv][SIZE=2]We've looked into 'Ride To Work' schemes at great length on-and-off over the last few months, as well as seeking input from other nearby large corporate users of such schemes: Barclaycard's international HQ at Pavilion Drive, and a large accountancy firm (who wish to remain anonymous) that I know personally.
Taken at face value from all of the PR that these schemes push at us, it seems a sensible and worthwhile thing to do. However, detailed investigation (and bitter first-hand experience from Barclaycard and the accountancy firm) has revealed that these schemes are at best an inordinate amount of additional admin, and at worst are a huge potential liability both financially and legally. Barclaycard have abandoned the scheme due to the complexity of the administration burden. The accountancy firm faced a lengthy and expensive legal battle when one of their employees had an accident while riding home from work on a 'Ride To Work' bike, and was trying to sue the Company for personal injury - the case was eventually dropped by the claimant but not without acrimony from both sides.
From our own findings, and from the bad experiences of Barclaycard and the accountancy firm, we have decided not to use any such schemes for the foreseeable future.
The employee might be able to acquire a tax-free bike at the end of the scheme, but there are precious few other benefits to the Company. Worse, there are significant legal risks and admin costs imposed upon the Company.
The main reasons for not running the scheme are:
1 The Company is effectively entering into a private credit agreement with each employee that wants to use the scheme. The Company buys the employee's own choice of bike, and the employee then 'rents' the bike from the Company for 12months before making a final settlement payment to transfer ownership of the bike from the Company. The financing and regulation of any form of credit agreement has complex and heavyweight legal implications (which funnily enough none of the schemes actually inform employers about in advance!), which potentially puts the Company at risk of non-compliance.
Such a credit agreement scheme places additional admin burden upon the Company to check and administer the payment-recovery system from each employee.
There are also other issues to consider in the event that the employee leaves the Company during the 12month 'rental' period. We would need authority to collect the total outstanding value owed against the bike by the employee, or for the employee to return the bike to the Company, but we only have limited rights of recovering the bike in the event that the employee does not pay.
The employee must insure the full value of the bike against theft during the 12month period of 'rental'. Again, if the bike were stolen but not insured, the 'Ride To Work' agreements do not provide the Company with cast-iron grounds with which to recover the remainder of the bike's outstanding value from the employee.
The Company would effectively be financing a company-provided vehicle (albeit a bicycle) for the 12months of 'rental' to the employee until the employee has made all of their finance payments back to the Company. Until such time as the employee has made all payments the Company still owns the bike, which potentially transfers additional liability onto ourselves in the event of the employee having an accident whilst riding the bike to/from work. This liability is in terms of both personal injury and third-party liability.
The employee has an obligation to ride the bike to work at least 12 times during the 12month period of 'rental' from the Company. Related to item 5, above, this means that the Company (as the 'hirer') is imposing an obligation that the employee must ride to/from work several times. Cyclists have one of the highest accident rates of any road-user group, and therefore the Company could be construed as putting the employee at risk by obliging them to ride to work several times per year.
Finally, under the terms of the Ride To Work scheme, the Company has an additional obligation to provide breakfast for any employee riding into work on a bike financed under this scheme. Again, this is additional expense and admin that we don't wish to incur.
Apologies for the length of this response - I bet you wish you hadn't asked now! - but it is important that you are fully aware of all of the hidden pitfalls. These schemes are heavily promoted by bike manufacturers/suppliers as an additional sales tool and are pitched at employees, focusing on the end-user benefits but failing to mention the significant and onerous administration and legal burdens placed upon the employer.
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bollocks - looks like they're totally anti. Definitely NOT showing my HR department this!