I think with the bike to work scheme they actually "dispose" of the bike sometimes, just so happens they let you deal with the disposal...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Facilities for commuters - how does your employer treat you?
(100 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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This is the 'official' version on the Cyclescheme site.
"The bike and goods remain the property of your employer until the hire period finishes, unless your employer uses finance; in this case the finance company will own the bikes during the hire period. At the end of the hire period you may be given the opportunity to buy the bike for a fair market value payment. If the bike gets stolen you will be liable for any outstanding monies without any tax exemptions, so it's very important to make sure the bike is insured. You can obtain safety equipment, including Home Office-approved 'Sold Secure' D-locks and cable locks, as part of the scheme."
I have always had a 'problem' with the "fair market value payment" rule (for tax purposes). Which could either lead to the employer trying to sell it (to you) for the 'real' s/h price OR a retrospective tax bill for the benefit/tax loss for 'selling below market value'.
The 'normal' deal seems to be that after a year and a half the employer offloads the bike for about 5% of the initial purchase price.
I have had conversations with a "tax expert" who was happy to advise clients that as the Government was serious about getting people on bikes, the chance of the Inland Revenue interfering was close to zero. (And that was before the scheme was extended with its Cycle to Work Guarantee.)
Early claims of 'save 50%' have subsided - it's only true if you're a high taxpayer.
Basically it's a way of getting a new bike with (almost certainly) a Government subsidised discount and cheap rate hire purchase.
The horror tale (previous post) is unusual. 'Most' employers realise that it is fairly painless to implement (there are several companies offering to do most of the paperwork) AND the benefits - healthier, more punctual staff who appreciate their employer more - are real.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Okay, I didn't realise the wording was something to do with tax laws. I still wouldn't really like to do it, even though realistically I am pretty sure my employer can be trusted! I do think the savings claimed are exaggerated though.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I had an idea about setting up something akin to a BUG without even knowing such a thing existed... I will investigate, perhaps that will be my new years resolution.
Does anyone else get the impression that bike racks are rarely designed or installed by cyclists? They are generally located in just the wrong place and are generally just the wrong size to be truly useful.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"They are generally located in just the wrong place and are generally just the wrong size to be truly useful.
THIS is what you need -
Posted 14 years ago # -
And probably this
http://www.lcc.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=313 (LCC BUG advice)
Posted 14 years ago # -
Thanks chdot, I'll definitely be looking into this in the new year. It's an excuse to get to know my fellow cycle commuters at work a bit better!
We have those stupid "butterfly" racks outside (never knew the name until I read that tfl leaflet). Completely useless, best way to use them seems to be to put your bike frame parallel to them and chain it that way, which defeats the space-saving principle. It amazes me how many people put a £3 supermarket lock through the front wheel (quick release, naturally) and round those stands on a £750 bike!
I generally find any rack designed to take the wheel / tyre in it as a means to stablise the bike is destined to fail; tyre and wheel sizes are too variable (and then add in having mud guards, disc brakes etc. to get in the way) for the concept to work universally. Im also not keen on using the wheel as a means to support the weight of the rest of the bike as it puts lateral force on the spokes.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I suppose we need a new thread, but my most hated stands are (a) the ones at morningside waitrose, which are well used. I gather the manager's had a lot of complaints. if you're in there, it's worth mentioning it to staff. a combined action might have some effect. (b) the new ones just below the bristo square student building/medical centre/business school which are useless for bikes with child-seats and on a slope. have no idea what we call either kind, will see if I can get pics at some time.
Posted 14 years ago # -
http://cyclingedinburgh.info/2009/10/01/cyclehoop-comes-to-edinburgh
These are better than 'wheel benders', and easy to retro-fit if there are suitable poles.
I think ALL companies that want to impress their visitors should have these -
http://www.frontyardcompany.co.uk/products/plantlock_work.html
Posted 14 years ago # -
"I suppose we need a new thread"
yes "cycle parking" will do
"a)" I complained when they took the old ones out saying they need more and they should have left the old (worse) ones as well.
"(b) "Presumably you don't mean these (no slope).
Photo @olliebraycom/school_design
(Larger version) They are designed for bikes to fit in one direction only but...
Posted 14 years ago # -
Identical to those, but on a slope. Try locking a bike on when you're taking a sick child to the GP. Not fun.
Posted 14 years ago # -
> I think ALL companies that want to impress their visitors should have these ..
Reminds me of the saying, "Anything not nailed down is mine. Anything I can pry loose is not nailed down."
As for the one-way bike stands, it doesn't seem to have had a great effect on the owners! Mind you, installing those ones anything other than parallel to the wall is a little daft.
Posted 14 years ago # -
@SRD
Bike parking at Waitrose - there's a forum for that!
Posted 14 years ago # -
Posted 14 years ago #
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Just thought I'd revive this.
A lot of people have joined the forum since this thread began.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Currently - they let me bring my bhike into the office if its raining which is a plus. Depending on what I'm riding depends what I do with it. Tricross comes into my office, old faithful steel Raleigh is propped up at the bottom of the stairwell. There is a shower but not sure if it works.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Conditions have seriously deteriorated since I started the inital thread - root cause analysis suggests it's become infested with the "one ride a year" cyclists who have bagged all the lockers and drying cages and padlocked them shut so it's still there in 365 days time when they come to need it again. Leaving poor old 365-days a year cyclist with nowhere to put their stuff :(
Posted 14 years ago # -
Complain to your employer. Mine recently had a scourge of all the abandoned bikes that filled the bike shed.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"
Funding for Cycle Friendly Employer
Cycling Scotland are delighted to announce increased funding to support organisations towards becoming Cycling Friendly Employers.
In partnership with the Energy Saving Trust, interest free loans of up to £10,000 are available to support private sector organisations improve their cycling infrastructure,With support from the Scottish Centre for Health Working Lives, grants of up to £2,000 are available to support Small to Medium Sized Enterprises promote and incentivise cycling for their staff.
"
Posted 14 years ago # -
kaputnik - get a roll of tape and tape a little tab across each locker door on Monday morning. Then, by Friday it will be obvious which lockers are being used regularly and which are not.
Don't announce it as that will only get people to venture down and remove the tape - just do it quietly.
Posted 14 years ago # -
dave - genius. I will.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I believe I recognise spytfyre's description but I'd add that the changing room is far too sauna-like to be of any use to anyone who has recently heated themselves up by biking in or showering and that the drying room (installed only after I ceased to be regularly based there) appears to be unheated and is little more than some clothes hooks around the wall: no drainage, no ventilation and no clothes-horses.
In the building I'm in there are slightly insufficient amounts of Sheffield racks in the security-barrier-ed underground car park for the peak volume of bikes (though for the past week or two there have been a few spares and gaps) which results in the odd bike getting chained to various other bits of structure, though some people appear to do this even when there's space on a rack so that their bike is more easily-admired by passers-by or less likely to get scratched by something less expensive. The increasing width and length of the average parking-space-warranting-high-flyer's motor vehicle means that a few rack-spaces can't be used if there's already a car there or implicitly require that bikes fastened to them be fastened very tightly in case they get pushed away from the rack by the removal of the bike opposite and fall against/slightly scratch the adjacent car.
The main changing/shower room is hopelessly small, way too hot (though just slightly better than the other building) and frequently splattered with damp muck by the lunchtime runners and after-work footballers as well as the morning showerers. Various bonus hazards such as loud-voiced people unable to lower their volume in a small hard-walled space, people spraying water over the tops of showers into open lockers and smelly people reserving 'their' space whilst they ineffectively shower by stretching out their pants on the floor recently drove me to request a locker-shift into the recently-installed showerless changing room extension, currently relatively cool and spacious though I expect it'll become unbearable and useless when the heating comes on.
Lockers (for which there's a waiting list) are more than sufficiently-sized for a couple of weeks' worth of shirts and trousers. There are various extra sets of lockers throughout the corridors which some people think makes the corridor into a changing room, with resultant partial nudity and bodily odours in the affected areas.
Posted 14 years ago # -
@winpig - Hmmm all sounded familiar especially the newly opened "drying" room which I agree has no decent racks or heating and only hooks but does have drainage in the middle of the floor from when it was a disabled toilet.
I don't know of any lockers in corridors
Nor do I know of any way water could make it from the showers into lockers (speaking for the gents side anyway)
The racks do get too busy (if you have seen bikes abandoned on top of the ivy then yes we are probably speaking of the same building) I ahve counted 20 bikes not in the racks which can get very irksome if you happen to have a child seat on the back to get past (though thankfully I no longer have this anymore), it could do with the back extension being covered now the winter is here but apparently there is a freeze on building spending for while but it is on a wishlist (I checked). I can also agree that the changing rooms are on the small side (especially when those with hair want to wax each indiviual hair into a precise location or the people who walk without jacket or brolly want to hair drier their shirts/trousers as they had this morning (which was not rain. It was the sea turned on its side and cut into strips) but I have never felt it too busy not to use (and if I did I would proably wander off and use the disabled toilet on the floor I work on for a quick change)
It could be a lot worse (certainly compared to my last job where there was 1 shower in 4 different locations and running between them to find an empty one was a nightmare, getting back to 1 to find someone just out and another person locking the door, realising if you had stayed still....)Posted 14 years ago # -
which was not rain. It was the sea turned on its side and cut into strips
:D
Posted 14 years ago # -
I'm not taking credit for that (I think it was Terry Pratchett)
Posted 14 years ago # -
Top marks to my employer for installing a Bike Repair Station in the basement.
It went in last night and has every tool you could want - spanners, screwdrivers, Allen keys, tyre levers and whopping big track pump.
Good work by @greenroofer to pull the right levers with our environmental team to make it happen.
It will certainly save the regular requests that he & I get for a loan of a tool.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Is there anything you/Greenroofer could advise on how you persuaded your employer? We've tried before and have been knocked back by the property team. I don't think they wanted to encourage people to be tinkering with their bikes on company property. Despite people already fixing punctures etc in the bike parking area.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Basically, the planets aligned in our favour:
1) We have an active BUG that has been around for some time has built good relations with the Property people and the Sustainability people and the HR people.
2) Our site is trying to cram more people in so is keen on ideas that support commuting without building new car parks
3) There is an 'Environmental Innovation' fund internally that supports things that help the environment. This picked up the tab for the work.As @stickman implies, for a large employer the actual cost of the thing (~£1000) isn't the barrier, it's turning the political oil tanker that means that everyone says 'Yes' and nobody says 'No'.
If you haven't got one already, I'd suggest you start by establishing a lively and active BUG with a large membership (ours is >10% of the workforce) because this gives you a network and some legitimacy, because it focuses your discussions and it allows you to chip away at the naysayers one by one. Friends in high places are good too :-)
Posted 8 years ago # -
Can you try the "they've got one can we have one" route or the opportunity for some good PR - my tweet from this morning is getting a fair bit of love.
The money, whilst not nothing isn't that big when shared across a number of fit & healthy employees.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I look forward to seeing it next week!
Posted 8 years ago #
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