Luc, can you describe your wife's employers bicycle policy? I'm trying to set one up at my company as well, and haven't found the ideal plan yet. Suggestions welcome!
I don't have access to the exact agreement at the moment.
My wife's employer, funnily enough, is a petroleum company. I think the bike policies of the company are those set out by Collective Bargaining Agreement (negotiations between employer and employee organisations) for the whole petroleum sector, but I can't find a good English language article.
Colruyt, a supermarket company in Belgium, is well known as having a successful bicycle policy. E.g.
- company-owned bicycles placed at the train station closest to the HQ so people can use the train to commute
- free bicycles for employees who use them at least 3 times a week for their commute
- 0.15 eurocent per kilometer compensation
This is just the bicycle part of it though. They also have programs to facilitate and encourage car-pooling, or to encourage use of scooters instead of cars. Their trucks must be >95% full before delivering, they use rail as much as possible etc. (Some of this is from memory, don't shoot me if I'm off by a few cent or percent).
Coincidentally Colruyt is also the most profitable and fastest growing supermarket chain in Belgium.
One more thing - a lot of this is backed by laws or measures in the tax code. E.g. the 'compensation per km' is tax-free to the employee and there are likewise tax reductions on the employer's side. So these things may be harder to implement in a different country.
