Mobility and work: German companies in employee wheels at the top

With bicycle leasing and bikesharing, German companies are in international comparison. In no other country of the 28 nations examined, the proportion of companies with appropriate offers is as high as in Germany as can be seen from the current fleet barometer of the fleet service provider Arval. And the distance to the second place is great.

Specifically, 14 percent of the fleet managers surveyed for the study in Germany affirmed that bicycle leasing or bikesharing existed for the employees in their company.

Second place went to Switzerland with 8 percent, the US and Portugal also share the silver medal with 8 percent. The average of all countries is 4 and 5 percent.

In relation to employees, however, the numbers are lower – after all, not every employee also uses the corresponding offers. Here, too, Germany is clearly above average.

Tax advantages drive the offer

“In Germany there are tax benefits that make bicycle leasing attractive to companies,” says Katharina Schmidt of Arval Germany when asked why the quota is also significantly higher than in the Netherlands known as cyclists, which only come to 4 and 3 percent.

There are more private bikes there and therefore less need – “and cycling there is also promoted on others – for example by much better infrastructure”.

The offer in Germany is growing. According to the survey at the time, only 9 percent of companies had a leasing offer in 2020. Schmidt assumes that the numbers will continue to rise.

“This is part of the company’s sustainability strategy, there is no back,” she says. The survey also points in this direction. 15 percent of companies say they adopted bicycle leasing to introduce bicycle leasing over the next three years. It is even 20 percent with bikes sharing.

For the barometer, 8,061 fleeting decision-makers from 28 countries in Europe, North and South America were interviewed last year, 300 of them in Germany.