Letter from work, Changes to parking your bike!

[Will1985]

A cheap folder would pay for itself in about a year of commuting.

Can't the managers be encouraged to use the train or car share or something? Alternatively if they were encouraged to downsize to a Smart, there would be some room behind one of them!

 

[ufkacbln]

I pay £4 a month for cycle parking, and I get my own locker!

 

[downfader]

A cheap folder would pay for itself in about a year of commuting.

Can't the managers be encouraged to use the train or car share or something? Alternatively if they were encouraged to downsize to a Smart, there would be some room behind one of them!

Some of our managers at our place were asked to car share. They went livid! 3 of them live on the same bloody route too, but they all HAVE to drive in.

I do agree that bikes that are currently unpaid for and forced out into the public street will be at high risk of theft or damage. I have to say to your company, Nutty, nice going - 30 more cars on the road.

 

[bonj2]

Thanks for the feed back!

A new job is a great idea but with the credit crunch in play, well payed creative retouching jobs are hard to come by.

Well, you can always look around. Golden rule is , you never need to resign till you've got an offer of another job. The world's too small for companies that offer 'just a job' and no more, and can't be bothered to provide pastoral care for their employees welfare.

 

[Ivan Ardon]

Have you still got your Apollo? You could press that back into service, or if you can't face that, pick up an old steel hybrid on ebay for under £100. For 8 miles each way, you don't need anything better, I certainly wouldn't risk losing my nice bike to the local pond-scum.

 

[Garz]

Tell the MD to provide some facility/storage otherwise you will all want refunding. No point in cycling in and paying off the bike if there's now a major risk to damage/theft that the company is actively causing. Alternatively an agreement to sacrifice a car space or two to allow for a nice rack for a number of people to benefit from.

 

[mangaman]

This is a good point, actually. Surely it's financially irresponsible for high-value company assets of this kind to be left outdoors and unmonitored? Isn't this the kind of thing that accountants/auditors should be checking?

Isn't this one of the pitfalls of cycle to work schemes though

As far as I know - certainly with ours - generally until you've paid it off, if it gets damaged / nicked you have to pay, not the company - ie it's your asset not the company's.

It's why I didn't take mine up - there was no extra cycle storage planned, no showers available at work. So if loads of people had taken up the cycle to work scheme they would have had to lock their bikes any-old-where, with the financial losses for any damage/nicking falling on them (at least that's how I understood it)

 

[Crankarm]

Isn't this one of the pitfalls of cycle to work schemes though

As far as I know - certainly with ours - generally until you've paid it off, if it gets damaged / nicked you have to pay, not the company - ie it's your asset not the company's.

It's why I didn't take mine up - there was no extra cycle storage planned, no showers available at work. So if loads of people had taken up the cycle to work scheme they would have had to lock their bikes any-old-where, with the financial losses for any damage/nicking falling on them (at least that's how I understood it)

You can still buy a bike just don't use it to go to work if the employer neglects their end of the bargain to supply decent secure bike racks and showers. Their problem not yours. You still have the bike safe at home not being prematurely worn out by commuting everyday. Instead use it at weekends on your club run .

 

[Bman]

You can still buy a bike just don't use it to go to work if the employer neglects their end of the bargain to supply decent secure bike racks and showers. Their problem not yours. You still have the bike safe at home not being prematurely worn out by commuting everyday. Instead use it at weekends on your club run .

The only ptroblem with this is (at least in my case) is that once the lease period is up, you have to pay "fair market value" to obtain ownership.

The poorer the condition, the cheaper it will be.

I am in a very simelar situation. We only have 3 uncovered racks, in the car parking space furthest away from the entrance. There are more than three cyclists. And the current racks, do not fit MTB tyres on its rail, and the wedge at the end, damages the deraileur or the (brake) discs.

Oh, and the securing arm/s are rusted solid.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I had another idea last night. The company's provided the cycle to work scheme, so you are saving them money by cycling (as your NI conts decrease as you are paying back via salary sacrifice). So why not ask them to pay the parking costs for you...? worth a shot.

 

[XmisterIS]

I have been informed that this would be fine, at a cost to you of £1.50 per day or £5 per week, payment up-front.

£1.50 per day? How much does it cost cars and motorbikes to park on-site? And there was I thinking that the Government was giving incentives to companies to "go green", especially in London ... silly me!

And since when have you had to pay to park a bicycle anywhere?! I must admit that I don't live in London (or anywhere near it, in fact I wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole), but good grief, round where I live motorbikes get free parking pretty much everywhere, let alone bicycles!

Sorry for any inconvenience caused but I'm sure you all appreciate that to accommodate as many as 30 bikes per day has become unrealistic.

30 bikes? How much space does it take to store 30 bikes?? Most LBSs (which are not that big) have more than 30 bikes in them!

It sounds like (a) the MD didn't actually write this letter, ( Some retard from "Human Resources" or "Estates" did and (c) They'd rather not actually do their job and try to find a place for your bikes.

 

[the reluctant cyclist]

Gosh what a pain in the bum.

We are moving premises soon and I am the ONLY person who cycles in so I can't imagine that the facilities will be very good for cycle parking. God knows what I will do if I have to park it on the street. Like you I don't want to lose a good bike to petty thieving. I work in the centre of Birmingham.

I definately agree with the other poster who said that all thirty of you should joint together.

We were once asked to sign a new contract that gave us less sick days a year and would have meant unpaid time if you were sick more than once a year even with a doctors note. This was for secretaries only and we were all being really bullied into it.

I formed a "secretarial committee" to hide behind and we all signed to say that we didn't want the new contract. Once we all got together they company backed off and only 2 people signed the new contract (both of them said they were never off sick!).

I think that you should form a sort of cycling committee - I don't know how big your company is but 30 is a reasonable number if you are all complaining about it.

If it is a facility that you have all had for years and now are losing there should surely be some sort of good will gesture of compensation? ... although I strongly suspect that the fact that they have "enquired" at the new car park will be seen as this "gesture"!!!

Good luck with whatever you have to do!

 

[Lizban]

Bad luck, at least the employer seems to have tried to look into an alternative, my mind says he is trying to help and that you are more likely to get results by negoiation rather than confrontation. You get more jam with honey (or what ever the phrase is!)

Hope you find a good result.

 

[gemsno4]

Gosh what a pain in the bum.

We are moving premises soon and I am the ONLY person who cycles in so I can't imagine that the facilities will be very good for cycle parking. God knows what I will do if I have to park it on the street. Like you I don't want to lose a good bike to petty thieving. I work in the centre of Birmingham.

Depending where you are moving to I recommend the mailbox car park. Has a special bike area which is covered by CCTV. I always leave mine there if I have to get the train from new street, including overnight once.

 

[swee'pea99]

Bummer. All too typical at the moment tho', I fear, as companies feel the squeeze and know they can pass it on, with people reluctant to protest or leave.

As per others' suggestions, might you consider getting a less desirable beastie for your commute? Something very good to ride, but old and scrappy and with dropped handlebars, could be yours off ebay for under the ton, and is relatively unlikely to attract thieves (it will be alongside more desirable hardware).