The Death of Cycle to Work?

[John the Monkey]

And of course they've come up with some absurd stuff before, but the entire public sector isn't quite a mad hatter's tea party with everyone pushing through only the most ridiculous regulation. I'm sure some bad ideas don't make it to the light of day!

I worked in the DfEE for a time.

We had good people, but some who gave every impression of being absolutely bonkers.

 

[2Loose]

My concerns with this are that depending on how the end price valuation would work, you could easily end up paying far more for the bike over the year than full list price.

The most bizarre bit was the insinuation that If you look after the bike well, the end payment could be 30+% which would make the yearly total quite a lot more expensive than just paying shop price on a credit card to spread the payments in the first place.
But trash the bike and it would still be a good deal. ????

Norm's suggestion of altering it so that the rental is not the full price in the first place would be a logical change, but it would be hard to calculate in advance, based on the final condition of the bike, or have I got that wrong.

 

[Black knight]

Hmm, intersting thread.

I just got an email from my HR a couple of days ago saying our scheme is due to start on 3rd May.
I'll have to have a good look through the small print before I commit.

I wonder what criteria Halfrauds will base their valuation on.

 

[summerdays]

Does C2W make a big difference? Genuine question. I've seen people present stuff on travel plan stuff before and in my experience people can spin stuff a bit.

I've known someone who was cycling to work but who only ever bought really really cheap bikes - £20 was his limit, and they were usually already in a fairly sorry state and he would run them totally into the ground and every thing from gears to bottom brackets would fail, leaving him walking home. He then bought a £1000 bike under the scheme and so much enjoyed the difference that he then bought the rest of his family good bikes over the next year. The whole family now cycle whereas in the past the bike was just an object.

Mr Summerdays didn't cycle to work until after he bought a bike through the scheme - although he bought it thinking he might occasionally cycle instead of driving, and then decided he would just for the summer and now is a fully converted to cycling through rain, snow, wind and ice.

 

[gb155]

Posted on our BUG board:



If this happens the reduced tax savings and increased operating costs will kill the scheme.

bugger mines up in June

 

[Tynan]

It seems to be me like tax payers money gets used to buy people extra bikes

so good riddance, not like there aren't better uses for tax payers' money

 

[psmiffy]

I am afraid that I think the scheme is brilliant - I was the only cyclist at our place when the scheme was enacted a fair number of people used it - I was very sceptical that people would actually cycle to work - only one person did not start to ride to work on a regular basis -I was competing for parking

 

[addictfreak]

I am afraid that I think the scheme is brilliant - I was the only cyclist at our place when the scheme was enacted a fair number of people used it - I was very sceptical that people would actually cycle to work - only one person did not start to ride to work on a regular basis -I was competing for parking

I have to say its made a big difference in my job too. Many people taking up all kinds of cycling. Most would never have bothered without cycle to work.

 

[Downward]

Does C2W make a big difference? Genuine question. I've seen people present stuff on travel plan stuff before and in my experience people can spin stuff a bit.

I only got back into Cycling because of cyclescheme so it worked for 1 person at least !

 

[Downward]

Looks like HMRC have cottoned on to the fact that large numbers of people have been buying extra bikes or bikes that never see a journey to work.

I know of people who openly talk about having had several and what a "good earner" it was, and others turning up on club runs on their £1000 carbon bike-scheme steed while using their old hack bike for commuting.

As so often with such things, abuse by people for whom the scheme was not intended destroys the benefit to those for whom it was.

Yes this is erm very common at work, As mentioned before you don't see many shiny new bikes at our work.
For me commuting is 80 to 90% of my cycling so using the best bike just for weekends is a waste.

 

[Downward]

My concerns with this are that depending on how the end price valuation would work, you could easily end up paying far more for the bike over the year than full list price.

The most bizarre bit was the insinuation that If you look after the bike well, the end payment could be 30+% which would make the yearly total quite a lot more expensive than just paying shop price on a credit card to spread the payments in the first place.
But trash the bike and it would still be a good deal. ????

Norm's suggestion of altering it so that the rental is not the full price in the first place would be a logical change, but it would be hard to calculate in advance, based on the final condition of the bike, or have I got that wrong.

Although I went to LBS for an 09 bike and got a quote for this (The 2010 models were not out for a few weeks) so the bike that I got the voucher for ain't the bike hanging on my wall. Work said it's fine and have never asked me what actual bike I bought.

 

[marinyork]

I only got back into Cycling because of cyclescheme so it worked for 1 person at least !

Well it's good to hear it works for some like you and Mr Summerdays. I know the potential is there but of course so many companies don't offer it or people don't know about it.

 

[J4CKO]

Glad I got a second one in before it all starts disintegrating, it's a shame and I cant imagine it costs the government that much, difficult to put a price on though, very complicated, the health benefits and resultant lowering of demand on the NHS etc.


I could do without people buying full suspension mountain bikes on the scheme and just keeping them in the garage, out of perhaps ten bikes in our dept I am the only one who has actually cycled to work.

 

[Browser]

Hrrmm, just read through the rules on the Cyclescheme webpage and the appropriate page of the hire agreement sent to me by my employer, and it does rather look like my nice, low-priced bike might turn out not to be after all, depending upon how good my employer decides to be after the hire period is up (on our scheme that's 36 months). Assuming I take good care of it, anyone got any idea how much a three-year-old Tifosi CK7 is likely to be worth?

 

[Browser]

Yup, the more I read about this, the more I can't help thinking that I've dropped a collosal clanger (which I seem to do each and every time I have anything to do with dealings financial). Reading more of the dreaded small print on the Cyclescheme website, it states that "Many employers opt for Cyclescheme to take ownership of the bikes at the end of the hire term, in which case any offer sale to the employee will come directly from Cyclescheme", who I can't see saying "oh it's OK mate, have it for a fiver". somehow.
One of these days, I'll learn to read the small print first before I commit, and will also pratice what I preach to others, i.e. 'if it looks too good to be true, it usually IS!'.