Does your employer support cyclists?

natrix

Showers in our building are now locked (saves on not having to have them cleaned) so I jimmy the lock with my swiss army knife to have a sneaky shower 8) 8) Sheffield stands outside to lock the bike up to.

Squawk

Ours is pretty good.

C2W scheme
Secure parking (basement of building, manned security gate, card swipe necessary for access). Maybe 3 cars are allowed to park in there, compared with hundreds of bikes.
Showers with shower gel
Drying room

Only complaint, can't get a locker, but nobody has issues with my helmet etc on my desk.

gingaman

Yes and no. This also could/should be a rant!

After a few months of asking, my employer has finally signed up to the cycle to work scheme. "Nice one!" thought I, "I'll have some of that."

However, I have just started an apprenticeship and taken a massive pay cut (down to 27% of what I was earning previously) so cant afford N+1 As I am using a bike to get to work anyway on a 25 mile round commute, I thought I could ask them to contribute a few pence a mile, to which I got the lovely response of "Sadly, due to the current climate the company cannot afford to support its cyclists"

Bearing in mind the company pays to lease vehicles for 8 engineers, and pays for their fuel, and the company is supposed to be promoting sustainability etc , why did they sign up to the C2W scheme? Grrrrr :evil:

Surely a pound or two a day isn't going to hurt?

Pufftmw

Hmm... Not great.

Been forced to move out to west London, so now do 12 miles instead of 6.5. Obviously takes longer but no acknowledgement of that fact whilst other staff have been given more money to cover additional travel expenses - he's on a bike, doesn't pay anything anyway..
No shower or similar but I have got access to the server room to dry things off if needed. There is talk of a shower but I would be bloody surprised if it ever happens. I have an office with reasonable storage capacity.
Only good thing is that I can park my bike inside the building in a store, so it is secure.
No point asking for C2W scheme and there's no obvious promotion of cycling activities even though we have 40+ cycle couriers running around for us

andy9964

Came out of work today, and the safety dept were handing out free hi viz vest, rear lights and hi viz back pack covers.
Wouldn't give me any as I already had them

hjghg5

Mixed. My employer itself is a bit crap - no cycle to work, not much encouragement.

The building managers on the other hand are brilliant. I have a bike cage in a secure underground car park (mainly because my employer was allocated 2 of them when they handed them out proportionate to how many floors each company have and there are only three of us who cycle even occasionally - you can fit 2 bikes in per cage so there's currently a spare space in my cage), and whenever the bike racks reach capacity they build some more. The new ones they've put in in a new outside bike shed are really quite good. They have regular events with the police (last time I got a free D Lock because they said my lock is crap - which I will admit it is, but that's because it's locked in a cage all day so I can get away with carrying something light for quick stops at the shop on the way home), and even organised a sportive. They even have free hire bikes/helmets etc to use at lunchtime. There are showers and lockers, and a track pump in the car park.

You can see the difference an employer's attitude makes in that we have just the three cyclists whereas one of the other companies in the building is far more pro-cycling than we are and is largely responsible for the need to keep on building new bike racks.

ilovegrace

I work at a local housing authority.
fantastic facilities.
bike shed
shower room
radiators
time allowed to shower and Change (doing our bit for carbon footprint etc)
AND i have been a member of our Health & Well being team that has recently helped to introduce the C2W scheme.
The result been , i have been asked to go into work on the weekend to monitor some work we have going on at the moment.No problem when the conditions are this good.
regards
ILG

mamil_man

Reading this now makes me feel lucky. In an office of 2,900 desks in a business centre of some 6,000 our facilities are great. Under cover storage. Lockers. Showers. Changing rooms. Site security with passes. CCTV. Ground anchors. C2W scheme.

But what REALLY sets the site landlord out from anywhere else... twice a year they pay for the local cycle shop to come and service everyone's bike if they want it... I can't decide if that's madness or genius.

Daz555

gingaman wrote:

As I am using a bike to get to work anyway on a 25 mile round commute, I thought I could ask them to contribute a few pence a mile, to which I got the lovely response of "Sadly, due to the current climate the company cannot afford to support its cyclists"

Bearing in mind the company pays to lease vehicles for 8 engineers, and pays for their fuel, and the company is supposed to be promoting sustainability etc , why did they sign up to the C2W scheme? Grrrrr :evil:

Surely a pound or two a day isn't going to hurt?

The company probably pays for the mileage they do while working - not for getting to work. If they do pay for that then it would be a benefit for the employee and therefore taxable. Same would apply to you if they chucked you money for simply getting to work.

roger_merriman

Daz555 wrote:

gingaman wrote:

As I am using a bike to get to work anyway on a 25 mile round commute, I thought I could ask them to contribute a few pence a mile, to which I got the lovely response of "Sadly, due to the current climate the company cannot afford to support its cyclists"

Bearing in mind the company pays to lease vehicles for 8 engineers, and pays for their fuel, and the company is supposed to be promoting sustainability etc , why did they sign up to the C2W scheme? Grrrrr :evil:

Surely a pound or two a day isn't going to hurt?

The company probably pays for the mileage they do while working - not for getting to work. If they do pay for that then it would be a benefit for the employee and therefore taxable. Same would apply to you if they chucked you money for simply getting to work.

Yup, I can get paid for travelling by bike while at work, but not to work though to training apparently, it's not a lot so I haven't bothered.

ChuckWoking

I cycled to a site once, got nice and hot getting there (25 miles from home), then froze as I sat in a site meeting for two hours, before cycling back to the office.

A few weeks later, word had obviously got back to the office...I was told by one of the partners that under no circumstances was I going to be cycling to one of his projects....it has cost them plenty instead in train travel and my time while standing around waiting for trains! Still, as long as they're prepared to cough up for travel to and from home.

Stupid thing is of course they do have a policy where they'll reimburse mileage for cycling to sites, it does make me wonder why they bother if they're so against it?

thistle_

ChuckWoking wrote:

A few weeks later, word had obviously got back to the office...I was told by one of the partners that under no circumstances was I going to be cycling to one of his projects.

Someone asked at either my current place or the one before if they could claim mileage for cycling to meetings. They were told no because cycling is too dangerous.

A few weeks later a Health and Safety bulletin was sent around telling people to be careful if they were cycling anywhere because someone at another company tried and failed to jump their bike up a kerb on the way into work on a rainy day and cut their knee....

Pross

The best thing that can be said where I am is that I can keep my bike inside and we have eventually joined a C2W scheme. Other than that, no showers (the toilets are tiny but with two cubicles so you can't lock yourself in for a private wash down), no lockers and nowhere to officially hang and dry clothes but fortunately we have an unused office that I've annexed as my dressing room. It's OK when the heating is on in the winter but for much of the year any kit that gets wet on the ride in is wet for the ride home. Of our 5 offices only 1 has a shower and we are moving out of that shortly. Ironically, part of our company's work is advising other companies on Green Travel where we make all sorts of recommendations for fantastic facilities they should provide in order to encourage cycling.

stu-bim

stu-bim wrote:

woodyonthebeach wrote:

stu-bim wrote:

I work in a hotel so all the facilities you could need. Gym with very good showers, washing machines and dryers (if needed) and keep my bike in my office. Pampered really.

Sounds great. Just one question do you have a masseuse as well.

There is a spa but it would be a bit cheeky

But since I'm planning on doing half ironman in April a bit closer to that I could discuss staff rates with one of the spa team

Changing job from hotel to a construction company, increasing from 7.5 miles one way to around 22 miles wach way and the best part of 3,000 ft of climbing.

Would not be able for it daily (not even sure if I can do a return trip in a day) and not sure if any luxurious facilities so we'll see how it goes

markhewitt1978

ChuckWoking wrote:

I was told by one of the partners that under no circumstances was I going to be cycling to one of his projects

Did they tell you why?

markhewitt1978

Where I work there are in excess of 600 parking spaces on the estate, all shared amongst the various companies which are here. There is a secure cycle shed but it's small, space for about 5 or 6 bikes, but it's controlled by another company and I've been told I'm not allowed to use it. The only other provision is a few wheel bender racks screwed to a fence which is used to shield the wheelie bins - so totally useless for any purpose.

Just find it rather irksome that provision for cars is extraordinary and provision for bikes does not exist.