Ride To Work Schemes *reposted from Road*

There is the government's ride to work tax break which is available to all employers and employees. This has been wrapped up in some ready-made schemes such as Cyclescheme, and Evans, Halfords, Wiggle etc "branded" schemes. Under the bonnet they are just an off the shelf implementation of the government tax break. Your employer doesn't need to use any of these branded schemes, and can run it themselves for very little extra hassle. This is the best scenario, as employees can buy any bike from any shop (up to the limit permitted by the company's credit licence - £1000 in all cases, but some companies have a licence for more).

To run the scheme in-house the company can "borrow" the freely downloadable paperwork available on Evans or Wiggle, and customise it.

Of the branded schemes, Cyclescheme uses local bike shops. This gives a lot of choice of bikes and shops, supports local businesses and means you might get more personal service from the shops. The downside is that Cyclescheme charge the shop a commission on every sale, so the shops are less likely to offer discounts or sale prices, often sticking to RRP (though they don't have to). Other shops add a premium to their prices to cover the commission (for example Spa Cycles add 12.5%), though as their normal prices are very low, the price you pay may still be much lower than RRP.

Wiggle and Evans run their own scheme so there is no commission, you pay the price you see. Evans have a growing rep for poor service. Wiggle have a rep for excellent service but they are a web only shop, which means buying before you try (though I understand they do a 7 day "test ride" period).

Halfords scheme means you get the bike through Halfords. They can, in theory, get most brands of bikes that they don't supply themselves, though an increasing number of brands are seeming to become unavailable. Bikes that are not usual Halfords stock may be charged at RRP. Many people are unhappy with Halfords service and the preparation of the bikes they sell. Some Halfords branches seem a lot better than others.

Best option - company does it in house. Very little extra admin, get any bike you want at the best price and wherever you want.

+1 To Alphablue. Cut out the middle men where you can, you all get a much better deal. The Cyclecheme et al. all take a percentage out of your potential savings. It's money that would be better in your pocket.

Planet X are now using cyclesheme again...They charge £100 though.

http://www.planet-x-warehouse.co.uk/?page_id=4961

The firm I work for run their own in house scheme, when you buy, (from anywhere) you don't need to mention C2W scheme which gives more flexibility to negociate. Well worth pushing for this method if you can. A lot of HR departments tend to be lazy and go for the "package schemes" such as those run by Evans, C2W etc.