Staff paid to not use cars

[Adrian Boliston]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3200604.stm

Anyone seen this story:

=======================
Staff paid to not use cars The drugs company, Pfizer, says a scheme where employees at its premises
at Sandwich are paid £2 a day for leaving their car at home has been a success. Managers say it is
so expensive to build and maintain car parks that the scheme has actually saved them £100,000.

The firm, which employs 3,600 staff at its research, development and manufacturing site in Kent,
believes other firms could follow their lead.

Pfizer claims it costs £6 a day for each staff car park space provided.

So by offering a small incentive to each worker who uses public transport to get to work, the scheme
actually saves the company money.

A spokesman, said: "The scheme has been in place for a number of years and it has shown a 15%
reduction in the number of cars used by our staff."

Employees receive the cash at the end of each month in their regular pay cheques.

=========================

I wonder if staff still get the £2 if the cycle in or can they only claim it if they use public
transport?

[Vernon Levy]

> I wonder if staff still get the £2 if the cycle in or can they only claim
it
> if they use public transport?
>
They get the money regardless of the non car methods used to get to work. Walkers get it too.

[Podgemaster]

I have been to Sandwich, there is a nice camp site there(a few years ago - b4 the kids). It also has
a not too bad chinese from what I remember. Anyway as I degress from my point. I remember the Pfizer
site, it is in the middle of no-where, if you walk to work your braver than me, I would cycle

I don't care.

Ok flame me, I deserve it.

PodgeMaster

"VERNON LEVY" <vernon.levy@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message news:bmpg8b$p39$1@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> >
> > I wonder if staff still get the £2 if the cycle in or can they only
claim
> it
> > if they use public transport?
> >
> They get the money regardless of the non car methods used to get to work. Walkers get it too.
>

[Paul Luton]

In message <bmpcku$ojh8p$1@ID-127445.news.uni-berlin.de> "Adrian Boliston"
<adrian@boliston.co.uk> wrote:

> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3200604.stm
>
> Anyone seen this story:
>
> =======================
> Staff paid to not use cars

> I wonder if staff still get the £2 if the cycle in or can they only claim it if they use public
> transport?
>
>
IIRC the original proposal was to provide a free bus service and the £2 idea was specifically to be
fairer to cyclists and walkers.

Paul.

--
CTC Right to Ride Representative for Richmond upon Thames

[Paul Saunders]

My company have had this scheme for about 3 years now. Basically, if you don't take up a car parking
space you get £2 per day, regardless of anything else. Even when I ocassionally use the car I park
in one of 3 spaces just across the road and still can claim! Also, there is a scheme that I've
mentioned before on this ng that if you buy a bike of through the company and it's main purpose is
to commute, the company pays for it and then deducts the cost over 3 months from you gross salary
thereby saving you the tax.. "Adrian Boliston" <adrian@boliston.co.uk> wrote in message
news:bmpcku$ojh8p$1@ID-127445.news.uni-berlin.de...
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3200604.stm
>
> Anyone seen this story:
>
> =======================
> Staff paid to not use cars The drugs company, Pfizer, says a scheme where employees at its
> premises
at
> Sandwich are paid £2 a day for leaving their car at home has been a
success.
> Managers say it is so expensive to build and maintain car parks that the scheme has actually saved
> them £100,000.
>
> The firm, which employs 3,600 staff at its research, development and manufacturing site in Kent,
> believes other firms could follow their lead.
>
> Pfizer claims it costs £6 a day for each staff car park space provided.
>
> So by offering a small incentive to each worker who uses public transport
to
> get to work, the scheme actually saves the company money.
>
> A spokesman, said: "The scheme has been in place for a number of years and it has shown a 15%
> reduction in the number of cars used by our staff."
>
> Employees receive the cash at the end of each month in their regular pay cheques.
>
> =========================
>
> I wonder if staff still get the £2 if the cycle in or can they only claim
it
> if they use public transport?

[David Off]

Paul Saunders wrote:
> the company pays for it and then deducts the cost over 3 months from you gross salary thereby
> saving you the tax..

I'm self-employed and get mileage allowance and claim my bike costs back against tax :-).

When I worked for Siemens they offered staff around 1000 quid/yr (in Munich) not to use bikes. I
then moved to France (bad move) where the French management banned us from bringing bikes onto the
site as it made it look as if their staff were too poor to afford cards. Retards.

[Mr R@T \ -Lsqco]

"David Off" <david.off_dumpthisbit_@voila.fr> wrote in message
news:3f916a89$0$22743$79c14f64@nan-newsreader-02.noos.net...

> When I worked for Siemens they offered staff around 1000 quid/yr (in Munich) not to use bikes. I
> then moved to France (bad move) where the French management banned us from bringing bikes onto the
> site as it made it look as if their staff were too poor to afford cards. Retards.

Thanks for the info; now should myself or friends/colleagues require mobile comms kit I shall advise
them to *boycott* Siemens... and whilst it may not be much of a dent in their revenue I know a *lot*
of young people and bohemian types who use mobiles a lot...(and who are all
enviromentally-concious). (their phones are pants anyway).

Anyone who works for a company or organisation with an ethical/environmental policy (increasingly
popular these days) may wish to note this....

its disappointing especially as German firms normally pride themselves on taking into account
environmental issues..

For those who wish to protest against actions by corporates , *product boycotts* have far more
effect than any tub thumping or street protest. Hit the bastards where it hurts - in their pockets!

Alex

[Nick Kew]

In article <3f916a89$0$22743$79c14f64@nan-newsreader-02.noos.net>, one of infinite monkeys at the
keyboard of David Off <david.off_dumpthisbit_@voila.fr> wrote:

> When I worked for Siemens they offered staff around 1000 quid/yr (in Munich) not to use bikes.

Could there be a typo in there? I assumed Mr R@t had misread you; then I went back and re-read
it myself.

--
Axis of Evil: Whose economy needs ever more wars? Arms Exports $bn: USA 14.2, UK 5.1, vs France 1.5,
Germany 0.8 (The Economist, July 2002)

[Md]

A friend used to work for Vodafone in Newbury, and they had some sort of sliding scale for non-use
of the car park. He got a small amount for using a scooter, which would have been slightly larger
for walking/cycling/pub transport [1], and then a lesser amount for using a Smart car, as it only
took up half a parking space.

I doubt they were doing it for any altruistic reason - staff numbers had outgrown the (small) car
park at this particular site.

[1] too far for him to cycle, even though he is fit, let alone walk, and pub transport a joke -
quicker to walk. Those of us in tech/telecoms change jobs too often to consider moving close to
work all the time unless we really want to swell Gordo's coffers with stamp duty.

--

Regards,

Mark Davies

[David Off]

Mr R@t (2.3 zulu-alpha) [comms room 2] wrote:
> "David Off" <david.off_dumpthisbit_@voila.fr> wrote in message
> news:3f916a89$0$22743$79c14f64@nan-newsreader-02.noos.net...
>
>
>>When I worked for Siemens they offered staff around 1000 quid/yr (in Munich) not to use bikes. I
>>then moved to France (bad move) where the French management banned us from bringing bikes onto the
>>site as it made it look as if their staff were too poor to afford cards. Retards.
>
>
> Thanks for the info; now should myself or friends/colleagues require mobile comms kit I shall
> advise them to *boycott* Siemens...

Sorry, the company in France were associated with Groupe Bull, a French computer maker and not
Siemens. Siemens, apart from using slave labour during the war, are a good company I beleive. I no
longer work for Siemens but enjoyed my time with them.

The figure offered was 1500 DM - sorry I think this was closer to 700 UKP at the time. They said the
spaces were worth more than that per year.

[Zaphod]

> A friend used to work for Vodafone in Newbury, and they had some sort of sliding scale for non-use
> of the car park. He got a small amount for using a scooter, which would have been slightly larger
> for walking/cycling/pub transport [1], and then a lesser amount for using a Smart car, as it only
> took up half a parking space.

When was this? Nothing like that when I was there 7ish years ago. It would have been good to pick up
a bonus back then..

> I doubt they were doing it for any altruistic reason
IME Vodafone did very little for altruistic reasons. ;+)

>- staff numbers had outgrown the (small) car park at this particular site.

Now that sounds mroe familiar- car parking was a huge problem when Voda had offices in what seemed
like every second building in Newbury.

Do Vodafone still offer the 'non car' bonus now they have moved to their new corporate campus?

z

[Anonymous]

"David Off" <david.off_dumpthisbit_@voila.fr> wrote in message
news:3f944041$0$23847$79c14f64@nan-newsreader-02.noos.net...
> Mr R@t (2.3 zulu-alpha) [comms room 2] wrote:
> > "David Off" <david.off_dumpthisbit_@voila.fr> wrote in message
> > news:3f916a89$0$22743$79c14f64@nan-newsreader-02.noos.net...
> >
> >
> >>When I worked for Siemens they offered staff around 1000 quid/yr (in Munich) not to use bikes. I
> >>then moved to France (bad move) where the French management banned us from bringing bikes onto
> >>the site as it made it look as if their staff were too poor to afford cards. Retards.
> >
> >
> > Thanks for the info; now should myself or friends/colleagues require
mobile
> > comms kit I shall advise them to *boycott* Siemens...
>
> Sorry, the company in France were associated with Groupe Bull, a French computer maker and not
> Siemens. Siemens, apart from using slave labour during the war, are a good company I beleive. I no
> longer work for Siemens but enjoyed my time with them.
>
> The figure offered was 1500 DM - sorry I think this was closer to 700 UKP at the time. They said
> the spaces were worth more than that per year.

You may have a typo in your original sentence : you said staff were paid not to use bikes - did you
mean to not use cars?

cheers, clive