KPN ENCOURAGES COMMUTING BY BIKE

The Zuidas Accessibility Task Force is holding its fifth meeting of the year on 3 December, to focus on cycling incentives. For this edition, KPN has been invited to shine a light on their employee bicycle incentive scheme. Some 1,000 KPN employees are now taking part in the scheme, constituting almost ten per cent of the telecom company’s total workforce.

KPN wants to both encourage and reward employees who cycle to work. It is the first company in the Netherlands to offer a net kilometre allowance of €0.40 per kilometre cycled. This, in combination with an attractive bicycle leasing scheme, lets KPN employees use e-bikes or conventional bikes at very low cost. In fact, cycling a two-way 15-kilometre commute even just once a week lets employees ride the average electric bike virtually for free. And the payoff is even better for those who cycle more often. 

KPN has made a serious commitment to CO₂ emissions reduction, setting itself a cross-chain zero-emissions target for 2040. This ambition includes business travel. To achieve its goal, KPN has joined Coalitie Anders Reizen, a Dutch network of more than seventy major employers working to drastically green their mobility. Carlo Steenvoorden is in charge of mobility policy at KPN: “Sustainability, for us, entails minimising our environmental impact while at the same time contributing to solving societal issues. Mobility is one of those issues. The question is: how do we make commuting by bike or public transport the attractive choice? You need to change behaviour. We believe you can do this by encouraging and rewarding sustainable travel choices. So, the better a choice is for the environment, the better it is for your wallet.”

Unique policy 

For KPN, the answer was a new optional lease plan that enables all employees to use bikes at low cost. Employees receive €0.40 net for every kilometre cycled. Those who take their own bicycle to work or the station also get reimbursed for those kilometres. Steenvoorden continues: “The Netherlands is synonymous with cycling, so bicycles as well as public transport should be the go-to option for commuters in this country. I am convinced that with a bike scheme like this, paired with a public transport pass and offices near public transport stations, more and more KPN employees will choose sustainable forms of travel. If KPN employees were to cycle an average 30 kilometres a week, that would be amazing.”

 Free to choose 

The bicycle kilometre allowance and bike lease plan are part of KPN’s revised mobility policy that came into effect on 1 August of this year. Of course, cycling is not an option for everyone, so while encouraging sustainable mobility, KPN leaves employees free to choose from a wide mix of travel modalities. It also has an attractive personal electric vehicle lease plan, shared cars, departmental cars and a €0.23 kilometre allowance for employees who use their own car.