BtW Scheme: HSE

TheBlaaMan

Most employers seem to have a chosen 'partner' for running their bike-to-work schemes rather than leaving it open to the employee to freely chose a retailer to buy from. Does anyone know who the HSE use? My wife is interested, but no-one in her work seems to know....

Thanks

cipo

You can purchase from anywhere that does btw.

Lost of shops on the opw website!

Search bike to work on Hse net and she ll find all the details.

Pick your bike, get invoice, send to her relevant person in charge of btw in her area and payment is then made!

happygoose

List of approved suppliers for civil / public servants:

http://www.opw.ie/en/media/Bicycle%20Suppliers.pdf

TheBlaaMan

Thanks guys, but its not necessarily that straightforward. I appreciate happygoose's comment about the public sector, but not all employers are so 'open' - my own, (6000 staff) will ONLY deal with CycleSuperstore, having put the business out to tender and awarded the business to a single supplier.

poochiem

yup, for instance UCD use 'Bike to Work LTD' which uses a fairly extensive but not comprehensive list of suppliers...it also takes a 10% commission so bang goes your bargaining power http://ucd.biketowork.ie/

CramCycle

poochiem wrote: »

yup, for instance UCD use 'Bike to Work LTD' which uses a fairly extensive but not comprehensive list of suppliers...it also takes a 10% commission so bang goes your bargaining power http://ucd.biketowork.ie/

Shock horror as (some members of) UCD are to lazy/unionised to actually run a relatively simple job themselves :eek:

droidus

:rolleyes: Yeah, nothing to do with a 5 year recruitment freeze and the payroll/HR dept being inundated with work... it was staff pressure that pushed management to implement the scheme in the first place.

CramCycle

droidus wrote: »

:rolleyes: Yeah, nothing to do with a 5 year recruitment freeze and the payroll/HR dept being inundated with work... it was staff pressure that pushed management to implement the scheme in the first place.

I know, I was one of those staff members, I was not having a go at all UCD staff members, just a minority (hopefully) who think a little over whats written down on paper (occasionally) is to much to ask (or in alot of cases even whats written down is to much). There are several who go above and beyond the call of duty. I remember a few being very proactive and organising a petition after accounts said no to the scheme. As for the recruitment freeze, still shocked by this considering how many people I've seen hired in the last month in my building alone.

It's been a long week at work and my comments were unfair. Anyway, off topic, and i apologise, if I offended you.

poochiem

CramCycle wrote: »

Shock horror as (some members of) UCD are to lazy/unionised to actually run a relatively simple job themselves :eek:

yeah as above comment, youve actually got it the wrong way around, shock horror. I mean this well not having a go at you at all.

It's not just UCD, lots of employers are using the intermediary companies like Bike to Work Ltd to handle the particulars of the scheme. While their own HR dept acts as the intermediary between staff and BTW and verifies staff tax rates, contract length, eligibility; then BikeToWork takes over the bicycle-specific side, for instance checking that the good requested match approximately the purchase orders, checking that the named recipient is the bike-shop owner etc etc.

Otherwise each large business dealing with perhaps hundreds of interested staff would have to employ people specifically, train them to research bikes/bike shops/bike accessories/set up websites/ create the suitable paperwork and so on just to handle the 2 months a year they run the scheme.

CramCycle

poochiem wrote: »

yeah as above comment, youve actually got it the wrong way around, shock horror. I mean this well not having a go at you at all.

It's not just UCD, lots of employers are using the intermediary companies like Bike to Work Ltd to handle the particulars of the scheme. While their own HR dept acts as the intermediary between staff and BTW and verifies staff tax rates, contract length, eligibility; then BikeToWork takes over the bicycle-specific side, for instance checking that the good requested match approximately the purchase orders, checking that the named recipient is the bike-shop owner etc etc.

Otherwise each large business dealing with perhaps hundreds of interested staff would have to employ people specifically, train them to research bikes/bike shops/bike accessories/set up websites/ create the suitable paperwork and so on just to handle the 2 months a year they run the scheme.

Sorry if my comments were confusing but it isn't that big a deal, IMHO, (although I could be wrong) as I work for another company outside of UCD who had no such problems. Simple rules such as, bring in an invoice for the amount and clarify with the shop that you are getting it through the B2W scheme, finance write a check and leave it for you to collect and deliver to said shop, then the amount was taken out in one lump sum (to save finance from the complicated bit of dividing it by a number for payments over several months). You still get all the benefits, you just need to be prepared for the lump sum to be taken out, the benefits remain the same. This could be run 12 months a year to save on a rush over the two months.

The tax rates don't need to be verified as your company should already have your current band and add the cost of the bike onto the part of your tax credits. I don't see a need in the case of a place as large as UCD to train or hire new people as they have a payroll/accounts department who should be able to deal with it quite simply, so long as they don't overthink it.

I haven't heard of anyone having their bike inspected by any employers to check are they matches, and the reciept verification would be covered in the invoice and the fact that the check could only be cashed by that company.

Again these are only points of view, but it doesn't seem to need all the extra bits you've mentioned. For example: train them to research bikes (do they need to know anything about the bike?), bike shops (if it's a registered business, then this can be quickly done by checking the VAT number on the invioce), bike accessories (leave a note to all employees to say that to save confusion, please ask the shop to add all the accesories as one item in the invoice), set up websites (an e-mail to everyone with a form to fill in and either hand in or mail back should be easier), create the suitable paperwork (fair enough, this is extra work) and so on just to handle the 2 months a year they run the scheme (if it was run all year round, the chances of having a big rush that would put a strain on the payroll department would be lessened quite severely).

Just my opinion, I'm not an accountant, and I can see the reason alot of companies do it, as it takes away any fear of it being complicated or messy, I just think even with the numbers of staff in UCD, a few who won't avail of it, a few who already have bikes and a few who won't rush, it might not have been as bad as they feared. Also knowing how they took a large slice of the top of post docs wages in the last two years (which looks to cause alot of funding to possibly leave), it might have been more beneficial to take 5% themselves rather than give 10% to someone else

poochiem

CramCycle wrote: »

Just my opinion, I'm not an accountant, and I can see the reason alot of companies do it, as it takes away any fear of it being complicated or messy, I just think even with the numbers of staff in UCD, a few who won't avail of it, a few who already have bikes and a few who won't rush, it might not have been as bad as they feared. Also knowing how they took a large slice of the top of post docs wages in the last two years (which looks to cause alot of funding to possibly leave), it might have been more beneficial to take 5% themselves rather than give 10% to someone else

yup I agree with ya, if they did it over 12 months I think there's less hassle even with the staff cuts but I don't know if there are more things considered as regards keeping account of the bikes ordered etc being a public service employer? I'm not a fan of UCD I just work there

droidus

Dear god. How many of us work in UCD? Youve probably both overtaken me on the way in.

No offense taken cramcycle, I actually complained about the restrictions myself. I just know that unions werent responsible the reluctant implementation of the scheme in UCD.

BeeDI

No shortage of people riding to work on chainsaws and lawn mowers these days thanks to the BTW scheme:cool::cool:

poochiem

BeeDI wrote: »

No shortage of people riding to work on chainsaws and lawn mowers these days thanks to the BTW scheme:cool::cool:

haha! I think that's why they use the middle man to check up on it! (I wonder is there any truth in that though?)

I got the new 9 speed flymo