How can you encourage your employees to cycle?

What is velotaf?

Employed since the early 2000s, velotaf refers to using a bicycle from home to commute to work. Velotaf is a neologism born from the contraction of two words: bike and taf!

A velotaffer borrows his or her bike as often as possible, or even every day, regardless of the weather conditions during his or her daily commute.

The benefits of velotaf

The velotaf has two main objectives:to conserve the environment and help you stay healthy.

Riding a bike saves time, money and physical activity, among other things. Good for our health and that of the planet, getting around by bike can sometimes be faster than by car.
Also by choosing this means of transport for commuting, every biker can also reduce fuel consumption, avoid traffic jams on the road, clear the mind and do some sport every day. By cycling, you avoid the costs associated with a public transport subscription, the cost of petrol, parking and tolls. It is therefore a more economical solution. On your bike, you are also less stressed. In traffic jams, as we all know, people start to get annoyed, you see dangerous behaviour, and finally you arrive at work tense. Not the best conditions to start a good working day and be productive. By cycling, you get fresh air, you are in touch with your environment, you escape traffic jams and stress. You arrive at work with a clear head. You don't need to look for space for your car, your bike is easy to park. You have protected the environment as you have avoided consuming fuel and releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.

You have protected the environment as you have avoided consuming fuel and releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.

Biking is THE environmentally friendly choice, which preserves your mental and physical health, as well as your wallet.

How to set up and develop the practice of velotaf within a company

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There are many things - big and small - that can go a long way to making life easier for bike commuters. To inspire you, we interviewed ST MicroElectronics, which in 2016 set up a particularly attractive bicycle plan.

Ciao company car, long live the bike? More and more companies are giving priority to the development of cycling among their employees. We had the opportunity to talk to Christophe Roullier, the employee in charge of the bicycle mobility plan at ST MicroElectronics. The company, with its 250 or so employees at its Le Mans site, has set up an ambitious mobility plan to encourage cycling among its employees. We share their good ideas with you.

• Free bike servicing: ST MicroElectronics organises free servicing sessions for its employees twice a year. A service provider comes directly to the company's site to carry out the repairs. We love it.
• Providing an electric bike: ST Micro Electronics employees use it for various reasons (a ride between 12pm and 2pm, trying out the home-work commute...). They just have to register on the schedule to get familiar with the bike on a daily basis.
• Offering equipment bike kits: different types of kits are offered on the Le Mans site (worth €50 each). A first essential safety kit to start velotafing (bell, helmet, spoke reflectors). To help the durability of the bike, other kits exist: comfort kit (rain cape, rain trousers), night kit (USB lights, U lock) or family kit (child seat...).
• Joining a cycling association: ST MicroElectronics pays a membership to the Cyclamaine association to allow employees to get even more involved in cycling and encourage urban infrastructure.

By enrolling in the plan, ST MicroElectronics employees can benefit from all the advantages. In return, they must commit to making more than 50% of their home-to-work journeys by bicycle. A real relationship of trust over the long term but also a way of ensuring that the scheme is viable.

A bike kit idea for your employees with JSAV products:Suzu bell, Kryptonite lock and beam reflectors.

We've also thought of a few more tips to help your employees through this beautiful transition:

• Creating dedicated infrastructure on the company's site: not being able to park your bike at your workplace is one of the biggest obstacles to pedalling. And when you know that a single car space can accommodate 4 bicycle spaces, you don't have to hesitate for long. The coach is no longer a pumpkin... but a bicycle!
• Showers! Even if plenty of solutions exist to avoid sweating on a bike, novices are not necessarily ready to invest in them. So you need to reassure your employees: offer them showers or changing rooms on your site. Because there's nothing worse than arriving at the first meeting of the day all sweaty...
• Adopt the sustainable mobility package: this aid can amount to up to €400 per year and per employee (exempt from taxes and social security contributions) to contribute to your employees' travel costs.
• Organisation of cycling workshops : whether practical or theoretical, to get on a bike, your employees need to understand the different issues they will face. Thus, workshops to get into the saddle or even conferences on the bike can be good ways to put them in confidence. For example, a workshop to learn basic bicycle repairs, such as repairing a tyre with patches, can reassure employees. They will no longer be afraid to come by bike thinking "what if I blow my tyre on the way to work? They will feel safer knowing what to do in the most common cases of damage. For those who do not have a driving licence, a "highway code" workshop could enable future cyclists to ride without danger to themselves or others.

And for the company, what are the advantages of the velotaf?

Of course, everything we have just suggested represents a certain budget. But don't worry, there's plenty for the company to do as well.

<You'll be able to get a lot of money out of it, too.

• Value your action on the environment: The mobility plan is now considered a real company project under a quality approach or an environmental management system. Thus, the budget allocated to this mobility plan may be subject to tax deductions to support you in this transition cycling.
• Increase your productivity: Employees who cycle are less stressed and healthier employees. This dimension has been noted in particular at the ST MicroElectronics site with a low absenteeism rate.
• Healthy employees: Cycling is sport. And if your employees make the choice to come to work by bike every day, they will practice a regular physical activity and their health will only be better. And yes, cycling has many health benefits: it reduces stress and therefore the risk of heart disease, combats obesity, improves the quality of sleep, and exposes people to sunlight and therefore to vitamin D synthesis. Vitamin D is very important for reducing the risk of depression. Physical activity also reduces the risk of mortality from cancer or cardiovascular disease by 40-50%.
• Improve your corporate image: This is certainly not the primary motivation, but know that encouraging cycling in your company will have a positive impact on your company's image. Cycling is an environmentally friendly means of transport, so your company will be showing its commitment to the environment. You will also be showing that you care about the well-being of your employees, by encouraging them to engage in a stress-reducing sporting activity. If you put in place facilities that facilitate cycling, you will build loyalty among your cycling employees and show that you care about them.
• Create common ground: It may seem insignificant, but if all your employees cycle regularly, they will talk about it together. At lunch break or over coffee, employees talk about their activities, their family, or their holidays. But sometimes, some colleagues do not have the same passions and may find it difficult to bond. Bring them together around a common activity: cycling. This will create a team spirit that will only have positive effects on their productivity.
• Staying attractive: The cyclability of a company is becoming a real selection choice for job seekers. To continue to make your company attractive, it is therefore necessary that you show that you are concerned about this issue.

You now have all the keys in hand to be able to convert the accelerator pedal into a bicycle pedal. Have a good transition!