E-bike fleets to the rescue!

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Friday, 18 March 2011 04:18

Are you an employer watching your fleet of employees’ company cars sap the lifeblood out of your business?

With the current oppressive economic climate, for an SME, saving on costs equates to the difference between being on the right side of the breakeven line – it can literally mean the difference between profit and loss.

If your business relies on getting around a local area whether for meetings, patrols, client visits or deliveries then the traditional method has been a petrol-based vehicle, whether that means a car, a scooter or a van. With the price of oil rising and – based on current revolutionary activities in the Middle East – the prices looking likely to keep on rising, the cost of fuel may rise from approximately the already unprecedented 133p a litre to unknown heights never witnessed before. It is in short, becoming impractical for a business with relatively small margins to run petrol based vehicles.

With this in mind, according to the trade press 2011 looks like a key year for a unique growth industry, namely the electric battery powered bicycle.

A survey from Bath based e-bike manufacturer Powabyke, in conjunction with Leeds University noticed that people were buying the e-bikes for commuting and replacing their cars and public transport.

The survey questioned 3000 Powabyke customers, and 38 percent of respondents said they gave up their cars in favour of using the e-bikes whilst 77 percent said they rely on their e-bikes daily. Electric bikes are ideal for travelling distances of around 10 – 20 miles as you can totally rely on the bike if you need to get to the local destination self-propelled, not drenched in sweat as with normal bikes, and at speeds of 15mph.

In urban settings they have proven to be faster than buses on occasions too and people seem to be buying the e-bikes to get them to work, for daily trips and as a main form of transport.

The biggest reasons for this are that they don’t need petrol, but also they don’t require insurance, a license, tax or additional costs that you associate with scooters and cars. With an average trip costing the equivalent of a few pence (cost per mile calculated as just over 1 pence) this is a good bet for businesses to consider.

Powabykes in particular have proven to be the e-bike forerunner for fleet acquisition.

Frank Curran, sales manager from Powabyke said: “Electric bikes are great for patrolling and deliveries as they offer a low cost alternative to polluting and expensive cars and scooters. Apart from the obvious advantages over fuel cost, they have greater potential for access to areas that cannot be accessed by cars, so they are more versatile in an inner city environment. Police forces such as Kent and Dover, Strathclyde and Leicester have all used Powabykes.”

Another enquiry for business use was for an Estate Agent that wanted a Powabyke for travelling to house viewings. Delivery and courier services can also benefit from e-bike fleets where mopeds require steeper overheads. Whilst some employees may prefer the luxury of a traditional road vehicle, the economic sense of the e-bike may be a key factor for ensuring employment is possible in the first place! An entire fleet purchase may be less than the purchase of a single car and running costs are next to nothing.

Another consideration for employers is to encourage employees to buy Powabykes on the Cycle to Work Scheme, a government scheme (not scrapped in the recent hand over of political reigns) that means you can buy the bike through your employer on a monthly basis direct from your salary and with around 40 percent off the price! This can solve parking space costs for a business at the same time if employees adopt the scheme.

Whilst fleets of e-bikes are still a relatively controversial idea they have proven to save costs. The year 2011 is going to be a good year for consumers buying e-bikes and when they become more popular and more noticeable then employers are bound to notice they are more than a gimmick.

Tags: e-bikes e-bike ebike fleet management company car

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