Companies are rethinking traditional approaches to corporate travel and commuting. Many have recognized the potential of offering their employees access to a holistic mobility ecosystem that helps to steer employee mobility habits and thus cut emissions and save costs. The mobility budget is a cornerstone of this modern approach. It is a flexible and fair solution that empowers employees by offering them easy access to a myriad of low-carbon mobility options.

A Forward-Looking Employee Benefit

The mobility budget often replaces a company car scheme or a public transport subscription subsidy with a custom allowance that employees can use according to their individual transportation needs. At the same time, it promotes low-emission transportation modes through pricing incentives. Therefore, it is more than just a perk to inspire a happier, more motivated workforce. It’s a strategic initiative in the acceleration of the company’s path to Net Zero emissions. This is because employee mobility often makes up a very big part of a firm’s carbon footprint.

The mobility budget offers enhanced accessibility to mobility options such as:

• Public transportation: Subscriptions or single tickets for trains, buses, trams, and more.
• Shared e-car fleets: Access to a company-wide fleet of e-cars designed to ensure that employees have on-demand access to a car for occasional needs – whether it’s a business trip or personal errand – eliminating the need for personal car ownership.
• Shared e-bike fleets: Access to a company-wide fleet of premium e-bikes designed to substitute or supplement commuting trips of up to 10 km.
• Parking: The mobility budget can also be used for personal car expenses such as parking, making it a more fair way of allocating mobility incentives to your employees.
• Ride-hailing and taxi services: An allocation for convenient door-to-door service when other options aren’t the best fit.
• Personal mobility: Financial contribution for the use of 3rd party shared mobility services or even walking and biking incentives.

Offering employees easy access to this host of different premium mobility options represents the best-in-class solution for mobility benefits. The consultancy McKinsey & Company has also recently recognized the importance of mobility budgets, discussing its potentially transformative impact on employee mobility in their report “How the mobility budget could transform the future of transportation” [1].

The Benefits for Swiss Companies Apart from the clear benefits to employees, the mobility budget also offers companies a multitude of advantages vis-à-vis their existing mobility programs such as the following:

1. Employee satisfaction: By giving employees choice and flexibility, mobility budgets boost satisfaction and morale. They cater to individual needs and preferences, promoting a greater sense of control, autonomy, and fairness.
2. Talent attraction and retention: In a competitive Swiss job market, offering innovative and employee-centric benefits like mobility budgets can help stand out amongst competitors, appealing to top talent. To acquire and retain the best, you need to offer benefits that truly improve their lives. By removing location as a key barrier, your company can tap into excellent candidates who might live outside traditional commuting ranges.
3. Improved work-life balance: Mobility budgets often result in less stressful commutes, letting employees arrive at work alert and less fatigued.
4. Net-Zero goals: Promoting low-carbon mobility options through a mobility budget aligns with corporate Net Zero initiatives, and helps companies become drivers of decarbonization via their mobility initiatives.
5. Full control of acceptance points: Acceptance points of the mobility card can be customized to the needs of the company. The big advantage over conventional benefits, like cash payments, is that you can determine exactly which mobility services the budget can be used for.
6. Reduced administrative burden: Adopting a centralized mobility platform (like Urban Connect) streamlines billing, expense management, and fleet oversight which significantly reduces time spent on logistical complexities.
7. Cost optimization: Mobility budgets allow companies to only pay for what is used by the employees on selected mobility services. The unspent budget is refunded to the company at the end of the defined period. Additionally, the mobility budget creates new revenue streams for companies that can charge parking fees or fees for the private use of company fleets. Thus, mobility budgets often lead to lower mobility-related expenses compared to traditional company fleet management or public transport subscription subsidy programs.
8. Data-Driven Decisions: Access to analytics also helps HR understand employee commuting patterns, identify areas for improvement, and demonstrate the return on investment of the program. Moreover, the program also helps report mobility-related CO2 emissions across all modes.

Mobility Budgets with Urban Connect

At Urban Connect, we understand the unique challenges faced by large Swiss companies. That’s why our solutions are tailored to meet our clients’ specific needs.

Bluechip companies like Roche, Halter, Swiss Airlines, Migros, and others already adopted our mobility budget service that is enriched by:

• Customizable mobility plans that can cater to diverse employee groups and align with your company’s priorities.
• Premium shared fleets of e-bikes and e-cars which are loved by the users.
• Attractive discounts for employees when using 3rd party mobility services (e.g Uber, Voi, etc.) with our mobility card.
• Seamless technology for digital vehicle access, real-time tracking, usage reports, and easy payment systems.
• 24/7 user hotline that ensures smooth service and ongoing support for your HR department and employees.

Transform Your Corporate Mobility

The mobility budget represents a win-win solution for modern companies in Switzerland. It promotes sustainability, efficiency, and employee satisfaction, and even helps to cut costs – all critical drivers of long-term business success.

Would you like to learn more? Connect with us for a short call to explore how mobility budgets can benefit your organization. Book a demo here.

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