#Transportation: Company Cars Part 2 - Why drive at all, and why a car?
In my last blog post I discussed how the concept of company cars could be leveraged to kickstart the electric car revolution in the DACH market. But as I wrote that article, I repeatedly drifted off into ranting about company cars as a concept in general. The sections were quite readable, so I just cut-pasted them into a new article: this one. The general idea is, that we should switch from fuel powered cars to electric now. But we should actually abandon company cars completely in the long run, shouldn't we? What about a roadmap that would go a little something like this:
2017 - Companies to adopt Electric Cars as Preferred Company Car
2019 - 75% of Company Cars are Electric
2021 - Total Number of Company Cars dropped by 50%
2025 - Almost no Company Cars in the DACH market
A bit optimistic, right? But hey, who knows what we will actually see happening - the Merkel administration has been know to find drastic solutions to challenges out of nowhere. And if the usual sceptics start howling again, the chancellor will probably issue another "Wir schaffen das." command and for some reason things will work out. Anyway, the two main reasons why I actually object the concept of company cars are quite simple:
1. driving yourself keeps you away from working.
2. driving is less healthy than taking a bike or train.
Now of course, for the interested folks among you, this sounds like a pretext to another battlecry for self-driving cars. But no, it is not actually. Of course the ideal future will also include electric self driving cars. But as I live in Germany, let's not think this through the american way. Maybe in 2025 we will see self driving cars on our streets more regular. But I guess it will take years and years, legal aspects alone will drive us insane on the way there. So for now let's rather look at short-term alternatives to company cars, because as with the Part 1 of this company-car thing - just dreaming of a far distant future is not going to solve today's problems ever.
So let's look at the above two challenges:
1. Don't drive, work!
Who doesn't know that guy at work who constantly excuses his late response, missed deadline or not even started task with "I had to drive all yesterday, so I couldn't even read my mail". First of all, if you prefer driving over taking a train, it doesn't mean you don't need to do your actual job. But of course, we also know that guy with a shitty hands-free kit who jumps on and off a conference call and ruins the call for everyone with his background noise and his "I can't see what you are looking at but my view is that ...". We know those guys. And we are those guys, always or every once in a while. But we all are. And we all, deep in our hearts, know that taking a train would allow us to (at least) work at 75% productivity as opposed to near-zero when driving in a car.
Since years, there are companies that offer all in railway passes a.k.a. BahnCard 100 (= you can drive around with public transport as much as you want nation-wide). Instead of a company car, you get this pass and the remainder of travel that cannot be covered by a train, is covered by a cab or with Herz / Europcar. The value in that? Your employees can do work while they travel to a place where they do work. As simple as that. But also, if adopted on a larger scale, this concept would empty the Autobahn, empty the city streets. Why not use your time with being productive, instead of wasting it staring at the road and other cars, having messed up telcos with colleagues.
2. Driving is unhealthy
There is a ton of reasons why driving by car is unhealthy. Be it the sitting without any movement, be it the non ergonomic seats that kill your back or simply the risk of getting involved in a (lethal) accident. I guess that you could also factor in the psychological stress of handling traffic (and your own speeding) all the time. In total, there is no real reason to consider a car a healthy alternative to a train or a bicycle - yes, both have their own dangers, but they are comparably far lower than those of a car. So since we probably don't need to discuss the risk of accidents, let's look at the physical value of going by bike instead of by car.
In 2012 I think a new german legislation was passed, allowing companies to offer bicycles to employees instead of company cars as a benefit - a company bike, so to say. There are companies out there adopting it, many of them. Have a look at the folks at jobrad.org for example, one of the leaders in the German market around company bike leasing and management. It’s amazing. And just think of the health increase of your employees, they will show up for work fresh and vital instead of stressed out and back-broken. The benefits of physical exercise before, during and after work have been proven too often to ignore this value add.
2017 - Companies to adopt Electric Cars as Preferred Company Car
2019 - 75% of Company Cars are Electric
2021 - Total Number of Company Cars dropped by 50%
2025 - Almost no Company Cars in the DACH market
A bit optimistic, right? But hey, who knows what we will actually see happening - the Merkel administration has been know to find drastic solutions to challenges out of nowhere. And if the usual sceptics start howling again, the chancellor will probably issue another "Wir schaffen das." command and for some reason things will work out. Anyway, the two main reasons why I actually object the concept of company cars are quite simple:
1. driving yourself keeps you away from working.
2. driving is less healthy than taking a bike or train.
Now of course, for the interested folks among you, this sounds like a pretext to another battlecry for self-driving cars. But no, it is not actually. Of course the ideal future will also include electric self driving cars. But as I live in Germany, let's not think this through the american way. Maybe in 2025 we will see self driving cars on our streets more regular. But I guess it will take years and years, legal aspects alone will drive us insane on the way there. So for now let's rather look at short-term alternatives to company cars, because as with the Part 1 of this company-car thing - just dreaming of a far distant future is not going to solve today's problems ever.
So let's look at the above two challenges:
1. Don't drive, work!
Who doesn't know that guy at work who constantly excuses his late response, missed deadline or not even started task with "I had to drive all yesterday, so I couldn't even read my mail". First of all, if you prefer driving over taking a train, it doesn't mean you don't need to do your actual job. But of course, we also know that guy with a shitty hands-free kit who jumps on and off a conference call and ruins the call for everyone with his background noise and his "I can't see what you are looking at but my view is that ...". We know those guys. And we are those guys, always or every once in a while. But we all are. And we all, deep in our hearts, know that taking a train would allow us to (at least) work at 75% productivity as opposed to near-zero when driving in a car.
Since years, there are companies that offer all in railway passes a.k.a. BahnCard 100 (= you can drive around with public transport as much as you want nation-wide). Instead of a company car, you get this pass and the remainder of travel that cannot be covered by a train, is covered by a cab or with Herz / Europcar. The value in that? Your employees can do work while they travel to a place where they do work. As simple as that. But also, if adopted on a larger scale, this concept would empty the Autobahn, empty the city streets. Why not use your time with being productive, instead of wasting it staring at the road and other cars, having messed up telcos with colleagues.
2. Driving is unhealthy
There is a ton of reasons why driving by car is unhealthy. Be it the sitting without any movement, be it the non ergonomic seats that kill your back or simply the risk of getting involved in a (lethal) accident. I guess that you could also factor in the psychological stress of handling traffic (and your own speeding) all the time. In total, there is no real reason to consider a car a healthy alternative to a train or a bicycle - yes, both have their own dangers, but they are comparably far lower than those of a car. So since we probably don't need to discuss the risk of accidents, let's look at the physical value of going by bike instead of by car.
In 2012 I think a new german legislation was passed, allowing companies to offer bicycles to employees instead of company cars as a benefit - a company bike, so to say. There are companies out there adopting it, many of them. Have a look at the folks at jobrad.org for example, one of the leaders in the German market around company bike leasing and management. It’s amazing. And just think of the health increase of your employees, they will show up for work fresh and vital instead of stressed out and back-broken. The benefits of physical exercise before, during and after work have been proven too often to ignore this value add.
So Stop Excusing, Stop Making False Comparisons and Take Action
Of Course I know that a bicycle crash can end deadly. And I know that a train crash may happen every 5 years. For all those who would now start finding excuses why exactly taking a car is to be preferred for this and that reason, or for specific use cases ... that doesn't make it less wrong. Period. It's still unhealthy, it's still risky and it's still highly unproductive. Just be a bit smarter and your work life will become great at once. I had so many great times with colleagues on a train, and almost none in a car. Also, I got tons of stuff done on a train. And I never got anything done in a car.
Just make the effort, if you done it once - you will get used to it over time. And half a year later, you will laugh at those dudes showing up for a meeting totally worn out because they had been driving for the last four hours instead of relaxing on a train or bike like you. If your an employer, just get in touch with a bicycle leasing agency and check out what they have to offer - your employees located up to 30 kilo-meters around the office will love it. And if you're an employee and would love to get your work-bicycle and your BahnCard 100, just get in touch with fellow workers and approach your managers jointly. Make a business case, especially for the BahnCard option it's totally worth it.
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P.S: Just in case you argue that driving by car is more fun. So is watching a movie, having a beer or jerking off to ... dude, you're at WORK! It's not supposed to be "fun", at leat not in that selfish kind of way.
P.P.S: Yes, public transport is not always easy, but so are cars. And in case of a real delay after a long day at work you can still just hit the on-board restaurant and have a cool beer to ease the pain ;)
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