But it is not easy to find the right bike. Whether it’s a cool retro bike, practical city bike, full-suspension mountain bike, super-light racing bike, high-performance e-bike, ultra-modern folding bike or practical cargo bike – it should be chic, hip, functional and affordable.

Easier said than found, because good bikes are often expensive: An average bike usually costs around 750 Euros, with mountain bikes, racing bikes and e-bikes you often end up with well over 1,000 to 2,500 Euros.

But fortunately there is a relatively new way to save the high investment costs for a new bike: Service bike leasing with JobRad. With this service, employees can conveniently choose their dream bike at one of 5,000 bicycle dealers (also online) and the employer leases the bike for a period of 36 months and leaves it to the employee for professional and private use. For the employee who receives the bicycle by salary conversion (= the monthly instalments are paid from the monthly gross salary), this means a monetary advantage for private use, which is only taxable at 0.25% of the EIA. This saves up to 40% compared to the classic purchase – and considerably more if the employer also subsidises the JobRad. There is also the option of leasing the bike as a salary supplement. Here, the employer pays the full leasing costs and the employee rides the bike tax-free. More than 20,000 employers in Germany currently offer JobRad and it is estimated that more than 400,000 leased company bikes are already on Germany’s roads.

We at Sympatex have also been relying on JobRad for more than a year now, offering employees the opportunity to lease bicycles and/or e-bikes for themselves or family members via JobRad. Our HR Manager Manja Maronek is enthusiastic about the project: “I was very pleased that our Managing Director Dr. Rüdiger Fox is also supporting the project in terms of sustainability and employee loyalty. With bike leasing, we also support the employees by taking over maintenance and insurance for the duration of the entire leasing contract. The JobRad offer was very well received by our employees and new users are constantly being added. I, too, have decided on an e-bike, which is simply a pleasure in the current weather”.

In addition to health benefits – cyclists are on average two days less ill each year, weigh four kilograms less and live longer – the bicycle is probably also the most sustainable and climate-friendly means of transport to get to work. Because if you use a bicycle – instead of four-wheel drive – you not only save an average of 513 kg CO2 per year for a one-way journey of 6 km to work, but also fuel costs of almost 1,000 euros.

We hope you now feel inspired to ride your bike more often. Whether for health, financial or time reasons, it doesn’t matter – the main thing is that you have fun. Have you perhaps already had experience with service bike leasing? Share your personal #jobradmoment with us in the comments!