[Closed] Cyclescheme being asshats

So they need to focus on higher margin businesses in order to get away with charging an even higher commission rate which the businesses involved will accept in return for bigger volumes through exclusivity?
Utter sh**bags.

Great news for halfords.

One of,  not one elf.  Obviously.

Sure is good for Halfords. They own Tredz who get a slice of Cyclescheme business, and Halfords now have indies over even more of a barrel to accept their ludicrous commission rates.

exactly. Halfords now sitting pretty on two main cycleschemes, they already get the lions share of nhs bikes through c2w.

im not up to speed on their independent charges? Somewhere between £50 and 10%?

i wonder how it will hit the traditional end of line discounters like Paul’s cycles

So the certifciate I just ordered to pick up a bike via Alpkit wont be able to be used? or is this a future change of policy?

<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">exactly. Halfords now sitting pretty on two main cycleschemes, they already get the lions share of nhs bikes through c2w.</span>

My local NHS scheme isn’t with Cyclescheme but rather Cyclesolutions who still seem to have a healthy number of local dealers.  I was feeling a bit frustrated that one I wanted wasn’t on so I was going to need to do minor legwork, this brings it into perspective.  Just cross fingers nothing similar happens at cyclesolutions before  the window opens next!

Argh. Quotes still broken. 🤯

m not up to speed on their independent charges? Somewhere between £50 and 10%?

Nope.15% :-/

I recently bought my bike through my company's cycle scheme. Evans was my only option 🙁

I'm reading this as Cyclescheme are going to 'promote' Evans etc. but will leave the local bike shops to try and grab a share of the market as best they are able. Or am I reading this wrong?

I've had a look at the Cyclescheme website and the only reference to using one of the big retailers is in the "No Quibble" promotion because these dealers will allow the purchase of 'sale' items without the cash top up that the smaller stores have to administer to make anything on the transaction.

I think that’s basically it.

We, as riders, may like the idea of combining interest free credit and a small reduction in our tax to come out a bit ‘up’ on a purchase even if the scheme has annoying quirks.

Shops, obviously, need to make some money on the sale and possibly end up needing to spend more time with some c2w customers who  maybe have less idea what they want.

Cyclescheme seem to have built a business in the middle that assumes the shop margin is bigger than it is or that maybe the shop want to run the scheme as a loss leader for some unfathomable reason.

From a rider point of view this isn’t a positive.  Cyclescheme are likely to survive, but more because most people are stuck with who their employer is willing to work with than any other reason.

not one elf

now, finally, there’s a slogan I can stand behind.

not one elf! not one elf!

A pain in the arse for lots of us (I was looking on the Cotic website for a reference to C2W today), but probably not a pain in the anything for people seeking to by a suitable bike for commuting to work on.

@simondbarnes 15%???? That's ludicrous! I presume LBS get enough of a discount from bike suppliers/manufacturers to make it worthwhile?

" @simondbarnes 15%???? That’s ludicrous! I presume LBS get enough of a discount from bike suppliers/manufacturers to make it worthwhile? "

🤣

^^^^ then why bother?

Does Cyclescheme have a monopoly on C2W- I don't know about C2W but I was under the impression that there is more than one administrator of the scheme, or is that wrong?

Cyclescheme don't have a monopoly, they're just one of a bunch of "middleman" outfits that take a generous slice of the bike price for making it easier for companies to take advantage of the tax break. Of course, them taking a cut means that many shops will only offer it on undiscounted bikes, wiping out much of the potential benefit.

There is no "scheme": there's just a tax break says that's OK to lend or rent bikes to your employees, and it's not considered to be a taxable benefit.

In reality, it's actually pretty easy to do it all in-house and get a much better deal: Employee finds a bike they like (from anywhere capable of producing a VAT invoice - no RRP restrictions). Company buys the bike. Company deducts price less 12% divided by 12 from pre-tax pay for each of the next 12 months. Three years from the date of purchase, the company can sell the bike to the employee for 12% of the original price (this bit can't be deducted from pre-tax pay).

Done like this, the company still comes out ahead because it's saving employers NI on the salary deductions, so the company could actually charge you less each month and still break even. If the company really want to support cycling, there's nothing to stop it charging employees even less than that.

If you're prepared to do a little bit of admin work, and have a co-operative payroll department, you can get a much better deal than if you go via a middleman.