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Posted By Richard
Hi All,
My company has decided to purchase some bikes for the employess to use to get to work. I would like to know of any experiances anyone may have had with this topic, any recomendations people may have and any controls i will nedd to put in place.
Thanks to all.
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Posted By J Knight
Work equipment so PUWER will apply. Bikes do need regular servicing, especially with regard to cables, brakes and tyres. You should put some form of regular visual checks in place, and arrange for regular servicing by a competent person (no legal definition of competent here, so go for rule of thumb i.e. is it safe?). Lubrication is important, but less safety critical than other commonly neglected factors. Get tyre pressure checked and right; poor pressure will affect steering, braking and other safety critical factors as well as reducing tyre life. Don't forget less frequent but crucial areas such as the state of the headset - handlebars falling off while the vehicle is in motion can seriously damage your health! Oh, and lights for poor visibility and if you're on site get a good loud horn or bell.
Haynes do a Bike Manual which has instructions which could be followed by any reasonable fitter,
John
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Posted By Descarte
What about, lights, provision of safety helmets, high viz, do you have other vehicles on site, pedestians, bikes be fitted with bells (standard now I think?)
and training??!!??
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Posted By Richard
Thanks for the responses so far. My concern is that they will be using them on the public highway and should an accident happen we could be liable. How often should we service them? can we enforce that they were a cycle helmet? For hygeine reasons should they purchase there own? If they fail to were the PPE when using the bike could any action be taken?
Cheers all.
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Posted By Frank Cooper
....And don't forget a knowledge of the Highway Code! You may consider giving them all a copy.
Frank Cooper
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Posted By David Kimmins
Contact the Royal Mail, they have a lot of experience employing people to use bicycles.
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Posted By Jack
Suggest you contact the CTC:www.ctc.org.uk/
The case for helmets is not quite as straightforward as you might assume.
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Posted By Merv Newman
Forget bicycles. Go for tricycles. Lots of the chemical sites I know use company trikes. Tricycles are much more stable and have a virtually zero accident/fell off me bike rate. Boeing, who have factories 2 miles long, standardised on trikes 20 years ago.
And don't forget audits, inspections and preventative maintenance.
Merv
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Posted By Arran Linton - Smith
Richard,
For my MSc in environmental management, I did my dissertation on 'Cycling as a Means of Commuter and Urban Transport' and if you wish to contact me, I may be able to help.
As part of this dissertation, I interviewed some local authority cycling officers who also ran a fleet of bicycles.
Selecting and managing a fleet of bicycles is probably as complicated as running a fleet of company vehicles, however they are popular amongst their users.
The Highway Code should never be recommended for cycle cycle road use as it has very limited and controversial information on cycle safety. The guidance which is recommended by the National Cyclist Training Standard is 'Cyclecraft' by John Franklin.
Jack is right about helmets and advising you to contact the CTC
On most days I now cycle to work and it reduces my journey time by 10min each way. I also estimate that I shall save over £600 this year.
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Posted By J Knight
Nice one Arran! I keep intending to cycle to work (about an hour each way but no real hills) but it's so b****y cold.
Service intervals really depend on the bike, it's rather more difficult to be prescriptive than it is with a car. It depends on a large number of factors; where the bike is stored, the time of year, how far it is ridden, how well it is maintained between servicing, the quality of the components and so on. I would operate a rule of thumb, and take some advice from your local bike shop, or follow the manufacturer's instructions. Or try a heuristic approach, start with say six-monthly and see what comes back as issues from the service, and adjust the schedule accordingly.
You might also need to consider ensuring that the riders can do basic road-side maintenance and common fault correction; e.g changing a tyre, replacing a shed chain and so on,
John
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Posted By Arran Linton - Smith
John,
I cycled to work today, but with good gloves and a bandana under the helmet, you soon get warm.
The type of bike that you use for work can very much be a personal choice. I have converted an old steel frame mountain bike and equipped it with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres to reduce the risk of puncture occurring in the first place.
The benefit of an older bike is that you reduce the carbon footprint of that bike through extending its life.
Richard,
Have you thought about introducing an employee cycle allowance as an alternative to purchasing and managing the maintenance of a fleet of new bikes?
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