A friend sent me this. I haven’t really heard about this scheme before and wonder if anyone here knows more. I see the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch councils are involved but not the DCC yet.
I don’t think it matters for those in Dunedin if DCC is a partner (unless you work for DCC). We have both a Torpedo 7 and an Evo Bikes.
Rather, it is if your employer has signed up or not that is the key thing. It isn’t clear which employers have as yet.
Hopefully Te Whatu Ora has / will 
- @mjenks do you know?
Very much the same as the UK’s Cycle to Work scheme, which we used several times. Some employers had the scheme linked to specific large bike retailers (who presumably made all the paperwork easy - one we had to use had the scheme integrated into their online store)… which rather penalised the local bike shops to whom we would have preferred to give the business.
The other thing that wasn’t obvious but was useful, was that the scheme worked for bike accessories - we were able to buy panniers, racks, bike seats, bike clothing, lighting etc. Hopefully the same is true for NZ.
Have a read here for more info. Ebikes are now exempt from the fringe benefit tax and thats why these kind of schemes now work. Don’t think this applies to bike accessories.
Infor about the fringe benefit tax exemption for ebikes;
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Kia ora koutou, it is rather complicated unfortunately, late last year i contacted the sustainability lead at Te Whatu Ora about this. They were awaiting an IRD examination of the workride scheme which I understant has ruled it is compliant for tax purposes. The stumbling block for Te Whatu Ora is it may not be compliant with the public finance act (public bodies lending money) and a ruling is pending on this. I think they are waiting for some other public sector organisations to have a crack and see the outcome before going ahead (you really do need the salary sacrifice to make it work as the upfront cost of a bike is the big hurdle). In the meantime councils and private sector organisations should be encouraged to implement in their workplace. Nathan, i have asked Richard Whitney at Mercy hospital to look in to setting up. Ngaa mihi, Matt
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A local update/story about this:
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