Travel management, fleet management and commuting are becoming mobility management: companies are facing a completely new definition of mobility. And: employee mobility is becoming multimodal. Several new laws are now set to accelerate this change.
A tax reform that not only promotes sustainable mobility, but also creates an incentive to compete with company cars for the first time: In future, employers will be able to provide their employees with a so-called mobility budget in addition to their salary.
The special feature: up to €2,400 per year is to be tax-privileged and exempt from social security contributions. Employees could then use this budget as they wish for their preferred means of transportation to commute between home and the office or to be mobile in their free time. Rail, rental bikes and e-scooters are explicitly encouraged. Aircraft and private cars are excluded from the new regulation.
The aim is to make employee mobility as climate-friendly as possible - and above all multimodal. This means moving away from the “one-man-one-car model” and towards more on-demand solutions. This refers to offers from sharing service providers for cars, bicycles, cab services and public transport, which are already visible in many cities today and can be sensibly combined.
The mobility budget is one of the building blocks of corporate mobility management, a holistic concept for occupational mobility, which is made up of the areas of vehicle fleet, business travel and commuting. Areas that will need to be increasingly integrated in the future.
Because “car only” is a thing of the past. Business travelers want their employers to make it easier for them to use multimodal mobility. Commuting and business trips are increasingly merging, not least due to hybrid working. Travel managers and fleet managers are becoming mobility managers who are expected to facilitate and manage the variety of modes of transportation and seamless switching between them (intermodality).
HR managers will also be more challenged. After all, offers such as a mobility budget are part of a successful benefits strategy with which companies want to strengthen their employer branding and find the right talent. In addition to the shortage of skilled workers, they are primarily driven by employees' call for flexibility, new booking options via app and legal obligations regarding sustainability (keyword CSRD).
The prospect of a company car hardly ever attracts young people to a new job. They want to organize their own mobility, preferring to take the train or rent a car if necessary. According to a survey conducted by Mercer in 2020, 82% of employees want flexible benefits from their employers. According to the Circula Benefits Report, a mobility allowance was the top desired benefit for employees in 2023.
The HR department already often takes care of monthly public transport passes or, in the meantime, the Deutschlandticket. However, due to the challenges described above, it is important for companies to bundle all tasks related to mobility and thus combine the competencies of fleet management, travel management and the management of mobility benefits in the future.
Multimodal travel and the transport transition are set to receive a further boost with another law: the Mobility Data Act. In future, mobility providers such as public transport companies, Uber, Bolt and Tier are to publish data in real time free of charge via a national access point and make it easier to switch between different modes of transport. Among other things, it should help people to find public transport connections and means of transport such as car-sharing vehicles or e-scooters and buy tickets more quickly and easily - without having to use multiple apps or websites.
