| dc.description.abstract | To contribute to a sustainable mobility system, the Dutch Ministry of Finance has adjusted the Dutch company bike policy measure. Starting January 1st 2020, the Ministry introduced a new policy allowing employers to place a bike at the disposal of the employee for only 7% addition on the salary of the employee by means of a lease construction. The functioning of this measure is evaluated by means of the OECD (2019) policy evaluation framework, which was adjusted with additional factors relevant for Product Service Systems (PSSs). In Product Service Systems the user has access over the product for a longer period of time, while the service provider stays the owner of the product and provides services. Leasing is considered an example of this. This leads to the following evaluation criteria: relevance, coherence, efficiency, effectiveness, and impact. Impact has influence on: durable design, consumption and cooperation.
The results of the 20 conducted interviews with various stakeholders and a literature study present a variegated picture of the functioning of the policy measure. In general, the adjustment of the policy measure is seen as an improvement for both the government as well as the employers and employees. It has received a lot of positive media attention, which has spread awareness, but also caused misinterpretations. The functioning of the measure depends on the financial contribution of the employer to the bicycle. Generally, the employer accounts for a large share of the costs and introduces a high administrative burden to many of the employers and employees. Additionally, the measure is only beneficial to specific groups of people. Currently, the target number of adopters of 150,000 set by societal organisations is not accomplished by far. Nevertheless, higher-level effects on stakeholders seem positive and hold potential for the future; the end-users handle their bikes well and cycle more for both private and work objectives and the stakeholders in the supply chain are more intensively connected to each other, leading to a more mature market. In order to extensively promote the company bike, an improvement of the VAT deduction and a reduced administrative burden is of primary importance.
Finally, the adjusted OECD framework used in this thesis can enable researchers as well as practitioners to evaluate the functioning of other policy measures focussed on a Product Service System. | en_US |
