Travel by public transport helps you cut business costs
- Background
- Edited 3 April 2026
- 2 min
- Managing and growing
- Sustainability
Do you want to save money while at the same time reducing your company’s carbon emissions? Then have your employees take the train or the bike to work, instead of driving their car. An allowance for commuting by public transport will cost you between 40% and 70% less than a lease plan or car allowance. And you can reduce your company’s carbon emissions by up to 35%.
If you choose public transport, then you are also well prepared for the future. Fuel prices are high and more and more cities are establishing environmental and low-emission zones for polluting vehicles. Let your staff travel by public transport and benefit from 4 advantages.
1. Saving costs
The (in Dutch), published by organisations Anders Reizen and Natuur & Milieu, states that you save a lot with a second-class public transport (openbaar vervoer, OV) card.
Average costs per means of transport:
- Public transport: 14 cents per kilometre,
- Private cars: 23 cents per kilometre
- Lease cars:49 cents per kilometre.
If you reimburse car use, in addition to these costs you often have to take into account parking costs at your business location.
2. Less paperwork
Switching to public transport will also save you time on administration. If you reimburse private or lease car use, you may only pay a fixed travel if your employees travel to work at least 60% of their working days. If your employees do not achieve this, you may only reimburse the actual kilometres travelled. You then have to keep your own records for claimed kilometres and additional items such as parking costs.
If you switch to public transport, you will have less administration. The transport company will keep track of this for you and send you an invoice once a month. Also, you do not need to deduct payroll taxes if you reimburse the cost of a public transport pass (season ticket or off-peak pass) for your employee.
3. Less traffic-related stress for your staff
Travelling by public transport avoids traffic stress and parking problems. And your staff can also make good use of their journey time – for example, by working on their laptop during the journey.
A journey by public transport does take longer on average than by car. However, motorists greatly travel time by public transport. They think that a 1-hour car journey takes twice as long by public transport. Whereas, on average, a journey that takes 60 minutes by car takes 90 minutes by public transport.
4. You reduce your carbon emissions
The Netherlands wants to be climate neutral by 2050. This means companies must reduce their CO2 emissions. If you opt for public transport compensation, you reduce your CO2 by as much as 20% to 30% compared to car use. Public transport is much less environmentally damaging than cars. A train journey costs two grams of CO2 per kilometre per passenger, but the biggest Dutch rail network, the NS, runs entirely on green electricity. As a result, its net CO2 emissions are zero. For a private car, 195 grams of CO2 is emitted per kilometre per passenger.
COVER subsidy: make your travel sustainable
Are you taking steps to reduce CO2 emissions from commuting and business travel? The SME Collective Travel Behaviour Sustainability Subsidy Scheme, COVER (in Dutch) can help. The scheme is intended for entrepreneurial, industry, or business park associations. So you cannot apply for the COVER subsidy on your own. With the subsidy, you will receive up to 75% on the cost of your project or activity up to a maximum of €100,000. In 2026, the scheme closes on 1 October.
