Company cars, commuter compensation and mobility behavior: The effects of tax policy regarding company cars and commuter compensation on the mobility behavior of household heads and their partners

Introduction - The Dutch government wants to comply with European and global climate goals. One facet of this is reducing negative effects of car use by encouraging the use of cars that are more environmentally friendly, reducing car mileage, and increasing the use of more sustainable transport modes. Dutch policies make purchasing an environmentally friendly car more attractive, but they do not reduce the actual mileage. Therefore, these policies do not achieve the desired results of meeting the government’s environmental goals and reducing the negative effects of car usage. Company car policy - Company cars, on average, are newer and are more often equipped with diesel engines but they are also larger which makes the fuel efficiency worse than the efficiency of private cars. The use of company cars has developed from being a status symbol for board members and necessary for employees who have to travel frequently for work, to a common practice in the configuration of the salary package and are used as an incentive to attract talented people in specialized functions. The cost of a company car to the employee is fully compensated by the company regardless of his/her mileage, which could increase the private use of company cars. Employees only pay fiscal addition, which is a set amount each month. Therefore, people with a company car are insensitive to the marginal costs of car usage. With current policy, when people drive less than 500 km. privately, they do not have to pay fiscal addition. There are 260,000 people that use this option. New policy cuts this exemption and applies fiscal addition to all company cars. Commuter compensation policy - In case no company car is provided, commuter compensation can be provided by companies to cover an employee’s travel expenses to and from his/her work place. In the Netherlands, this benefit is exempt from tax up to 19 cents/km. Newly proposed policy suggests this compensation be no longer exempt from tax so that it will be added to the employee’s taxable income. Knowledge gaps - This research will focus on the following: comparing Dutch company car and commuter compensation policy to that of other countries (1); analyzing the effects of company cars and commuter compensation on mobility behavior (2); analyzing the effects of the mobility behavior of a household head on that of his/her partner and the other way around (3); analyzing the effects of company cars on the use of other modalities and substitution effects between those modalities (4); and analyzing what type of trips are affected by having a company car (5). Research overview - Based on literature research, the current and newly proposed Dutch policy regarding company cars and commuter compensation are compared to those of other countries. An overview of wanted and unwanted effects is presented per country, and best practices are selected. Furthermore, a conceptual model is constructed to form the theoretical basis to explain the findings from the explorative analyses. The analyses are done with multiple regression and structural equation modeling. We look at the effects of company cars and commuter compensation on mobility behavior in general, and on car usage in specific. This information is obtained by analyzing three datasets: one from the Netherlands in 1989, one from Germany in 2009, and one from the Netherlands in 2010. We look at people on a personal level, at the effects of men’s mobility behavior on that of women and the other way around, and finally at substitution effects between different modes of transport. Sub conclusion: policy comparison - The policy comparison indicates that both the current Dutch company car policy as the newly proposed company car policy incentivize people to purchase cleaner cars. The newly proposed policy affects all people, whereas current policy gives a break to people that stay below the threshold of 500 kilometers private usage of the company car. However, the marginal costs are still not paid by the company car users which remains a problem. This still means that people’s mobility behavior will not change dramatically. However, the negative effects of company car usage can be reduced because people are incentivized to take a cleaner car as company car. Combined with the taxation of commuter compensation, which should reduce the commuting mileage, the newly proposed Dutch policy seems to be more in line with the Dutch government’s goals of reducing emissions. By focusing the tax of commuter compensation on cars, the use of other modes can be stimulated. Sub conclusion: effects of having company cars on mobility behavior - The conclusion that can be drawn from analyzing all three datasets is that having a company car is related to more mobility. In the Dutch 1989 data we find that men with a company car make about 58% more car trips, and women with a company car about 44% more. If we look at generic data, which only has people with a job and a driver’s license in it, we find that having a company car is related to 70% more car trips. In addition, for this latter group, having a company car is related to 156% more commuting trips. In Germany we do not see a significant effect on the number of total trips, nor in the number of car trips if someone has a company car. We do, however, see more total travel time and total travel distance, as well as travel time by car and travel distance by car. Perhaps people in Germany use the company car to make longer trips. This could mean that people in Germany that have to travel further to work, or drive more for their work, get a company car. Most effects of company cars changed mobility behavior over a longer period of time prior to 2008. The Dutch data from 2010 also shows that having a company car is related to 26% more car trips and 45% more total travel time. Sub conclusion: effects of receiving commuter compensation on mobility behavior - When we look at the effects of commuter compensation in the generic Dutch data from 1989, we see that receiving compensation is related to 25% more commuting trips and 16% more car trips. A higher compensation amount is even related to 0.3% more car trips per extra euro of compensation. However, when we look at the household split data, we find that men receiving commuter compensation is related to 14% fewer total trips, and 83% fewer commuting trips for men. In addition, men receiving compensation is related to women making almost 5% fewer total trips per week. Sub conclusion: effects between men’s and women’s mobility behavior - The results from the Dutch 1989 data show that there were no significant effects from women’s mobility behavior on men’s mobility behavior. We do see that each trip that men make is related to women making 1.5% more trips. This was expected because men and women might make trips together. It is interesting that the effect does not appear the other way around. The German dataset, however, shows that there appears to be an enhanced effect between men and women regarding their generic mobility behavior. Each trip made by men is related to women making 1.1% more trips. Each trip made by women is related to men making 1.5% more trips. The German data shows that there is competition between men and women for car usage. Sub conclusion: other effects on mobility behavior - The most important other results are that the number of cars in a household and the education level have a positive correlation with mobility behavior. People with a higher education level are likely to have a higher income and thus more cars. These effects can probably be influenced by increasing car and/or road taxes because then every car becomes more expensive. Sub conclusion: substitution effects between modalities - If we look at Dutch and German results for substitution effects between different modalities, we find that company cars in The Netherlands are related to a higher number of car trips and a lower number of trips by all other modalities other than walking. In Germany there are no significant effects of having a company car. This confirms our expectations that a company car makes it less appealing to take other modes of transport than the car in The Netherlands. It is interesting to see that this same effect is not found in Germany. The fact that walking trips are not affected by having a company car makes sense, because sometimes taking the car for short distances is irrational. For both countries, we see that all other modalities form a substitution for car trips, and the other way around. The number of car trips increases is negatively correlated to the number of trips by all other modes. Furthermore, the number of train trips is negatively correlated to the number of car trips in both data sets, and that the Dutch 2010 data shows that bicycle trips are also a substitute for train trips. The number of bicycle trips has a negative correlation to the number of car and bus trips in both data sets. However, the Dutch 2010 data also show that train trips are a substitute for bicycle trips. Perhaps the bicycle is a suitable alternative for the train in The Netherlands, but not so much in Germany. Finally, car trips are the only substitute for walking. Sub conclusion: purpose of trips - Having a company car is positively related to the number of trips for work, and the number of transport-related trips. Having a company car is related to a lower number of shopping trips. Policy implications - The fact that proposals are being written to reduce the negative effects of cars is a good thing. In The Netherlands, current and newly proposed company car policies stimulate buying cleaner cars, but they need to incorporate an incentive for the user to reduce car mileage. A personal contribution to the marginal costs seems like a good way to do this. This makes company car users more aware of the costs and it is a financial incentive for them to reduce their mileage. The commuter compensation taxation should reduce mobility behavior. However, the tax is planned to also be levied on public transport modalities. By focusing the tax on cars, car mileage can be reduced because people would have a financial incentive to travel with other modes of transport. Making it less attractive to own multiple cars is also something that could reduce mileage. This can be done by increasing the road and/or car taxes but also in a new way like taxing second cars more than first cars, as is done with houses. The fact that the new policy is dismissed in the fall of 2012 is hopefully but a bump in the road for the way to a more sustainable future of road transport.SEPAMTransport & LogisticsTechnology, Policy and Managemen