Brussels workers increasingly opt for alternative to company car

Employees in Brussels are increasingly choosing alternatives to a company car, with 13.5% of them opting for a different mobility benefit compared to 3.7% in Flanders and 2.5% in Wallonia.

Employers in the Belgian capital are also more likely to offer better financial benefits in lieu of a company car, according to HR service providers SD Worx and Acerta, who combed through data on more than 37,000 employers and 1.1 million employees.

The Brussels "mobility budget" was introduced six years ago as an alternative to a company car and is still only offered by a small minority of employers, but has become increasingly popular in recent years. It allows employees to instead spend money on a public transport season ticket or buy themselves a bicycle or scooter to travel to work.

Nationally, one in 20 employees (5.2%) exchanged a company car for a mobility budget last year.

In Brussels, the alterative to a company car is particularly popular among workers in their 40s and 50s, according to the research.

“Often the children are out the door, some are making the move to a city centre flat, and a car is becoming less of a must,” Acerta explained.

“This all points to real potential for the mobility budget, but the fact that rates still remain low despite growth indicates that this potential is not yet fully exploited.”

Analysis further revealed that the average amount granted is €7,294.96.

The new federal government has announced its intention to reform the mobility budget so that employers will have to systematically offer it to employees entitled to a company car.