Multi-ride card or subscription? The Olympus app simplifies your choice

Post-COVID, employees no longer travel back and forth to work every day. In fact, they are often absent from the workplace because of working from home, part-time or satellite work. Many of them have also discovered the joy of cycling.

For these employees, a classic public transport subscription is not always the best solution anymore.

Let’s check which is the best option for you: a multi-ride card or a subscription?

Post-COVID, employees no longer travel back and forth to work every day. In fact, they are often absent from the workplace for several days because of working from home, part-time or satellite work. Many of them have also discovered the joy of cycling during the Coronavirus period.

For these employees, a classic public transport subscription is not always the best solution anymore. Let’s check the best option for you: a multi-ride card or a subscription?

We will already give you a hint. The Olympus Mobility solution often proves to be the best. It offers digital multi-ride cards from De Lijn, NMBS, MIVB and TEC, and always in a user-friendly way.

Read below how to purchase multi-ride cards through the Olympus app and when they are more advantageous than a subscription.

Telecommuting has become the norm

COVID-19 forced many companies to allow their employees to telecommute. It has shown that working from home is both possible and even efficient. Telecommuting is ‘the new normal’.

Employees who are allowed to work from home two or three days a week are much happier, simply because they will save time by not having to commute. And everyone knows that happy employees are more productive. A company only benefits from this.

This shift already offers opportunities to reconsider the high mobility cost of commuting. At present, companies often opt for a subscription formula. But is it always the most beneficial option? The choice between a multi-ride card or subscription is no longer automatically in the latter’s favour.

Employees who used to travel the same route five days a week benefited from a subscription formula. This also used to be the best choice for the employer in terms of costs. In post-Coronavirus times, however, multi-ride cards such as ten-ride cards can be a better option than a subscription, and optimise mobility costs.

Which is the most advantageous, a multi-ride card or a subscription?

1. Multi-ride card or subscription for employees who take De Lijn buses and trams in Flanders

A monthly subscription to De Lijn costs €49. By purchasing De Lijn m-cards in the Olympus app, you can save up to 44% in one month, provided that you do not have to travel to work three days a week. Telecommuting thus offers an optimisation of mobility costs.

It is important to note that it is not only working from home that can reduce the need to commute by public transport, but also working part-time, travelling by bike and satellite working.

Below are a few screenshots taken from purchasing an m-card in the Olympus app, which is intended for ten rides.

2. Multi-ride card or subscription for employees taking the MIVB metro, tram or bus in Brussels

At MIVB, a subscription is slightly more expensive compared to a multi-ride card than in comparison with De Lijn. The total savings can therefore be as much as 58%.

3. Multi-ride card or subscription for the train commuters?

A train pass is relatively cheap and almost always the best option. Especially if, as an employer, you make use of NMBS’s third-party payer scheme and fully cover the cost of the train pass. The government will then refund you 20% of the cost of the subscription.

Whether a multi-ride card is cheaper than a subscription depends on the commuting distance. In the case of three non-commuter days, a multi-ride ticket is only cheaper from a distance of more than 70 km.

One integrated mobility tool

Post-COVID, companies are confronted even more than before with the variability in the use of mobility by their employees.

• Each employee has his/her own mobility modes that differ individually.
• A cafeteria plan traditionally offers many choices.
• More and more employees opt for the legal mobility budget.

With the many options of the Olympus platform, you almost offer mobility tailored to their needs. At the same time, they get a simple tool to keep track of their rides. Our app automatically shows the most advantageous option.