What mobility budget providers are there on the market? A comparison of mobility budget platforms vs. expense and benefits platforms

More and more companies are interested in introducing a mobility budget for their employees in order to give them more flexibility in their personal mobility in times of hybrid working models and thus to assert themselves as a modern employer in the war of talent against other companies with a sustainable benefit. The providers of such flexible mobility solutions have also discovered the increased interest. More providers are entering the market and promise to take the administrative burden off companies and offer them a simple solution. We have compared the different providers.

Content

  1. Mobility Budget Platforms vs. Expense and Benefits Platforms
  2. Invoice scan and reimbursement vs. integrated app vs. virtual prepaid cards
  3. The most important mobility budget providers in comparison
  4. What is the mobility budget?
  5. The advantages of a mobility budget for companies and employees
  6. How does the mobility budget work?
  7. Payment and billing method
    1. Invoice scanning / refunds
    2. Booking via mobility budget app / Integrated
    3. Prepaid card / card solution
  8. Choice of possible mobility options
  9. Taxation of the mobility budget
    1. How is the mobility budget taxed?
    2. This is how the individual means of transport are taxed
  10. How do I choose the right mobility budget platform?
  11. Which companies already offer a mobility budget?

In the past, employers usually offered a company car or a job ticket if they wanted to support their employees in their professional or private mobility. However, digitalisation, hybrid work modes and a greater awareness of sustainability are changing the requirements and needs of employees. In people's everyday urban lives, more and more mobility options have also been added to the streets, such as bicycle leasing or car sharing.

If companies would like to take these diverse possibilities into account in their company employee benefits, this usually only goes hand in hand with greater effort. How can companies overcome this challenge? The answer: The best way is with a mobility budget that can bundle the multitude of offers.

Mobility budget solution providers promise to relieve companies of the administrative burden of company employee benefits and mobility offers and to simplify the associated processes. With the growing interest of companies in mobility budgets, the number of providers on the market is also increasing. They try to convince companies with different solutions. As a company, it is easy to lose track. 

We provide clarity and have compared the different solutions and providers so that companies can make the right decisions for their team with enough information.

Mobility Budget Platforms vs. Expense and Benefits Platforms

Good to know: There are providers who specialise in mobility budget solutions and providers who offer the mobility budget as part of their expense or benefits platform.

Anbieter Mobilitätsbudget-Plattform Mobilitätsbudget als Teil der Expense- oder Benefits-Plattform
NAVIT SAP Concur
MOBIKO LOFINO
FREE NOW for Business Probonio
belmoto Circula
Bonvoyo SPENDIT

The ultimate overview of all mobility budget providers and their features

Provider NAVIT MOBIKO Bonvoyo FREE NOW belmoto SAP Concur Probonio LOFINO SPENDIT Circula
Billing Method Prepaid Card Receipt Capture / Reimbursement Integrated App & Receipt Capture Integrated App Prepaid Card Receipt Capture / Reimbursement Receipt Capture / Reimbursement Receipt Capture / Reimbursement Prepaid Card Receipt Capture / Reimbursement
Public Transport Tickets
Bike Rentals
E-Scooters
Car Sharing
Ride Hailing
Bicycle Subscription
Job Tickets
Germany Ticket - Job Ticket
Public Transport Refunds
Bicycle Leasing
Fueling & Charging
Car Subscriptions
Direct Access in the App Germany Ticket, Bike Leasing, Car Subscription - Regional and Long-Distance Travel, Call-a-Bike, Flinkster, sixt share, Moia, MILES, TIER Taxi, Car Sharing, E-Bike, E-Scooter, Moped, Germany Ticket - - Bike Leasing Bike Leasing Germany Ticket -
Budget Rollover to the Next Month
Usage Worldwide Worldwide Germany App: Europe-wide / Card: Worldwide Worldwide Worldwide Germany Germany Public Transport: Germany / Mobility Providers: Worldwide Worldwide
Payroll Integration (e.g. DATEV) / HR (e.g. Personio) ✅ / ✅ ✅ / ✅ ✅ / ❓ ✅ / ✅ ❓ / ❓ ✅ / ✅ ✅ / ✅ ✅ / ✅ ✅ / ❓ ✅ / ✅
Business Travel
CO2 Reporting / CO2 Compensation ✅ / ✅ ✅ / ✅ ✅ / ❌ ✅ / ✅ ❌ / ❌ ❌ / ❌ ❌ / ❌ ❌ / ❌ ✅ / ✅ ❌ / ❌
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What is the mobility budget?

The mobility budget is a monthly financial allowance for employees that they can use flexibly for various mobility services. The employer can define a range of mobility offers within which employees can combine and design their mobility as they wish. In this way, a mobility budget can be ideally aligned with individual needs.

Read more: the mobility budget explained

The advantages of a mobility budget for companies and employees

With a powerful mobility budget platform, companies can

  • Save time and money,
  • increase their productivity,
  • strengthen the position as an employer in recruiting,
  • Increase employee satisfaction and retention.

The advantages for companies and employees at a glance


For employers:

  1. Attractiveness: With the mobility budget as an employee benefit, companies can strengthen the attractiveness of their employer brand due to its advantages for employees and thus attract employees faster and retain them better. With the new EU directive on sustainability reporting, the mobility budget should also have a positive impact on the company's image.
  2. Low administrative effort: The administrative effort for the mobility budget is rather low compared to the provision of company cars or job tickets.
  3. Flexibility: In relation to fleet management, the mobility budget results in greater flexibility with regard to medium-term investments, as there is no need to conclude leasing contracts for company cars and thus it is possible to respond more quickly to changing framework conditions. Many providers also offer flexible car subscriptions.
  4. Sustainability: As the employer decides on the choice of mobility forms covered by the mobility budget, the employer can consciously exclude environmentally harmful options (e.g. refuelling, rental cars) and thus contribute to environmentally conscious employee mobility. The tax advantages of certain sustainable forms of mobility (see below) have a further leverage effect for sustainable employee mobility.

For employees:

  1. Flexibility: Mobility in cities is increasing and with digitalisation more employees want to be able to work flexibly and from anywhere. This requires flexible mobility offers. Instead of committing to one means of transport (e.g. company car, job ticket), the mobility budget can be used to choose the appropriate means of transport depending on the situation and individual needs.
  2. Sustainability: By offering alternatives to company or private cars, employees can be encouraged to choose more environmentally friendly means of transport and thus contribute to more sustainable mobility. Sustainable forms of mobility, such as public transport or cycling, are tax-privileged, which further supports the mobility shift.
  3. Ease of use: Mobility budget providers simplify the processes of travel cost management and accounting. This makes the everyday life of employees much easier.

How does the mobility budget work?

The design of the mobility budget offers a wide range of options that are defined between employer and employees. The implementation in the company is facilitated by specialised providers who can deliver tailor-made solutions. To make the right choice for your company, it is important to consider the following components of the mobility budget:

  • How much is a mobility budget?
  • Form of payment and settlement
  • Choice of mobility options

How much mobility budget do employees get?

Basically, employers can determine this themselves, depending on the possible financial framework of the company and how much they are willing to spend on their employees. Normally, the mobility budget is paid out to employees on a monthly basis.

The limit of 50 euros is interesting from a tax point of view, within which a mobility budget can be given to employees tax-free as a benefit in kind. Amounts above this are taxed at a flat rate of 30%.

Learn more about the mobility budget and taxes.

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Payment and billing method

The way in which employees can pay with the mobility budget and how it is settled depends very much on the choice of platform and provider. Basically, there are three solutions:

Invoice scan & reimbursement

Employees submit their privately paid expenses for mobility within the framework of the mobility budget in the form of invoices or tickets either to the employer or directly in a mobility budget app of a provider. Employees scan their receipts and tickets via the provider's app. The mobility expenses incurred are reimbursed to the employee in the following month via the salary statement. Mobility budget app providers try to automate this process as much as possible and optimise it for companies.

Which providers offer the mobility budget via invoice scanning & reimbursements?
Mobiko, Bonvoyo, SAP Concur, Probonio, LOFINO, Circula

Booking via mobility budget app / Integrated

The booking and payment of the individual mobility services with the mobility budget is done via the provider's own mobility budget app in which the mobility services are integrated. This requires a partnership between mobility providers and the app operator in which the mobility services and its payment systems are integrated into the app.

Which providers offer the mobility budget via an integrated mobility budget app?
NAVIT, FREE NOW for Business, Bonvoyo

(Virtual) Prepaid card

Employees receive a virtual prepaid card on which the mobility budget is credited every month. Employees can use this card, for example, for public transport tickets, sharing vehicles or refuelling or charging their company or private car by paying with the card in the mobility provider's app. Some providers also offer integrated mobility services in their app, such as the Deutschlandticket or bicycle leasing.

Which providers offer the mobility budget via a prepaid card solution?
NAVIT, belmoto, SPENDIT, FREE NOW for Business

The tax treatment of the individual accounting methods must be taken into account. This influences not least the practical implementation of the mobility budget in the company and answers the question of which accounting method the company will ultimately choose. You can find out what you need to know about the taxation of the mobility budget at the end of the article or in this overview.

Choice of possible mobility options

In principle, a mobility budget allows the use of all types of mobility. The employer can determine which forms of mobility are to be promoted and covered by the budget.

This gives the mobility budget a strong leverage effect with regard to sustainable mobility. If only sustainable options, such as public transport, cycling, shared or electric mobility, are promoted, the likelihood that they will be used preferentially increases. In practice, the offer of the individual mobility budget platform providers also influences the choice of available forms of mobility. With some providers, the mobility budget can be used worldwide.

These forms of mobility are available:

  1. Public transport
  2. Bicycle
  3. Shared Mobility
  4. Electromobility
  5. Car
  6. Refuelling & Charging

Taxation of the mobility budget

How is the mobility budget taxed?

The mobility budget can be paid to employees as a benefit in kind (Sachbezug) in addition to their salary. The tax-free limit is currently 50 euros in 2023.

For companies, a "benefits in kind taxation scheme" means a significantly lower overall taxation. For employees, too, taking advantage of a benefit in kind has a tax advantage over a salary payment. 

This is how the individual transport modes are taxed

  • Journeys by public transport are tax-free: the travel costs of environmentally friendly means of transport, such as bus and train, are subsidised by the state. This is not only cheaper than a company car, but is also intended to encourage employees to make climate-friendly journeys to work. This is how the accounting of public transport tickets works, like the job ticket.
  • Company bicycles can be leased tax-free or tax-privileged: Find out how this works in this article on bike leasing.
  • Credit used for car sharing or ridehailing service providers is tax-free up to an amount of 50 euros per month: Beyond that, these benefits in kind are settled with 30% flat-rate wage tax (plus social security contributions, etc.).

Read this comprehensive explainer about mobility budget taxation and find out how to choose the right tax scheme for your mobility budget.

How do I choose the right mobility budget platform?

The selection of the right mobility budget tool always starts with the question of what the tool actually has to be able to do and map.

  • What mobility does your company want to map and support?
  • Is the mobility budget software used exclusively for private and business mobility or should business trips also be accounted for with it?
  • Which tax, accounting and data protection requirements should the software fulfil?
  • Should mobility budget software support employee retention and recruiting?
  • Is it about reducing the company's carbon footprint in a targeted way or rather about cost reduction and time saving? Or in the best case both?

These are just a few of the many questions that need to be answered on the way to an optimal corporate mobility strategy and the choice of a suitable mobility budget platform.

Every company has its own mobility strategy and needs a solution that is tailored to it. The mobility budget platform must provide answers to the different customer challenges of the company, fit into the existing IT infrastructure, be easy to set up and operate, and have the desired depth of functionality.

Not every mobility budget provider meets the necessary requirements. And not every provider is suitable for every mobility strategy for a very simple reason: almost every provider pursues its own product strategy, to which the further development of modules and functionalities is specifically geared.

The number of providers of mobility budget solutions has increased enormously in recent years. No wonder, in times of climate crisis and rising energy prices, more and more employees want sustainable and cost-effective mobility alternatives to company cars. In addition, since the COVID 19 pandemic and the establishment of hybrid or remote working models, the demand for flexible mobility offers and digital solutions is booming. And the momentum will continue.

For HR and benefits managers, this means: if you have a choice, you are spoilt for choice. NAVIT is the right partner here. We accompany your company on the way to an optimal mobility strategy and advise you on the selection of the appropriate mobility budget platform.

Which companies already offer a mobility budget?

As one of the first large German companies, SAP has been offering its employees a mobility budget as an alternative to a company car since 1 April 2023. With around 17,000 vehicles, the software company has the largest company car fleet in Germany. A mobility budget appeals especially to young employees who are not interested in a company car. Many other DAX companies want to follow the trend and rely on a mobility budget

There are also some good reasons for start-ups to rely on flexible mobility solutions. Many have already made the switch and are now saving time and money in the long term. This is how these start-ups have mastered the switch to a mobility budget.

Learn more about the NAVIT Mobility Budget Platform

Want to know more about the mobility budget and our solutions? Book a call with our mobility experts and receive a free assessment of your company's employee mobility.
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Stefan Wendering
Stefan is a freelance author and editor at NAVIT. Previously, he worked for startups and in the mobility sphere. He is an expert in urban and sustainable mobility, employee benefits, and New Work. In addition to creating blog content, he also produces marketing materials, taglines, and website content, as well as case studies.
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