Kota is now offering Cycle to Work with DASH

DASH is coming to Kota

I'm writing this article on Cycle to Work Day, and we're marking it with some news: DASH is coming to Kota.

Over the coming months, we'll be making DASH available to Kota customers, bringing a genuinely modern Cycle to Work experience to the platform. We're excited about this one. Cycle to Work is a benefit almost every employer already offers, and one that, done well, delivers far more than most people expect. The trouble is that it's rarely done well.

That gap, between what a benefit could be and what employees actually experience, is exactly what Kota exists to close. So it feels like the right moment to look at why Cycle to Work has quietly become one of the most underused benefits around, and what changes when you get the experience right.

Plenty of appetite, improving uptake

More people are cycling than ever. Across the UK, cycling journeys are rising, and in cities most of all: TfL's latest data puts cycling in London at around 1.5 million journeys a day. Yet within the average organisation, only 2-3% of employees use the Cycle to Work benefit sitting in their package.

The appetite is clearly there. So the problem isn't the benefit. It's the experience of using it, for employees and HR teams alike.

The Cycle to Work experience hasn't kept up

Employees can already access their insurance, financial and flexible benefits through Kota’s app. They can see exactly what they're covered for, manage their pension and check their insurance cover in seconds - without needing to ask HR. Then when they try to use their Cycle to Work benefit, it feels like stepping back in time.

Most schemes still run on vouchers. An employee applies, waits for approval, and then finds they can only spend with certain retailers, sometimes only at set points in the year. By the time the voucher arrives, the bike they wanted is out of stock, so they give up. Meanwhile, HR teams lose weeks to paperwork and chasing updates on vouchers that still haven't turned up.

It's no wonder uptake can be low, and leaders come to see Cycle to Work as a nice-to-have rather than a benefit that earns its place. But the benefit itself is sound. It's the way it's delivered that falls down. And when the experience gets in the way, so does the value the scheme can create.

Introducing DASH on Kota

That's why we're bringing DASH to the Kota platform.

Over the coming months, DASH will become available to all Kota customers, giving employers a modern Cycle to Work solution that strips out the friction traditional schemes are known for. It's the kind of benefit Kota was built to deliver: modern, simple, and genuinely used.

For employees, the experience is fast, flexible and intuitive. There are no vouchers and no retailer restrictions. They can choose from thousands of bikes and accessories across any brand, decide how they want to take part (buy outright, subscribe to an e-bike by the month, or hop on bike-share from £6 a month), and check out in a few taps.

For HR teams, it stays just as simple. DASH can be offered and managed alongside the rest of your benefits in Kota, so it's easy to promote, easy to administer, and pulls its weight as part of your wider benefits strategy rather than becoming another thing to manage on the side.

And it works. Employers who move to DASH typically see engagement climb to between three and seven times what their previous provider delivered, and as much as ten times in the strongest cases.

Why Cycle to Work Matters in 2026 according to DASH

Cycle to Work isn't just about bikes. The potential is much bigger. But this only gets realised when your scheme provider is effective enough to drive high uptake.

Cost efficiency at a time when margins matter. The cost of employing people has never been higher. National minimum wage rises. Pension contributions. Insurance premiums. Everything is climbing. Cycle to Work can generate employer NIC savings of around 15% on salary sacrificed amounts. You can keep those savings to offset rising employment costs, reinvest them into the rest of your benefits, or pass them on to employees to help with rising living costs. And that saving is about to matter more. Following the latest Autumn Budget, pension salary sacrifice NIC relief will be capped at £2,000 a year from April 2029, but Cycle to Work is untouched. 

Sustainability with real impact. Commuting is often a large share of an organisation's Scope 3 emissions. Research from the University of Oxford found that swapping a single daily car trip for the bike can cut an individual's transport-related carbon footprint by around half a tonne of CO₂ a year, roughly the same as a one-way economy flight between London and New York.

Healthier, more present teams. Active commuting is linked to lower sickness absence, with research suggesting a reduction of 8-12%, according to a 2024 study. With UK employees now averaging 9.4 sick days a year, that works out at around one extra productive day per person each year. Active commuters also report better mental wellbeing and focus, and as health cover costs climb, keeping people well in the first place is fast becoming a commercial priority.

The compounding effect. None of these benefits exist in isolation. Better health supports productivity. Lower emissions strengthen ESG reporting. Employer NIC savings help fund broader benefits. When uptake improves, the value of the scheme grows well beyond the bike itself.

Turning one ride into a habit

Cycle to Work Day works on a simple bet: get someone to ride once, and they're far more likely to ride again. Your scheme is what turns that one day of motivation into a lasting habit. If the enthusiasm is met with voucher delays, retailer restrictions and unnecessary admin, the momentum is gone before the habit forms.

Get the experience right so employees actually use it, and the scheme starts delivering on everything it promised: employer NIC savings to reinvest, lower Scope 3 emissions, and happier, healthier employees. So this Cycle to Work Day, it's worth asking whether you're getting everything your scheme has to offer.

Coming soon to Kota

DASH will be one of the Cycle to Work providers available to Kota customers in the coming months, bringing a faster, more flexible Cycle to Work experience for employees and a simpler way for HR teams to offer and manage the benefit through Kota.

If you'd like to learn more about the product or be among the first to offer DASH through Kota, we'd love to hear from you.

What is Kota?

Kota is the employee benefits platform and broker for People teams at growing companies. One place to run every benefit, a qualified team handling your renewals, and an app that shows employees exactly what they're covered for, helping them appreciate the full value of their benefits.