For some years there have been calls for an improvement in the current travel allowance. The 2023 Mobility Study shows that we need to improve the limited travel allowance, in particular for public transport. An improved public transport allowance is in line with our mobility policy, which is aimed at travelling as sustainably as possible.

In addition, from 1 July 2024 we have to record our travel-related CO2 emissions. This involves looking at the number of kilometres travelled and the means of transport used. This applies to commuting travel, but also to domestic business trips. We are going to use Shuttel to meet the new legislation on sustainability by registering our actual commuting travel.

The new mobility policy will be introduced for one year. Next year we will evaluate whether any adjustment is needed to the amount of the allowance.

The amount of the allowance depends on the method of transport and the number of kilometres for commuting or domestic business trips.

Commuting by public transport

• Public transport costs are reimbursed in full (100%)
• The allowance only applies to second-class travel with a Shuttel card
• There is no reimbursement for: OV bicycles, reduced parking costs at NS stations and bicycle storage costs

Read the instructions from Shuttel on how to use your Shuttel card.

Commuting by bicycle/scooter/on foot

• The allowance is 7 cents per kilometre, from a distance of 10 kilometres
• A maximum of 45 kilometres (single journey) will be reimbursed
• The first 10 kilometres will not be reimbursed. This means that you will be reimbursed for a maximum of 35 kilometres

Read the instructions from Shuttel on how to register travel using your own transport.

Commuting by car/motorbike

• The allowance is 7 cents per kilometre, from a distance of 10 kilometres
• A maximum of 45 kilometres (single journey) will be reimbursed
• The first 10 kilometres will not be reimbursed. This means that you will be reimbursed for a maximum of 35 kilometres 
• You can apply for a parking subscription via the Service Portal. See Applying for or extending a parking subscription

Read the instructions from Shuttel for how to register your travel using your own transport.

If you want to make a business trip, you should first discuss this with your supervisor. In principle, you travel by second-class public transport unless this is for some reason not possible. If you travel by public transport, you should use the Shuttel card and indicate the trip as ‘business’. 

If you have permission to travel using your own car, the allowance is 23 cents per km. If you make a business trip using your own transport, you can enter the trip in Shuttel and classify it as ‘business’. When you enter an item in Shuttel, you will see a field for a project code. Here you can enter the SAP number to which the costs can be booked. The system will automatically check whether the SAP number you enter actually exists. Two weeks after going live on 1 November, the SAP numbers will only be available for this purpose. Until then, you can save your declarations or enter them in advance without a SAP number.

If you have permission to travel by taxi or by rental car, the costs will be reimbursed in full. You should record the kilometres of the rental car or taxi and claim these in the usual way in Self Service (via the FSSC).

There is no reimbursement for: tea/coffee and lunch. If you make an overnight stay, you will be reimbursed for your hotel, dinner and breakfast. You can claim these costs in the usual way in Self Service (via the FSSC). See also Allowance for business trips in the Netherlands.

Read the instructions from Shuttel for how to use your Shuttel card. For a domestic business trip using public transport, you check in using Shuttel. You should then register the trip as ‘business’.

Read the instructions from Shuttel for how to register business trips using your own transport as ‘business’.

No, it is not possible to claim travel and accommodation costs for travel outside the Netherlands via Shuttel. You have to do this via Self Service. If you make a business trip by train outside the Netherlands, you should use UniGlobe from the Dutch departure station. You have to book and finalise the trip through Uniglobe. Claims for international business trips are handled via the FSSC. See Reimbursement of expenses for business trips abroad.

The University has chosen to maintain the 10 kilometre threshold for reimbursement to be able to fund and encourage more sustainable travel. This threshold does not apply if you travel to work by public transport.

The laws and regulations on CO2 registration make it mandatory to record all commuting, even if it is less than 10 km. In addition, this registration is important in order to be able to make use of the tax exchange facility via the Individual Choices Model at a later date. You are also required to register your home-working days in Shuttel; you need to do this to receive the working from home and internet allowance.

Yes, you can. Every month you fill in your home-working days and travel days using the Shuttel app/website. You do not need the approval of your supervisor for your home-working days/travel, etc. However, this does remain a part of the conversation between you and your supervisor. If you do not register a home-working day, you will not receive the allowance. The same applies to the internet allowance.

Read the instructions from Shuttel on how to register your home-working days.

The allowance for working from home is 2 euros per home-working day and 25 euros net per month for internet use. To receive this you have to register in Shuttel each month. You can categorise several days at a time as home-working days. The internet allowance is automatically activated once you register one home-working day. If you do not register any home-working days, you will not receive any internet allowance. Your supervisor does not need to approve registration of your home-working days/business trips. Working from home and/or on location remains an issue for discussion between you.

Read the instructions from Shuttel on how to register your home-working days.

The University has opted in the first instance to focus on making our mobility policy more sustainable. The choice has been made to reimburse public transport in full (100%). You can use the tax exchange facility in the Individual Choices Model to receive the full tax reimbursement. An allowance of 23 cents per kilometre is applied for domestic business trips by car.

The first step at the moment is to reimburse travel by public transport in full. We hope in this way to offer many members of staff an improvement in terms of employment. In the evaluation, we will see where there is further room.

Payment is always one month after the trip or home-working day has been registered. You have until the last day of the next month to register your travel in Shuttel. The same applies for your home-working days. Once you have registered your trips, Shuttel will forward the information to the University at the end of the month. This will be processed within the University and you will see the allowance in your next salary.

If you want to check the travel expenses you have submitted versus the payment on your salary slip, in Shuttel, go to Transactions (under Finances) and create a download of all your transactions. Column AA shows whether they have already been reported to Shuttel, and in what time period. Keep in mind that Shuttel only reports the input the system has received. If you only enter your travel expenses for November in December, you will have to wait until January for payment.

Travel between University locations within the municipality of Leiden are not regarded as business travel and are not reimbursed. The same applies for travel between University locations in the municipality of The Hague. However, if during your working day you travel from Leiden University premises in Leiden to Leiden University premises in The Hague, or vice versa, this does count as a business trip and you will receive an allowance.

You can request an (additional) kilometre allowance for your travel days via the Individual Choices Model. You will not be reimbursed for the full travel costs, but using your gross income will give you a tax benefit. Your travel movements and travel days in Shuttel serve as the basis for the Individual Choices Model. The way you apply for this has not changed and is still via Self Service. However, the way this is calculated will change. It is based on your data in Shuttel. It is therefore important that you register your kilometres in Shuttel on a monthly basis.

See Kilometre allowance for how exactly this works.

If you enter a combination that is not technically possible, you will receive a notification. The system prioritises a home-working day over a commuting trip. If you prefer your commute to be reimbursed, you can delete your home-working day in Shuttel.

This is the same as a domestic business trip.

You only receive an allowance when you are working (at home or in the office). The allowance stops if you are not working due to sickness, or are on full special leave and also when you are on holiday. This is because in Shuttel you are reimbursed for your actual travel costs; if you do not enter any travel in the system, you will not receive any reimbursement for travel costs. If you visit the University doctor, you can register this travel in Shuttel, and you will be reimbursed for this trip.

In principle, your fixed place of work is Leiden and/or the Hague and you live and work in the Netherlands. If other arrangements have been made with you and you work outside the Netherlands, the University regulations for travel and home-working allowances and registering in Shuttel the number of travel days to the location also apply to you. This means that you should discuss with your supervisor the number of home-working days and the number of days that you work on location. Make sure that that your travel claims are in line with the agreements made with your supervisor about working from home in your country of residence. This is important because it to some extent determines where you are socially insured. If you have not received any advice on this from Global Mobility, contact your HR adviser.

NB: Stay alert to changes in your work and/or personal situation that are relevant to being allowed to work from abroad. Always discuss this with your supervisor.

If you have multiple contracts and want to make a business trip, you should in the first instance discuss this with your supervisor. If you travel by public transport, you can use the Shuttle card and classify the trip as 'business'. If you make the business trip using your own transportation, you can enter the trip in Shuttel and classify it as 'business'. You then enter the SAP number you want to use for this purpose.

If you are a student assistant or intern and have a weekly student OV chip card, you are not eligible for an allowance. This also applies to on-call workers (whether or not through JobMotion), freelancers, and contract (‘scholarship’) PhD candidates who do not have an employment contract. They are also not eligible for travel, home-working and internet reimbursement. Student assistants and interns who can be shown to incur commuting expenses do qualify for reimbursement. This must be demonstrated and documented at the start of their employment or before the start of the internship.

You can enter the relevant SAP number if you have to book your business trip against a particular budget.

If you are newly employed, you receive an email after joining the University asking you to register with Shuttel. Once you have registered, the Shuttel card will be sent to the address you have provided. You can claim the OV expenses you have incurred, after accessing Shuttel, via the ‘declaration’ button. Trips you made using your own transportation can you register retroactively once you have access to the app/My Shuttel environment.

Two weeks after going live on 1 November, the SAP numbers will only be available for this purpose. Until then, you can save your declarations or enter them in advance without a SAP number.

As well as the Shuttel app on your mobile, you can also register your travel and home-working days in the Mijn Shuttel environment on your laptop or desktop. To do this, log in to mijn.shuttel.nl. Wherever actions are mentioned in the app, you can also apply them in the online My Shuttel environment.

See the Shuttel website for more information about the app.

You can automate recurring trips. However, you do have to enter your travel movements/home-working days in the app/My Shuttel environment on a monthly basis. If you register your trips as 'recurring', this entire operation will take a maximum of 5 minutes per month. This way you ensure that you always receive the correct reimbursement. In addition, we ensure that we can fully comply with the mandatory CO2 registration.

Make sure you classify your Shuttle card trips in the app in good time. Classifying a trip means indicating what the purpose of the trip was: commuting or business. It is important that you do this no later than the last day of the next month after you made the trip. You will receive reminders if you haven't classified your travel yet. If you still haven't done this 10 weeks after the trip was made, we will assume it was a private trip.

The costs will be charged to you by means of a debit mandate.

Yes, but only domestic business trips. You have to classify all your OV trips yourself as commuting, business trip or private travel. For business trips, select the ‘business’ classification.

Standard commutes are automatically recognised by Shuttel and classified as commutes as soon as you check in with your Shuttel card. If you travel using your own transport, you can enter a recurring trip. Each month, you enter the days you made that trip and the days you worked from home.

At the moment, Shuttel sees each registered trip as separate single trips. This means that the system sets the 10 kilometre limit on every separate trip. To make sure that the limit of 10 kilometres is only deducted from your single trip once, you need to register your single trip from your home address to your work location and then select one means of transport. Choose the means of transport that you have used the most.

• What should you do if you use more than one means of transport and your journey is more than 10 kilometres? For example, you have to cycle 2 kilometres and then travel 10 kilometres by car. Register this as one trip and select the means of transport that you have used the most. In this example, you would choose the car. This will ensure you receive the correct allowance. 
• What should you do if you use more than one means of transport and your trip is less than 10 kilometres? Then, if you wish, you can register the different parts of the trip separately. As the total trip is less than 10 kilometres, there will be no allowance.

Shuttel processes your data, including location data, to enable the use of the Shuttel card and mobility services. This data, specifically the location data, is obtained from other mobility providers used by means of the Shuttel card. You can find more information about how personal data is processed in the Shuttel Privacy Statement.

Shuttel takes various measures to protect their clients’ data. They are, for example, certified for their security according to the ISO 27001 international standard, they store data encrypted and they test the system and the app at regular intervals for vulnerabilities.

You can register trips in the app retroactively up to one month back. You have do this on or before the last day of the subsequent month following your commuting travel or domestic business trip.

You can cancel every type of OV card or NS subscription that you have, and if you wish you can replace this with an NS Flex Basic card. This is a free subscription, which you can also use for such things as OV bikes and private trips (which are not reimbursed via Shuttel). Once you have activated your Shuttel account, you will automatically receive the Shuttel card.

We chose initially to offer a card to everyone because it can also be useful for employees who travel less frequently by public transport, for example a business trip. In February we will carry out an evaluation to find out to what extent everyone has used the Shuttel card and whether they want to keep it or not.

No, that isn’t necessary. You use the Shuttel card to check in using public transport; your journey is then automatically registered in Shuttel and you do not need to do anything else. You only need to indicate the first time in Shuttel that this is your regular commuting trip. After that, Shuttel automatically recognises this commuting trip as soon as you check into public transport. For a domestic business trip by public transport, you also use the Shuttel card and mark the trip as 'business' in the app.

You can make private trips using the Shuttel card, but these costs are at your own expense. It is also a requirement that you link your own bank account to your Shuttel card via the app/My Shuttel. When you make a private trip, you designate the trip afterwards as 'private'. The costs are then collected via your own bank account. Commuting and business trips are still charged directly to the University. Make sure you first give Shuttel the necessary debit mandate before making private trips with your card. If you have not given Shuttel a debit mandate, you cannot use the card privately.

Read on the Shuttel website how to authorise Shuttel for private travel.

No, that isn’t possible, but you can do this using the NS Flex Basic card.

You can find more information about the mobility policy and the relevant allowances on the following pages:

• Commuting travel
• Home-working allowance
• Allowance for internet costs
• Reimbursement of expenses for business trips in the Netherlands  
• Kilometre allowance in the Individual Choices Model

If you have any questions about registering your travel, you can contact Shuttel via the support website. You can also contact Shuttel by mail advies@shuttel.nl or phone: 033 – 3034600.