FAQ for companies

Amber provides an easy way for you to future-proof your employee transportation, while eliminating your greenhouse gas emissions and saving money. We give you the tools to become an even better employer in the eyes of your employees, by providing them with a mobility solution that is easy, flexible, and fun to use.

Cost Reduction – Amber can reduce your lease car fleet size by up to 75%, as well as do away with other indirect costs associated with things like maintenance, paperwork, and personnel costs.

Convenience – One simple monthly invoice, a comprehensive and easy-to-use fleet manager dashboard, and no hassle. Outsource the dirty work to us!

Sustainability – Zero greenhouse gas emissions. Period.

Fun – Offering your employees a luxury electric car on-demand is a great way to boost your image. Employees at our current client companies describe the whole service as being “exciting” and “engaging”.

Whereas gasoline- and diesel-powered cars emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide, methane, and other great stuff, Amber’s BMW i3’s emit zero greenhouse gases. We also use green energy to charge the cars (e.g. wind energy), and our current BMW i3’s are also 95% recyclable.

Amber costs 12 euro per hour to use. Between 7AM and 7PM, the hourly rate applies from the time the car leaves the “hub” area until the time it is returned. Between 7PM and 7AM, this rate is only calculated based on the amount of time the car is in active use (i.e. the amount of time that the ignition is active and the motor is running).

Between 7PM and 7AM users can drive Amber at the same hourly rate as during the daytime (12 euro/hour), but this rate is only applied for the time they actually drive the car (i.e. the amount of time that the ignition is active and the motor is running). In other words, users don’t have to pay for the time the car is standing still, even if they have a running reservation on the car.

The 12 euro/hour price is all-inclusive, meaning you don’t have to pay for electricity or extra kilometers. Each car comes with its own charging card that employees can use at charging stations.

As a company, you sign a contract with us agreeing to cover or reimburse the costs your employees incur for using Amber for business-related trips. You can choose one of two options: You can either pay directly for the time your employees drive Amber (i.e. we send you one simple invoice at the end of the month), or you can choose to reimburse your employees for their transportation costs with Amber. With either option, there’s no paperwork for you. We give you access to your individual company dashboard, where you can easily view invoices, see how much each employee has driven per month, and track your company’s sustainability growth.

The answer is: Very little. As soon as you decide to get Amber at your company, all you have to do is decide which payment option you want to pursue (you have the option to either pay us directly or have your employees pay us directly, while you reimburse them). We handle the rest.

After you’ve signed on as a client, our marketing department works together with yours to streamline the communication with your employees (and gain as much positive media exposure for you as possible). Through our Amber Ambassador Program, we not only ensure the easy adoption of our service by your employees; we work to turn them into ambassadors for sustainable innovation within the company.

There are multiple car sharing services in the Netherlands including Car2Go, GreenWheels, SammSamm, and We Drive Solar. However, none of these services are able to provide their users with a guarantee that a car will be available for them when they need it. The fact that we’re developing the world’s first self-driving cars for commercial use also makes us stand out from the crowd. Amber is also the only business-to-business car sharing service that proactively works with you as a company to implement the service and bring about a change of mindset among your employees.

Pool cars are just that: Cars designated for communal use. They’re usually seen as an “add-on” to existing employee transportation, instead of a replacement. They’re often diesel or gasoline-powered cars that emit an average of 4.7 metric tons of CO2 per year.

With pool cars, private use is also usually only permitted if it’s “incidental to a business journey” (for example, taking the car home with you the evening before an early client meeting). With Amber, employees can use the car after business hours and in the weekend for private use if they wish.

We don’t just set cars in a parking lot and hope they’ll be used, like in the “pool car system”. We manage both the interface with the employees and the backend to make sure that users are able and motivated to use the cars as much as possible.

With pool cars, employees also never know if a car will be available for them at any given time, and often the reservation system looks like it was designed in the Stone Age. Physical keys? So last century. Amber guarantees that a car will always be available for your employees when they need it.

Yes, we can manage them for you! Assuming they’re not nasty diesels, we can incorporate them into our current platform by installing an operating system in the cars that will allow us to track the cars and communicate with them via Bluetooth. For more information, contact sales@amber.team.

We enable you to be able to provide better transportation options for your employees. The end result is that employees rely less and less on lease cars, and you’ll be able to gradually phase out your fleet. In the future, we hope to offer a green transportation package (Amber + public transportation + shared bikes) that will completely replace an employee’s need for a personal or lease car. We’re also able to provide advice on how best to optimize your employee transportation options for the future.

Of course – we can do a 6-month “pilot”, with no strings attached. During this time, we set up a hub at your company location (if you’re not located within walking distance of an existing hub), and get in contact with your employees to get them involved, through our Amber Ambassador program.

Send an email to sales@amber.team with your questions and we’ll be in touch!

Efficiency, efficiency. You’ll need much less space for cars on your premises, and be able to cut down on congestion issues. Instead of building that second parking garage, you can use the space for something more valuable. For some perspective, in Eindhoven, we were able to reduce ABN AMRO’s lease car fleet size by 75%.

If your company isn’t located next to an existing Amber hub, we’ll need to create a new hub with designated parking spots and charging stations. We work together with you on this – just contact us for a meeting to discuss the possibilities at sales@amber.team.

We provide an easy way for you to future-proof your employee transportation, while eliminating your greenhouse gas emissions and saving money. We give you the tools to become an even better employer in the eyes of your employees, by providing them with a mobility solution that is easy, flexible, and fun to use.

Amber is easy, flexible, and fun to use for your employees.

Easy – No more searching for a parking space, and no more administrative hassle such as kilometer declarations. Your employees can get immediate access to a car via the Amber app.

Convenient – Thanks to our artificial intelligence-powered software, Amber can guarantee that a car will always be available for your employees when they need it. It’s also flexible for them - there’s no need to return the car to the same hub, which gives them the freedom to use a different transportation method for the return trip.

Fun – Showing up at an appointment in an electric BMW with an acceleration speed of 0 to 100 in 7 seconds isn’t exactly the worst way to start your day as an employee. Add in perks like autonomous parking and adaptive cruise control and it’s easy to see why our users love it.

Any employee can drive Amber. However, the most suited users are employees who travel to external appointments (with clients, for example). Employees with kilometer allowances often match this profile.

If you’d like our help in deciding which location(s) or employees to include, we can offer a few options:

1. Learning by doing: We station a couple of cars at your office(s) and we’ll let everyone use the cars for a couple of months, paying for their own usage. This way, we’ll find out who uses the cars the most often.

2. Transportation habits data: Amber can also gather data through Amber Analytics. We equip employees’ cars with GPS trackers to see what kinds of trips are made and when. With this data, we can determine identify ideal Amber drivers, as well as provide you with valuable advice for how to optimize and save money.

3. In-house data analysis: We can take your existing data on rental cars, declarations, lease car drivers, and transportation costs, and provide you with a report identifying ideal Amber drivers and offering advice on how to optimize.

Yes, although we can’t guarantee that there will be a car available for an employee for private use, especially outside of working hours. As Amber’s network of hubs grows, however, the availability of cars will also increase.

This depends on whether or not your company is located near an already-existing Amber hub or not. If you’re located near a hub (the High Tech Campus, for example), a single employee can join. In order to start a new hub at or near your company location, the minimum number of participating employees is.

Through our Amber Ambassador Program, we not only ensure the easy adoption of our service by your employees; we work to turn them into ambassadors for sustainable innovation within the company. We regularly maintain contact with them, providing opportunities for feedback about Amber and any transportation or mobility issues they might run into.

There’s no additional tax liability for you with Amber. In other words, you don’t have to pay any additional taxes on the service.

If you choose to install your own charging stations, you can deduct a part of the investment from your fiscal revenue, through the MIA and the Vamil (Milieu-investeringsaftrek and Willekeurige afschrijving milieu investeringen). For more information please visit http://www.rvo.nl/subsidies-regelingen/mia-en-vamil.

No more dealing with insurances, and long and inflexible contract periods!

Our software uses encryption, so that we can’t trace any personal information. Every employee in our system is associated with a randomly generated user tag, but not even our software team knows which tag is associated with each employee. However, if a user violates the service terms and conditions, we’re required by Dutch law to access to the database containing personal information about the user in question.

The cars are all-risk insured (WA + volledig casco) with a €200 deductible per damage incident.

If you join an existing hub, the service is cancelable on a monthly basis. If you’re not located near an existing hub, we’ll create a new hub for you, and you’ll have a minimum contract period of 6 months. In both cases, you’ll only ever pay for your employees’ actual usage.

Of course – you’re not signing a contract with Athlon – you’re signing one with us.

Sure, drive ahead! Our insurance covers the cars when they’re outside of the Netherlands in Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg, and France. However, keep in mind that the electric charging network in other countries is currently not as fully developed as in the Netherlands.