@daniel 100%
Apart from the fact that it's extremely rare to find an advertised "public transport ticket included".
But then again: I've looked this up in my former job and found that RMV (the Rhine-Main transport body) only offers what they call "JobTicket" for companies of a certain minimum size. What's that supposed to mean in supposed small-business Germany?
I.e. it's not *just* the companies. It's transport agencies, law makers (afaik the tax implications comparing company car and public transport ticket can differ vastly!), and last but not least applicants not requesting it. I know, that 59 yo Manager is not going to ask for public transport. But that fact that I seem to have been the only one in a company of thirty (1st time) and a group of ~20 (2nd time) to ask for that, makes me speechless.
Situation in Germany, particularly Hesse
@daniel And just to nerd out a little more: As mentioned above there is red tape for private SMEs, as with RMV they have to have a certain size to be eligible.
Then there is the State (Land), or since the late 1990s universities' student bodies who take their sheer size and negotiate and get stuff like: ticket included for everybody, in case of the State after 19h on a weekday and on weekends you can take your whole family.
But on the other hand, just a few kilometres apart, you have a federal research centre who does not give a shit bothering with a gazillion of transport bodies and does not offer anything.
Creates the odd situation that in my family we're both working in public service. My wife's got the State's ticket and can take me on weekends. I work in a majority State-owned but organisationally federal research centre and get nothing. Having worked in a SME before who simply wasn't eligible even if they wanted.
So, it's really where the legislation for a certain thing is put. (Situation in DE again):
* Company car -> Federal level (easy peasy and homogenous throughout the country)
* Public transport ticket -> State level at best but even small states usually have more than one transport body which makes it hell to negotiate conditions, small companies may be excluded per se.
Just imagine if the public transport sector had as big a lobby as the car sector. 🤔
