From the 1930s onwards, bicycle manufacturer Gazelle gave away comic books featuring the character Piet Pelle when purchasing a Gazelle children's bicycle. That's why everyone in the Netherlands knows Piet Pelle. Now almost a century later, Gazelle approached us to continue Piet Pelle's adventures digitally. In our animated series, old Piet Pelle is now a grandfather and has a grandson named Piet Pelle Junior. Piet Junior looks almost exactly like his grandfather used to.
In the first episode of the series we introduced 'The New Bicycle Plan' which offers employers the opportunity to make cycling to work more attractive for employees. Within this plan the employer may provide an interest-free loan for the purchase of an (electric) bicycle. This loan can then be repaid with the 19 cents per kilometer reimbursement. In the animation Piet Junior explains exactly how this works. The new Piet Pelle campaign, of which these animations are part, has contributed to a huge revolution in 2 years. The number of measured bicycle rides by employees in the Netherlands increased enormously. Employees now travel almost twice as many kilometers per bicycle journey as the average Dutch person: 9.1 kilometers compared to 4.9 kilometers. In 2023, for example, the municipality of Zwolle achieved a total of 3.8 million kilometers driven, spread over 405,000 bicycle trips. This has resulted in a CO2 saving of 561,943 kg. In this way, employers contribute to a cleaner environment and also directly benefit from less absenteeism due to illness. So win-win!