Sustainable Mobility Allowance for Companies: The Complete 2026 Guide

Every day, nearly 18 million French workers drive to work. Commuting represents a significant share of corporate CO₂ emissions and an often-invisible expense for employees. In response, the Sustainable Mobility Allowance (Forfait Mobilité Durable, or FMD) has emerged as a concrete lever to transform commuting habits, reduce organizations’ carbon footprint, and strengthen employer attractiveness.

Established by the 2019 Mobility Orientation Act (loi LOM), the FMD allows employers to cover employees’ commuting costs when they use alternative transport modes: cycling, carpooling, electric scooters, public transit, and more. The scheme offers social contribution exemptions of up to €900 per employee per year.

Despite its fiscal and social advantages, the FMD remains under-deployed. Many companies hesitate to implement it due to a lack of understanding of the regulatory framework, practical modalities, or suitable tools. This guide addresses all these questions. Whether you are an HR Director, Office Manager, CFO, or CSR Manager, you will find everything you need to understand, deploy, and manage the Sustainable Mobility Allowance in your organization in 2026.

What Is the Sustainable Mobility Allowance?

Definition and legal framework

The Sustainable Mobility Allowance (FMD) is an optional scheme created by the Mobility Orientation Act (loi LOM) of December 24, 2019, effective since May 10, 2020. It allows employers to cover all or part of their employees’ commuting costs when they use transport modes considered sustainable. Unlike the mandatory 50% reimbursement of public transit subscriptions, the FMD is a voluntary employer initiative. The amount is exempt from social contributions for the company and from income tax for the employee, within the limits of applicable thresholds.

Who is concerned?

The FMD applies to all private-sector employees regardless of contract type: permanent, fixed-term, temporary, work-study, apprentices, and interns. Only civic service volunteers are excluded. In the public sector, the FMD is mandatory for state and hospital civil servants, and subject to deliberation in local government. The amount is capped at €300 per year, conditional on at least 30 days of sustainable transport use. For private companies with more than 50 employees, the FMD must be discussed during mandatory annual negotiations (NAO), even though implementation is not required.

FMD, IKV, fuel allowance: what are the differences?

The FMD replaced the former Bicycle Kilometric Allowance (IKV) and the carpooling flat-rate allowance in May 2020. Unlike the IKV, the FMD no longer requires proof of kilometers traveled: it is a flat-rate amount paid to the employee. The fuel allowance covers fuel costs for employees using their personal vehicle (combustion or electric) and can be combined with the FMD up to a total exemption cap of €600. The FMD’s advantage lies in its flexibility: it covers a wide range of sustainable transport modes and its amount is entirely at the employer’s discretion, within the legal framework.

Which Transport Modes Are Eligible for the Sustainable Mobility Allowance?

Complete list of eligible transport modes

The FMD covers a wide range of alternative transport modes. Eligible options include: personal or rented bicycles (mechanical or electric-assisted), carpooling (as driver or passenger), personal motorized or non-motorized mobility devices (electric scooters, hoverboards, unicycles, skateboards), car-sharing with low-emission vehicles (electric, hydrogen), and public transit tickets (excluding subscriptions). This diversity allows each employee to find a solution suited to their commute, geography, and habits.

Edge cases and non-eligible transport

Certain transport modes remain excluded from the FMD: solo use of personal vehicles (combustion or electric), taxis, ride-hailing services, trains (except non-subscription tickets in the private sector), and walking. Public transit subscriptions (like Paris’s Navigo pass) fall under the mandatory 50% employer reimbursement, not the FMD, although both schemes can be combined. It is important to clearly distinguish these categories to avoid declaration errors and ensure compliance during URSSAF audits.

The multimodality challenge for companies

In practice, many employees combine several transport modes on a single commute: bicycle then metro, carpooling then tram, scooter then bus. This multimodality is fully covered by the FMD, but it complicates declaration management. Without a suitable tool, tracking each segment, calculating distances, and ensuring data reliability becomes difficult. This is precisely where solutions like BeeMyFlex add value, natively managing multimodal trips and linking each declaration to actual office presence.

Exemption Thresholds and Combining the FMD with Public Transit

FMD-only threshold: €600 per year per employee

When the FMD is paid alone, without combination with other mobility schemes, the exemption threshold is set at €600 per year per employee. This amount is exempt from social contributions for the employer and income tax for the employee. Beyond this threshold, amounts paid are reintegrated into the contribution base. The employer freely sets the allowance amount, as long as equal treatment among eligible employees is respected.

FMD + public transit subscription: the €900 threshold

Since September 2022, the FMD can be combined with the mandatory reimbursement of public transit subscriptions (Navigo, regional train passes, etc.). In this case, the overall exemption threshold rises to €900 per year per employee. Concrete example: an employee has a Navigo subscription at €86.40/month, reimbursed at 50% by the employer, totaling €518.40/year. The company can then add up to €381.60 in FMD to reach the €900 cap, all tax-exempt. This combination is a powerful advantage for multimodal commuters.

Payroll processing and URSSAF obligations

The FMD is paid on a specific line of the payslip, separate from transit reimbursement. The employer must ensure supporting documents are collected: employee self-certification, purchase or rental receipts, or a dematerialized mobility voucher. In the event of a URSSAF audit, missing documentation can trigger a reassessment. BeeMyFlex simplifies this management by automatically generating pre-filled payroll exports, with each declaration linked to an actual day of office presence.

How to Implement the Sustainable Mobility Allowance in Your Company

Step 1 — Mobility assessment and Employer Mobility Plan

Before deploying the FMD, it is essential to assess your employees’ commuting habits. What transport modes do they use? What distances do they travel? What barriers do they identify? This assessment can be part of the Employer Mobility Plan (PdME), mandatory for companies with more than 50 employees at a single site. It allows you to tailor the FMD to real-world conditions and define an amount consistent with actual usage.

Step 2 — NAO, company agreement, or unilateral decision

The FMD can be implemented in three ways: through a collective agreement negotiated during NAO, through a company or sector agreement, or through a unilateral employer decision after consulting the CSE. A collective agreement is recommended as it strengthens employee buy-in and provides a more robust legal framework. However, a unilateral decision remains a quick option for companies wanting to act without waiting for negotiation cycles.

Step 3 — Internal communication and employee engagement

A well-designed FMD that is poorly communicated will not be adopted. Internal communication is a key success factor: explain the benefits (purchasing power, health, environment), detail eligible transport modes, simplify the declaration process, and recognize early adopters. Companies that succeed in FMD deployment are those that make it a collective project, driven by HR, managers, and leadership.

Step 4 — Choose a tool to digitize the process

Manual FMD management—paper forms, Excel spreadsheets, emails—generates errors, delays, and a significant administrative burden for HR teams. Digitizing the process with a suitable tool automates declarations, ensures data reliability, and generates payroll exports in a few clicks. This is the subject of the next section.

Which Software to Manage the Sustainable Mobility Allowance?

Why digitize FMD management?

Managing the FMD manually means accepting a time-consuming process, prone to errors, and difficult to control. Paper or email declarations do not allow verification of consistency between declared trips and actual presence days. HR teams spend disproportionate time collecting, verifying, and consolidating data for payroll. A dedicated software eliminates this friction: it automates collection, ensures data reliability, and simplifies reporting. Digitizing FMD management is not a luxury—it is a necessity as soon as the company exceeds a few dozen employees.

Key criteria for choosing an FMD software

Several criteria should guide the choice of an FMD management tool. Ease of use for employees is paramount: if the declaration process is too complex, adoption will be low. Integration with existing tools (HRIS, payroll, Microsoft Teams) is also decisive. The ability to handle multimodality (multiple transport modes per trip) and to provide data for CSR reporting are key differentiators. Finally, declaration reliability—the ability to automatically verify data consistency—is an often-overlooked but essential criterion for URSSAF compliance.

The BeeMyFlex approach: automatic trip ↔ office presence link

BeeMyFlex stands out from traditional mobility voucher solutions through a unique mechanism: each FMD trip declaration is automatically linked to a desk booking. An employee can only declare a commute for days when they actually booked an office workspace. This approach eliminates fictitious declarations, removes the need for manual HR verification, and produces reliable data for payroll and CO₂ reporting. Employees configure their trip profiles once (including multimodal trips and different return routes), then submit their monthly declaration with a single click.

Sustainable Mobility Allowance and Carbon Footprint: What’s the Link?

Commuting in scope 3 emissions

Employee commuting constitutes a significant component of scope 3 (category 7: employee commuting) in a company’s carbon footprint. For service companies, where productive activity generates relatively low emissions, commuting can represent up to 30% of the total carbon footprint. The FMD, by encouraging employees to adopt low-carbon transport modes, directly impacts this emission category. Estimates suggest that switching from a combustion vehicle to cycling on a daily 15 km round trip saves approximately 650 kg of CO₂e per year.

Measuring CO₂ impact through FMD data

One of the FMD’s often-underestimated benefits is the production of structured commuting data. When employees declare their trips through a digital tool, the company gains valuable information: transport modes used, distances traveled, commuting frequency. This data, cross-referenced with ADEME emission factors, enables calculation of the actual carbon footprint of commuting. BeeMyFlex natively integrates CO₂ dashboards, providing real-time visibility on emissions by site, transport mode, and period.

From FMD to CSR reporting: leveraging the data

This data is not only useful for internal management. It directly feeds CSR reports, regulatory carbon assessments (BEGES), and certification processes (ISO 14001, B Corp, EcoVadis). For companies subject to the CSRD directive, having reliable employee mobility data is becoming mandatory. The FMD, coupled with a suitable tracking tool, thus transforms an HR initiative into a strategic sustainability lever.

FAQ — Sustainable Mobility Allowance for Companies

Is the Sustainable Mobility Allowance mandatory?

No, the FMD is optional in the private sector. However, companies with more than 50 employees at a single site must address mobility during mandatory annual negotiations (NAO). In the state and hospital civil service, it is mandatory.

Can part-time employees benefit from the FMD?

Yes. The FMD applies to all eligible employees, including part-time workers. An employer who implements the FMD must extend it to all employees meeting the same conditions, in accordance with equal treatment principles.

How does the employee justify FMD use?

The employee must provide their employer with a payment receipt (bike rental invoice, car-sharing subscription, etc.) or a self-certification indicating the transport modes used. With a tool like BeeMyFlex, this justification is built into the declaration process.

Does the FMD apply to interns and apprentices?

Yes, interns and apprentices are eligible for the FMD under the same conditions as other employees. Only civic service volunteers are excluded.

What is the risk in case of a URSSAF audit?

If supporting documents are missing or amounts exceed exemption thresholds, URSSAF can reassess social contributions. It is therefore essential to retain certificates and use a management tool that traces each declaration.

The Sustainable Mobility Allowance is not just a tax scheme: it is a strategic lever connecting HR policy, CSR commitment, and financial performance. By encouraging your employees to adopt sustainable transport modes, you reduce your carbon footprint, strengthen your employer brand, and offer a tangible, tax-exempt benefit.

FMD success rests on three pillars: a well-understood regulatory framework, effective internal communication, and a digital tool that simplifies the process for both employees and HR. BeeMyFlex brings these three dimensions together in a single platform, with an unprecedented reliability mechanism—the automatic link between each declared trip and a desk booking.