5km – 30 minutes – 3 bucks and a healthy me! Thank you Zoomcar! (Pedl)
I’m sure most of you’ll would have seen these blue and green cycles all around Bangalore now. Last Sunday, I decided to shake off some of those lethargic bugs and try ‘em out.
Overall experience: Tiring :P
On a serious note, I do see this working as a very strong last mile resort in a metropolitan city, supported by the city infrastructure and climate.
The Good:
+ Smooth onboarding – You can get started in under 5 minutes.
+ Easy payment – Direct deduction from your Paytm account. No cash payment for now.
+ Affordable. Rather pretty cheap. At 3 bucks a km it’s definitely going to be a must-use for those short distance use cases/ fun 30 mins break.
+ Health benefit & Fun!
The could-be-better:
– Tiring: Not sure if it would be a viable option >3km for most members. With the basic model, can’t ask for comfort at that price!
– Limited points of access. (will increase with time I hope)
– Painful off-boarding: Got stuck for 12 minutes, not sure whether it was the internet or a technical issue – I was at the drop off point but wasn’t able to lock the bike.
– Maintenance: While heading back, I could see availability on the Pedl map but a lot of these were “under-maintenance” – something that should have been indicated.
At 3 bucks for 30 mins, I’m not sure how this might be sustainable factoring in the various depreciation and operating costs. Some maths and metrics behind whether this might be viable model for the future (credits – Aviral)
“Connectivity for bikes is poor in India, with roads largely lacking the infrastructure for bikes while China/US have largely upgraded their infrastructure for bikes. In terms of cost, while usage maybe cheap, the upfront deposit that is to be paid in India is higher due to the fear of theft, as an insurance. Culturally, bikes were discarded by Indians as cars are status symbols (and more comfortable), it is going to a definite change to get people cycling on the road. As a tropical climate, versus SF/Shangai’s moderately temperate climate, heat and rain can make cycling a task (no wonder Bangalore and Pune are the two best options!).
In terms of monetization and payback, which remain a question, most bike sharing services are charging ~15 INR per hour. (Rs. 6/- in my case) With reasonably priced cycles at ~4,500 INR, it will take 300 hours before just a cycle’s cost is recovered. Assuming 30 minutes a trip, it could take 600 trips before recovery, and with 2–3 rides a day – more than a year. For a 2 year lifetime (I don’t think it’d last that long, most bikes were already “under maintainance”), daily depreciation works out to 4500/720 ~ INR 6, so the depreciation per ride could work out to 2 INR. Depreciation being the only “direct cost” to service, gross margin per ride could be 80% (10 – 2 = 8 INR gross margin). With customer acquisition costs in India between 200–300, customer payback is 200/8 (CAC/GM) or 13 rides. These indicate a fairly high usage need for things to work out.”
All of these suggest the path to profitability for bike sharing in India is one word: scale. Whether we can overcome the hurdles to get there remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, good experience and I’m definitely going to use this more often.
PS: No affiliates, no sponsorships, views in this article are solely mine. :)
