EcoMove – Eco Friendly Traveling, i.e. Hire a Cycle
If you travel a lot (using public transport system), and spend whole lot of time on waiting period (say, for bus/train), you might as well want to take cycling as a viable option to cover short distances.
Mumbai based EcoMove is launching rental station network that allows you to hire and return a bicycle.
The project will be first implemented in Mumbai (perfect test bed) and will have 40 locations to start off.
Here is how the system will work:
The EMS system is based on the availability of rental bicycles at key locations. These bicycles will be secured to their bike stands. An EMS registered user can take the bicycle for his use from any of the rental station and can leave the bicycle in the same or any other rental station.
The target market is ofcourse, the office goers/college students/health freaks/short distance travelers; and of course people who want cheaper and faster way to travel.
What’s your opinion on Ecomove? Will you use a service like this?
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
I guess there are lot of people who would prefer to travel by cycle…what stops them from doing this is probably the traffic. Not sure how safe that will be. If the government could improve the sidewalks or have separate lanes..then more people will take this up
Awesome!
Its actually safer on a bike – I’ve been doing it for 6 months now.
Hope to see them expand to Blore soon as well…
This is a very good concept and would love to use this. However the success for this will depend on the traffic conditions as well as enough rental stations.
Nice idea.. but will rent of a cycle cover cost of shop rent?? actually I just gave a random thot over the business model and came up with these no.’s..
To simplify just take one location of 1000sq-ft, where you can keep about 100 cycles
Avg monthly rental price : Rs75/sq ft… comes to 75k per month for keeping 100 cycles… Rs750 per cycle per month..
adding maintainance cost.. and cost of cycle over time.. lets assume it would cost 1k per month per cylce..
Rs.33 daily.. assuming 50% of cycles busy for 12 hrs a day.. comes to about 5Rs/hr..
Rs. 5/hr is actually not bad.. anything i’m missing.. neglected salaries of employees for now.. that would actually be a good amount..
Advertising on these cycles to reduce cost.. any takers?
I think with better road systems for these cycles (maybe with a cycle lane) there should be many takers for this transport type over autos and buses.
If not on a everyday basis, we can always try to gradually try to take motor vehicles only when in a rush or in need.
Its a good idea… I had this idea earlier and discussed extensively, but utimately felt that it may not be commercially viable in the long run. one cannot make much profit unless it really catches up. the reason people dont use cycle today is not just because of lack of proper parking place, but more because of distances are huge to cover and speed at which you want to reach your destination.. not many people will take it up, unless there is total fuel shortage and no other mode of transport is available.
Actually, one can extend this concept to motor bikes/scootys. One can easily rent motor bikes/scootys in this model and should be able to make a decent profit . Only catch is to ensure that users are already registered with the company in some way and the company should have right to charge the credit card if bike/scooty is not returned (and ofcurse a tie up with insurance company to cover up for accidents/losses). For Cars, one requires bigger rental stations and hence costs could be high.
Where are these people supposed to ride the cycle? Amidst the traffic?
This is a clear copy idea from more advanced countries where the govt is involved in reducing the gas usage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_sharing_system. Where some of the govts have declared some roads only for bikers. This system works in those countries. India is not a good place for this kind of private venture. by now these guys must have known this the hard way. Can’t believe this came IIM alumni.