Thanks to its collaboration with Velco, RED-WILL makes its bikes connected. This 100% Made In France partnership improves the user experience and facilitates fleet management. RED-WILL is a French start-up founded in 2020 that offers long-term electric bike subscriptions in major French cities with full customer service included. The subscriptions are very flexible (cancellable at any time) and offer a premium experience to users.
The benefits of connectivity for cyclists
Through this cooperation, Velco is enhancing the experience of RED-WILL’s Connect 500 electric bike by equipping it with Nuotrax connected handlebars. The latter allows to collect data and to protect the bike against theft. Indeed, the connected handlebar integrates a tracker to geolocate the bike in real time. A complete anti-theft device is available with notification in case of suspicious movement, an audible alarm and the electric assistance is immediately cut.
The connected services are offered to cyclists via the RED-WILL branded mobile app, which is the white-label mobile application of the Velco suite (named “Velco Rider”), dedicated to brands and bike fleet managers. The data is provided by the handlebars and is transformed into services via the app. The cyclist can protect his bike against theft, is assured of the proper functioning through maintenance notifications and has information and statistics on his trips. RED-WILL offers the best possible experience by meeting the main needs of users: security, serenity and comfort.
We are very pleased to have integrated Velco technology into our CONNECT 500 RED-WILL bikes
Velco’s technology allows us to achieve a double benefit: we improve the user experience and we gain in operational efficiency.
User side: Thanks to the RED-WILL application, our subscribers benefit from VELCO’s high-performance connected services for greater peace of mind on a daily basis: – Notifications of suspicious movement, anti-theft sound alarm & remote engine blocking – Geolocation of their bike, monitoring of usage statistics (km travelled, duration, average speed, ….)
Operator side: We have a live visibility on our fleet of bikes. We can anticipate problems and react with targeted actions thanks to the data provided by the bikes.
Colombe Monnoyeur, Founder & CEO of RED-WILL
The benefits of connectivity for the fleet manager
Velco also provides RED-WILL with its fleet management application “Velco Fleet Management”. It provides anonymized data on users (nationality, age, gender…) and on usage (average distance traveled, speed, euros and CO2 saved) as well as preventive and curative maintenance data. This facilitates fleet management and also allows RED-WILL to optimize the maintenance of its vehicles by reducing costs and downtime.
Velco and RED-WILL are responding to the constant increase in demand for this type of mobility. Indeed, today in France, there are no less than 162 long-term bicycle rental services, representing approximately 75,000 bicycles, including 37,000 VAEs. This type of rental is therefore a real success, with an increase of 86% by 2021. However, in order for this rental method to continue its rise, it is necessary to deal with the risk of theft, which is a barrier for users.