Veligo Location is the world’s largest fleet of electric bicycles for long-term rental. As part of a proactive regional policy to promote the use of bicycles for daily travel in the Paris region, more than 20,000 electric bicycles have been made available at the initiative of Île-de-France Mobilités. IDF Mobilités awarded the Public Service Delegation to the Fluow consortium, made up of La Poste, Transdev, Velogik and Cyclez, which manages the long-term bicycle fleet under the Veligo Location brand. Cycleurope is the manufacturer of the e-bikes and Velco is the connectivity provider.
In order to promote the development of cycling and increase its modal share, the long-term rental scheme for connected EABs offers to test an electrically-assisted bike on rental for 6 months before opting for a purchase (purchase of a VAE outside the Véligo Location scheme). Since its launch in 2019, Veligo Location has attracted more than 50,000 Parisians. A huge win for the fleet since, according to a satisfaction survey, 93% of users say they are satisfied with the service, while 52% of them have proceeded to purchase an electric bike 3 months after the end of the rental contract.
The connected fleet of electric bicycles: an asset to optimize management and performance
Velco, as a provider of connected solutions for electric bicycles, has responded to the needs of the Veligo Location’s fleet by connecting the e-bike fleet. Bicycle data use are collected anonymously and used to ease the management of the E-Bike fleet and optimize its maintenance and performance.
- geolocation data is used to detect stolen bikes
- data is used to know the level of use of the bicycles, to detect non-conforming uses (shopping and deliveries for example)
- bicycle condition data is used to supervise the fleet and to know and optimize the maintenance operations to be performed
- trip data is used to analyze bicycle trips in the Ile-de-France region for use by planners or for studies on bicycle use.
For the cyclist, the experience is extended with digital services on the geolocation of his bike and his trip statistics.
The Veligo Location bicycle fleet, a major project for Velco
A real technical challenge, the large-scale implementation of a connected bike’s fleet had to meet the industrial quality requirements of the project while overcoming the constraints related to the pandemic and the component crisis. The IoT product, which collects data and is integrated into bicycles of the Veligo rental fleet, had to be adapted to meet specific data integration and security requirements. The application service (software on the servers, interconnection with other information systems) also had to be redesigned to meet the needs of the project, which is unique.
For our teams, Veligo Location was one of the first large-scale projects. As a perfect response to Velco’s mission to “transform mobility for sustainable development“, we are proud to participate, with all the actors involved in this project, in this ambitious scheme and even more, in the bicycle development use in France. A feeling that can also be shared by all participants in the project, including Veligo Location subscribers!