A Pakistani transportation company, Roamer has launched the country’s first ‘EzBike’ self-drive electric bike rental service, announced at an event in Islamabad last week. For now, the service has been launched in few areas of Islamabad and will be expanded to other parts of the country slowly. The startup said without sharing a timeline of when it plans to launch it in other cities of the country.
EzBike allows users through its app to find a bike in their surrounding area and book it. The user can move towards the bike and using a QR code on the app, they can unlock it when booked, and begin their ride. PKR 5 is charged for unlocking the bike, and 5Rs. is charged every minute of the drive. Users can also stop the ride.
When the customer has reached their destination, they can park the bike and finish the drive at a suitable location. Bikes can only be driven within the EzBike coverage area, which is clearly illustrated in the app, for travel.
Co-founder and CEO of Roamer, Mohammad Hadi said that 10 Kms will be the maximum distance between any two areas. ” We anticipate that our average drives will be within the range of 5 and 6.”
The electric bikes that EzBike starts with, has a top speed of 35 Km/hour and can be used by one person.
The rider is permitted to have their Identification cards checked before or after the registration process, which is done by EzBike’s team. In their EzBike wallet, they also need to have money that can be added using Easypaisa (a local payment option). All new users are accepted with free credit from PKR 50 when they sign up.
The startup did not reveal information about how many bikes it has on Islamabad’s roads right now, but said it plans to arrange more than 2,000 electric bikes around the country in 2021.
Muhammad Hadi declared that self-drive bike rentals are a business model that is way more sustainable and efficient than other forms of taking a ride. “It is the supply price that is the largest expenditure for ride-hailing businesses. We’re removing that by developing bikes that can be powered by the drivers themselves. It is an organization with a much stronger unit economy.”
“With EzBike, we want to encourage bike sharing in Pakistan as a secure transport alternative for females. We have renewed our facility to keep women in mind, and we seem to be one of our main users,” stated Mohammad Hadi.
He also added that “Mobility is still a largely unsolved issue, only 10% of the population of Pakistani owns a car. With EzBike, we provide every person in Pakistan with access to shared vehicles. This is another wave of mobility distortion. It would be Pakistan’s most reasonable, comfortable, and eco-friendly means of transport. And self-drive offers a secure way for people to travel within Islamabad while retaining social distance in a Covid-impacted world.”
With Urdu as the default language, the EzBike app is available in English and Urdu, suggesting that they are going after the masses.
A transport item that provides chauffer-driven car rentals, every hour was previously developed and launched by Roamer. With the new facility, it is growing into a mini-mobility space that as a company is unsafe proposal (especially given that it is self-drive electric bike rentals) and will require a significant amount of investment to expand nationwide.
Hadi is hopeful about EzBike’s prospects and claims the service will be operational before the facility will be functional in various areas of the world.
