Felyx, the sharing platform for electric mopeds, is to start fining its owner users who fail to park the vehicles correctly after use.
One of the problems common to sharing scooters and mopeds is the tendency of some users to abandon the vehicles without a concern for nuisance to other users of the road and pavement. Some communes have taken the decision to pick up and warehouse the offending vehicles and charge the operator to retrieve them, leaving to them the job of recouping the charge.
Felyx, however, has opted for direct action. At the end of a share, the user must take a photo of the vehicle to show how it is parked. If that is satisfactory, everything is fine. If not, and the operator has to come and move it, the user can be fined €50.
Users who behave consistently well will receive a reward of free minutes. Those who offend frequently can be removed from the platform.
The Dutch-based company has already carried out a pilot project in Eindhoven, and said the results were encouraging. Complaints about badly-parked mopeds went down by 90% in just six weeks.
The feature is now live in Groningen, Delft, Den Bosch and Haarlem, and now in Brussels. If results are equally encouraging, it can be rolled out everywhere Felyx operates.
“This development fits within the mission of Felyx to keep the city liveable and accessible for everyone with compact, shared and sustainable transport,” said Daan Wijnants, head of public affairs.
“Felyx is constantly working to improve product and service, so that we remain innovative and user-friendly. Felyx users must be able to drive from A to B in a safe way, with quality e-mopeds and without causing any nuisance. Part of that is that users will always find an e-moped that has been left behind correctly by the previous driver.”
