How to start your business with the appropriate bike-sharing business plan?
May 7, 2021
min. read
“It is a rapidly growing global phenomenon: bikes of different breeds zipping through cities, being picked up and deposited at will. They belong to companies, not members of the public. The future of cycling could be sharing, not owning one,” wrote The Bike Europe, source of industry news, data, and analysis for the e-bike and bicycle industry’s decision-makers, at the start of this year. And the pandemic hasn't changed the situation significantly.
According to a recent eight nation survey Oliver Wyman conducted with approximately 6,000 respondents, 44% of riders said they would be willing to increase their dependence on the service (shared vehicles and ride-hailing) in the future. 34% said they planned to use it as much as before the pandemic.
Accordingly, there is a pretty big interest in starting a business based on a bike-sharing service. Every business should start with a detailed business plan. Here, we are going to explain how to create a business plan that it would be appropriate to implement in your business.
Mind the differences
If you are a newcomer or even if you have ride-sharing business experience, the first thing to remember before preparing a business plan - every vehicle sharing model is specific and has its own differences to keep in mind.
In regard to bikes, it is important to remember that users are usually willing to take the bike from one docking station and return it to another. Sometimes, it is located on the other side of the city. So the service provider should calculate capacity, as well as vehicle availability in the most popular parts of the city during rush hours. That might be crucial.
Know your customer
Before taking further steps and making any decision you must know your audience. So it is the right time to do market research. The first thing to do is to define the characteristics of your customer by identifying:
- Age - what is the age range of your customer more likely to use your services? What group of customer generations do they belong to? For example, people born in the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2000s are referred to as Generation Z. There are some characteristics that identify their behavioral patterns, so you already know what they might and might not like.
- Gender - do you plan to communicate with men, women, or both sexes? There are differences.
- Marital status and family - it might influence how the person is moving through the city. For example, if she or he must take into account the plans of their partner while scheduling their everyday activities.
- Location - what are the most likely points which your potential customer is moving between in the city?
- Income - how likely they are willing to use bike-sharing? And how much they would be willing to pay for the service?
- Language - what language are you going to use to communicate with your audience? And what languages you should make available on your app.
Usually, several groups can be identified according to these characteristics. The next step is to find people that are representing each group, talk to them and test your hypothesis and assumptions towards them.
You can also calculate quite precisely the size of your target market. You can find it out by calculating the TAM, SAM, and SOM. TAM is the total available market for the service, for example, the total amount of users. SAM is a serviceable available market in the area you have chosen to operate. SOM is a serviceable obtainable market - a portion of the available market that you are willing to serve.
Choose what suits you best
After you have defined your target market and potential audience, you may start to consider what works best for your customer. There are three options to choose your bike-sharing business from and to put into your bike-sharing business plan:
- dockless bike-sharing - bicycles are freely available to potential users and they are not located at docking stations. Vehicles can be unlocked using a mobile app and afterward returned to a particular bike rack or even left along the sidewalk. This model is more suitable for tourists and other short-term use cases. Usually, dockless sharing services offer single rides for a small fee, for example, $1 or monthly fees for continuous use. The biggest risk of this model is high operational costs, as well as a bigger risk for vandalism or damage to the bikes;
- station-based bike-sharing - bikes are into docking stations and users can unlock them to have a ride. In addition, users must return the bike to the same or another docking station. Providers of this model usually offer payment of a flat membership fee plus the fee for the amount of time spent on the road. This is a good choice for the business due to low operational costs for maintenance or relocation. However, dockless bikes are becoming more accessible so there is a risk that a potential user will choose the service with no strings attached rather than one where he has to follow certain rules in terms of the place to leave his bike;
- corporate bike sharing - in this case, the service provider takes care of the maintenance and relocation of bikes, if needed, but bikes are owned by the corporation. Most likely, the owner will make bikes available to its employees or use them as a magnet for their business, for example, if the company additionally owns a hotel or entertainment park. This model is the best for any operator. The only and quite significant risk is that the corporate partner can decide to leave this business at any time.
To sum it all up, the dockless bike-sharing model is more convenient for users but involves higher risks for service providers. Station-based bike-sharing is less risky for the service provider, but not as convenient for the end-user. So while making the bike-sharing business plan, the choice should be made depending on the other market players and the risks you are willing to take. And if you have a corporate partner, who is willing to buy bikes and you have to operate the fleet - do it, but remember that you can be left alone at some point.
Calculate all costs
The most important part of the business plan is to find a balance between revenue and costs. If you haven't had a ride-sharing business previously, you would be wise to understand and consider all costs that you will have to cover with your revenue stream. Here are the most important positions you have to think of:
- vehicle purchase costs - it is recommended that you start with a small fleet and test your business model. However, you will need a first investment to purchase your fleet. And keep in mind that after some time vehicles should be changed, so consider including depreciation costs in your bike-sharing business plan;
- IT costs - vehicles are just part of the business. The other part is software and apps that allow people to rent a vehicle and you run your bike-sharing business. You can develop the software from scratch. However, there are already appropriate ready-made solutions in the market that have all the functions you might need. For example, ATOM has been operating on the global market since 2018 and has all the expertise you might need;
- marketing costs - what is the budget you are ready to invest so that people are informed about your service? Consider all options, for example, social media, local media, your own media (web site, newsletter). Think of the bonuses that you can offer to the client, for example, free rides. However, keep in mind that every bonus reduces your profit margin. Average statistics for fast-growing companies indicate that they invest 10-20% of turnover on marketing;
- maintenance costs - proper service should be provided to expand the vehicle’s lifecycle as well as to provide clients with the perfect service. So you will need a team of people that can check vehicles every day all over the city;
- costs for the customer support - your customers will look for options on how to contact you if they have questions while starting to use or using the service. You have to have somebody or even a small team ready to answer them.
- other costs - you have to hire an accountant. You may require legal support. You will have to cover fees to be able to use the payment system.
You should consider making a total investment of EUR 15,000-30,000 to launch a small test bike-sharing fleet (30-50 bikes). For a proper full-scale and successful launch with several hundreds of bikes, you will need a total investment of EUR 70,000-100,000.
What is your bike-sharing business model?
Your business model is the way you will get revenues from your service. A lot of different business models exist in the bike-sharing market. When you think of yours, take a look at what your competitors are doing and think of ways how you can be more attractive to customers. In addition, you have to consider location and take seasonality into account. And one more thing - act fast! This can be crucial for your future success. ATOM allows you to launch your bike-sharing business within a few weeks with a bike sharing software. Learn more about ATOM's solution for shared mobility.
Ask AI for an article overview
Let AI explain why entrepreneurs choose ATOM Mobility
Interested in launching your own mobility platform?
Blog
%20(1).jpg)
How to choose car sharing software: an operator’s checklist
🚗 Choosing car sharing software? Look beyond the rider app. Our checklist covers what to test in a demo, from keyless access and fleet operations to costs and support for both car sharing and digital rental.
September 23, 2026
min. read
Choosing car sharing software is more than choosing an app where customers can find and unlock a car. The same system has to verify drivers, take payments, communicate with vehicles, handle problems during a trip, and give your team the tools to keep cars available. The difference between two platforms often becomes clear only when something goes wrong: a customer cannot unlock a car, a payment fails, a vehicle needs to be taken out of service, or an operator wants to introduce advance bookings alongside short trips.
If you are comparing providers, ask them to show how these situations work in the actual product. Here is what to check.
Start with the operating model
“Car sharing” can mean several different things. A free-floating service lets customers find a nearby car and end a trip within an allowed area. A station-based service may require them to return the car to a specific location. Corporate fleets, peer-to-peer services, and self-service rentals have different booking, access, and approval rules.
Write down how your service will work before requesting demos:
- Can customers start a trip immediately, reserve a car for later, or both?
- Do they book a specific vehicle or a vehicle category?
- Where can they pick up and return the car?
- Will you charge by the minute, hour, day, distance, or a combination?
- Do you need deposits, subscriptions, corporate accounts, or different prices by location?
Ask the provider to configure these rules in a demo. A platform that supports “car sharing” in general may still require development to support your exact model.
Check the complete customer journey
The app needs to do more than display vehicles on a map. Follow one booking from the first app open to the final receipt. Check registration, ID and driver's licence verification, vehicle discovery, booking, payment authorisation, keyless access, trip extension, damage reporting, and trip completion.
For advance rentals, check whether customers can book from your website as well as the app. Ask to see the complete web-to-app journey: selecting a vehicle and dates, confirming the reservation, and continuing to payment, licence verification, and vehicle access. Find out whether the website can complete the entire rental or whether customers must install the app after booking. ATOM Mobility's web-booker, for example, lets customers reserve on the web and then complete payment, and ID verification in the app.
Then test the exceptions. What does the customer see if verification fails, the car does not unlock, the vehicle is no longer available, or the payment cannot be collected? Can your support team see what happened and resolve it without contacting a developer?
This matters because customers judge the entire journey, including how quickly they can recover when a step fails.
Make vehicle connectivity a separate decision
Car sharing depends on reliable communication between the platform and the vehicle. Depending on the vehicle and hardware, this may include location, lock and unlock commands, mileage, fuel or battery level, and other status data. Ask for a list of supported telematics providers, rather than accepting a general statement that the platform is “hardware agnostic.” For your proposed fleet, establish:
- Which functions already work, and which require a new integration?
- Is hardware installation required? Who supplies and supports it?
- What happens when the vehicle temporarily loses connectivity?
- Who investigates a failed command: the software provider, hardware supplier, or operator?
- What are the hardware, installation, connectivity, and integration costs?
Hardware flexibility is valuable when you expand or change suppliers, but the integration for the vehicles you plan to buy now is the first thing to verify.
Look closely at day-to-day fleet operations
The customer app gets the attention, but your team will spend much of its time in the management dashboard and operator tools. Ask a provider to show how staff:
- Take a vehicle out of service and make it bookable again.
- Find vehicles that need cleaning, charging, refuelling, or maintenance.
- Review a trip, customer issue, charge, or reported damage.
- Change prices, service areas, parking rules, and availability.
- Assign tasks and check what the field team has completed.
- Track utilisation, vehicle availability, revenue, and trips over time.
Try these tasks with the roles your own team would use. The question is not only whether a feature exists, but how many manual steps it takes to run your fleet every day.
Consider digital rental if it is part of your plans
Car sharing and digital rental increasingly overlap. An operator might offer cars for short city trips and also accept bookings for a weekend. A rental business may begin with advance reservations and later add app-based, keyless access for shorter trips.
The technology shares many components, but the booking rules can differ. A rental may require advance pickup and return times, vehicle or category allocation, availability calendars, deposits, extensions, and different customer handover processes.
If you may operate both models, ask for a demonstration of both: an immediate hourly trip and an advance weekend booking. Check how the system prevents overlapping reservations, applies the correct pricing and deposit rules, and gives your team a clear view of availability. Also establish whether both models can use the same customer account and management setup, or whether additional products and fees are required.
ATOM Mobility supports vehicle sharing and digital rental on its platform. The useful question for any provider, including us, is how your exact combination of models would be configured and operated.
Compare the full cost, not just the software fee
A low monthly licence fee can be attractive, but it may be only one part of the cost. Request a proposal that separates:
Launch, Setup, branding, app publication, migration, and training
Monthly minimums, fees per vehicle or booking, and included modules
Payment processing, refunds, deposits, and any additional transaction fees
Telematics hardware, installation, data plans, and new integrations
Ongoing work such as support level, custom development, and third-party services
Compare the likely cost at your launch fleet size and at a realistic larger fleet. Ask what happens if the fleet is seasonal or grows more slowly than planned.
Build, buy, or combine the two?
Building in-house can make sense when a company has the engineering capacity and needs a customer experience or operating model that available platforms cannot support. It also means taking responsibility for project management, app updates, payments, vehicle integrations, security, monitoring, and support long after launch.
A white-label platform can shorten the route to market and spread that technical work across an established product. In return, you depend on the provider's supported features, integrations, development priorities, and service levels.
Slovenian car-sharing operator GreenGo initially spent two years developing its own app before switching to ATOM Mobility. Its experience shows why it is worth comparing the time and resources required to build with what an existing platform can already deliver. Read GreenGo's story: https://www.atommobility.com/blog/greengo-chooses-atom-mobility-to-power-its-electric-car-sharing-business
There is also a middle option: use a platform for core bookings, fleet management, and vehicle connectivity while building selected experiences or integrations yourself through APIs. If this is your plan, review the API documentation and confirm what your team can actually read, change, and automate.
5 things to request in a provider demo
Before signing, ask each shortlisted provider to demonstrate the same scenarios:
- Register and verify a new rider, then make a booking and unlock the proposed vehicle.
- Extend a trip, report damage, end the booking, and see the final charge.
- Resolve a failed unlock or payment from both the customer's and support team's perspectives.
- Remove a car for maintenance, assign the task, and return it to availability.
- Configure your actual pricing and parking rules without developer assistance.
Use your intended vehicle models, payment markets, and operating rules in the discussion. For anything that cannot be shown, ask whether it is already available, needs configuration, requires paid development, or is only planned.
The best car sharing software is the one that supports your model reliably, gives your team control over daily operations, and leaves room for the business you intend to build next. A practical demo and a complete cost proposal will tell you more than a long feature list.
If you are evaluating car sharing alongside self-service rental, talk to ATOM Mobility about your fleet and operating model. We can show you how both models work on the platform and help you plan migration and scaling.
Blog
Unlock more mobility opportunities with the ATOM Mobility and Umob partnership
🌍 Reach more riders with ATOM Mobility and Umob. The integration gives shared mobility operators an additional distribution channel, helping attract new customers, generate more bookings and improve fleet utilization.
September 1, 2026
min. read
The future of mobility is not just about operating vehicles. It is about creating convenient journeys that bring different transportation options together in one simple customer experience.
That is why we are excited to highlight our partnership with Umob, helping mobility operators expand their reach and become part of a growing multimodal mobility ecosystem.
Whether you operate shared cars, scooters, bikes or mopeds through the ATOM Mobility platform, integrating with Umob allows your service to become accessible to thousands of Umob users looking for a convenient way to travel.
Why this partnership matters
Today's users expect flexibility. They don't think in terms of individual mobility providers, they simply want the fastest, easiest, and most convenient route from A to B.
Umob brings different mobility providers and transport options together in one app. Users can find, compare, book and pay for different mobility options without having to download a separate app or create a new account for every provider.
By connecting your fleet to Umob, operators can:
- Reach new customers through an established MaaS (Mobility as a Service) platform.
- Increase vehicle utilization by attracting additional demand.
- Become part of multimodal journeys that combine public transport, shared mobility, taxis, and other transportation options.
- Grow without investing in additional customer acquisition channels.
For ATOM Mobility customers, the integration is designed to provide a straightforward way to unlock new distribution opportunities while continuing to manage their core operations through the ATOM Mobility platform.
How the integration works
Through the ATOM Mobility platform, participating operators can connect their fleets with Umob, enabling users to discover and use available vehicles directly through the Umob app.
Once connected, vehicles from participating operators can appear in Umob alongside other available mobility options, giving users one clear overview of the different ways they can get from A to B.
Users can discover an available vehicle, reserve and unlock it, start and end their ride, and pay directly through Umob.
The integration is designed to support:
- Real-time vehicle availability.
- A seamless booking and ride experience for users.
- Secure communication between platforms.
- Consistent operational control for fleet operators.
Operators continue to manage their fleet, pricing, service areas and day-to-day operations through the ATOM Mobility platform, while Umob provides an additional channel through which users can discover and access their vehicles.
Business impact
For mobility operators, connecting with Umob creates an additional distribution channel without changing the way they manage their day-to-day operations through ATOM Mobility.
By making vehicles available to thousands of Umob users, operators can increase their visibility at the moment people are actively looking for a ride. This creates the potential to attract new users, generate additional bookings and improve fleet utilization over time.
Every market is different, but many operators see MaaS partnerships as an important part of their long-term growth strategy.
Launch partner spotlight: ZEUS Mobility
One of the first ATOM Mobility operators to launch through the Umob integration is ZEUS Mobility, an ambitious European e-scooter sharing provider with a strong focus on innovation, a dynamic approach and challenging the established players in the market.
Fittingly, the partnership itself started through the ATOM Mobility network.
ZEUS and Umob first met at an ATOM Mobility event in Riga. While the initial introduction happened during the event, it was over drinks later that evening that the conversation really started.
ZEUS had already come across the Umob brand on mobility vehicles while travelling and had been impressed by the professional approach the company was taking. That recognition quickly turned into a conversation about how both companies could strengthen their propositions by working together.
From there, the integration moved forward quickly. ZEUS describes the preparation and integration process so far as “clean, professional and smooth.”
For ZEUS, the partnership creates an opportunity to strengthen the visibility of its brand, reach new customers and support its wider European growth ambitions.
Following its acquisition of Superpedestrian in May 2026, ZEUS is looking to accelerate its growth throughout 2026 and 2027, with the Umob partnership forming part of that ambition.
“ZEUS is thrilled to be partnering with Umob in European markets. Following our acquisition of Superpedestrian in May 2026, ZEUS is seeking to rapidly grow through 2026 and 2027. This partnership can help to drive this growth and reach new customers in new markets. We look forward to a rewarding partnership.” - Damian Young, ZEUS Mobility
About Umob
One app to ride them all. Umob is an all-in-one mobility platform that brings different mobility providers and transport options together in one app.
Users can find, compare, book and pay for shared bikes, e-bikes, scooters, mopeds, public transport, taxis and other available mobility options through one account and one payment experience. Instead of downloading and registering with a separate app for every provider or every new city, users can open Umob and see the available mobility options around them.
Today, Umob is available in 28+ countries and 300+ cities, giving thousands of users an easier way to access different forms of mobility both at home and while travelling.
Key facts
- One app for different mobility options.
- Find, compare, book and pay in one app.
- Available in 28+ countries and 300+ cities.
- Thousands of users already use the Umob platform.
- Multiple local mobility providers within one user experience.
- The same ride, for the same price as with the local provider.
Ready to expand your reach?
If you're already operating your shared mobility service on the ATOM Mobility platform, connecting with Umob could be the next step toward reaching more users and becoming part of a truly connected mobility ecosystem.
If you're interested in enabling the integration or learning more about how it works, get in touch with our team. We look forward to helping more operators connect, collaborate, and make sustainable mobility easier for everyone.
Try out ATOM demo app
Use test credentials to log in - Phone number: +1 123123123, Code: 777777
Driver App demo credentials - Email: test@atom.com, Password: driver
