What are the features of the best fleet sharing software?
August 5, 2021
min. read
If you have decided to launch your vehicle sharing business using existing software, without developing it from scratch, this article will help you to understand what software features you could seek and ask for.
The sharing business is growing worldwide, as is the number of sharing app providers. At ATOM Mobility from time to time we meet clients who are already using some platform, but are not totally happy with it. Moreover they don't know about the multitude of built-in features that they can have at no extra cost. So let's look at some default as well as “nice to have” features that the best sharing software solutions must have.
Starting the ride
There are several options to start the ride, so the software should be adjustable for all options. It is possible to put a QR code on the vehicle so that the code can be scanned through the app by the user. For the software it means that there should be a functionality in the app that allows the QR code to be scanned, finding the particular vehicle, and allowing the user to drive it as well as letting the system and others know that this vehicle is not currently available.
Another option for the user to start the ride is by clicking the button on the app, thus unlocking it. This function is especially popular in car and moped sharing. The app should link the particular user to the vehicle and the software should allow the ride. Despite the fact that QR codes are more popular, at ATOM we invite our customers to think it over. Unlocking via the app can sometimes be a more reliable choice because QR codes could be broken or not fully visible. In addition, users could have issues with their cameras, so why not start the ride with just one click?
Although it is not very popular, some vehicle sharing companies still offer users the option of making a reservation for the vehicle. In this case, software should do all the jobs - the user identifies the vehicle on the map, makes the reservation, and the vehicle should then wait for this particular user, who scans the QR code or pushes the button when he is ready for the ride. This functionality of keeping the vehicle for a particular time and later offering it to another user should also be automatically managed by the software.
Another challenge is how to avoid the problem of users who missed the previous ride making a reservation for the next ride? And what happens if the same user doesn't show up two times in a row? These limitations on reservations should also be directly available on the platform.
And what happens if a user starts using a vehicle other than the one that was reserved for him? The possibility that this might occur is low, but still should be tested.
Connectivity and tracking the vehicle
Connection to IoT lies on two shoulders – the IoT device that is on the vehicle and the software. It is crucial for you and the operators to always know where the vehicle is located and what its current status is. The software should provide the opportunity to track vehicles and obtain overall information about driving speed, acceleration, and errors. It should also have system alerts in case something happens; for example, someone tries to steal the vehicle or a rider drives outside the parking zone.
Remember that every vehicle makes money for your business every minute that it spends on the street. If something is wrong, then it is in your best interest to know this as soon as possible, as well as to locate the vehicle and dispatch the service team to conduct a check-up. Additionally, if you take care of the fleet and keep it in good condition, malfunctioning risks and additional costs in long term are going to be minimized.
ATOM Mobility software currently supports Segway, Teltonika, Acton, Omni, Okai, Fitrider, Freego, Zimo, Comodule, Hongji, Yadea and Niu IoT devices. Existing integrations allow ATOM Mobility customers to quickly scale the fleet, test and add new vehicle models, and not be limited to their plans. Of course, it is also possible to do custom integrations upon request.
Everything revolves around payments and preventing fraud
Before having anything to do with the user, it is crucial to identify him. In some countries, it is even mandatory, including for scooter and bike-sharing services. But it is also important for your own safety. ATOM Mobility has recently started to collaborate with Veriff – an API solution that allows any website and mobile application to match a person with their government-issued ID. So if the vehicle sharing service provider is using ATOM Mobility software, Veriff's API will directly enable integration of verification processes into mobile apps. It takes less than 2 minutes for Veriff to automatically verify the document. ATOM Mobility supports also other ID verification tools such as Sumsub. However, it is vital to make sure that the tool is robust, offers a good user experience, and is automated and lightning fast before integrating it.
By the way, user experience is very important not only concerning identification, payments, or other separate features but also in regard to the overall convenience of using the platform. Players in the vehicle-sharing business fight for conversions. And this can mean a lot in terms of money. For example, if the software has a conversion rate of 20% on average, then registration for the first ride from 100,000 clients reached will bring less than EUR 225,000 in turnover per month compared to the company that has an average conversion rate of 50%.
When it comes to payments, nowadays there are a lot of payment providers that can be integrated with sharing mobility software. Before choosing one, it is crucial to collect feedback and make sure that integration has a convenient user interface, it is safe and the service provider is stable, i.e. there won't be any significant disruptions. ATOM Mobility clients usually use the most popular global payment providers such as Stripe, Adyen, Paypal and Klarna. In some cases, local payment providers are needed due to legal restrictions, for example, in Saudi Arabia we partner with Hyperpay and in Ukraine, we partner with Concord. So integration with these payment providers is already set up within ATOM Mobility software. Of course, custom integrations can also be done and additional service providers added.
After the payment has been made and the ride has been completed, the invoice should be delivered straight to the user's e-mail box and also made available through the customer profile on the app. For brand awareness and user convenience, it is good that the software is able to personalize the invoice by adding logo and other company details. You can probably even add promotional messages for the next ride. And you should check whether an e-invoice delivered straight to the e-mail address is mandatory, because in some countries it is.
Of course, the most valuable client for the company is one, who makes recurring payments and rides more than once. Recently major players in the field have announced subscription services. In May 2021 Lime rolled out the monthly subscription service Lime Prime. In contrast, Bird offers a monthly fee rent their scooters. The best fleet sharing software has subscription functionality available, so you should definitely consider using it also for your business.
Access through the dashboard and the most advanced features
All the information and functionality mentioned above and a lot more should be accessible through the dashboard available, together with the software and the app. Every employee of the company involved in the vehicle sharing organization process should have convenient access to it from any available device. However, there should be an opportunity to regulate which user has access to what features - different reasons, not every team member needs full access to the dashboard.
Usually, the dashboard helps to manage the fleet, rides, and customers. For the convenience of data analysis, the dashboard should have reporting and data exporting capabilities. An additional feature that you definitely need to look for is heatmaps and rebalancing suggestions, which will help you to plan your fleet and the location of your vehicles by predicting the busiest areas in the city, where vehicles are in the highest demand during certain hours of the day. This functionality is automatically also available through the best software.
Private fleets and working with corporates
And last but not least. Sometimes there is an opportunity to make at least part of your fleet private. This is a corporate and private sharing scheme. In corporate sharing schemes, for example, you can offer part of your fleet to some large company, so this company’s employees have exclusive access to this fleet. In private sharing schemes, you can grant exclusive access to the vehicles to residents of a specific hotel or building. There are many other options available, but the main message is that even this functionality is integrated into the best fleet sharing software, so choose your software partner carefully and wisely.
Software reliability
None of the features discussed here matter if you don’t have an appropriate platform. The biggest complaints from the end users that sharing businesses receive concern the instability of the platform. So always remember to start by checking SLA. It is the indicator of stability that shows the number of minutes during the month that the system experienced some problems. The platform should have indicator of 99.5% -99.9%. If the SLA is lower, all other features don’t make sense as you will definitely received a lot of complaints from the user that something is not working. If you have any additional questions or are interested in integrating some custom features, contact the ATOM Mobility team to find out more. We are one of the biggest and one of the most experienced players in the market.
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The hidden costs of running a shared mobility business
🚲 The biggest costs in shared mobility are often the ones riders never see. Behind every trip is a constant cycle of fleet balancing, maintenance, charging, customer support, and compliance. As fleets grow, these operational costs can have a bigger impact on profitability than the vehicles themselves. This article explores the hidden costs that shape every shared mobility business.
June 17, 2026
min. read
Shared mobility often looks simple from the outside. A user opens an app, unlocks a vehicle, completes a trip, and moves on with their day. But not everybody knows that the system behind every ride is a bit more complex and can be quite expensive. For many operators, the biggest expenses are not always the most obvious ones.
As shared mobility continues to grow across Europe, operators face increasing pressure to improve efficiency while maintaining service quality. According to the latest European Shared Mobility Index, shared mobility services generated more than 700 million trips across Europe in 2025, reflecting continued demand for alternative transportation options. At the same time, profitability remains one of the industry's biggest challenges.
Across more than 300 shared mobility projects worldwide, one pattern appears consistently: operators often underestimate operational costs during launch planning while focusing primarily on fleet acquisition, permits, and launch activities. The largest challenges often emerge later through day-to-day operations, where downtime, fleet balancing, maintenance, customer support, and compliance costs gradually impact profitability.
Downtime costs more than most operators expect
Every shared vehicle is an asset that only generates revenue when it is available to users. A scooter waiting for repairs, a bike with a flat tire, or a car that has not been inspected after damage generates no revenue at all. For example, a scooter generating an average of two rides per day at €3 per ride produces roughly €2,200 in annual revenue. If recurring maintenance issues keep that vehicle unavailable for two weeks each quarter, the shared mobility operator could lose more than €250 in annual revenue from that vehicle alone. Across hundreds or thousands of vehicles, downtime quickly becomes a significant operational cost.
Yet the costs continue to build up – insurance, depreciation, financing, storage, and operational overhead do not stop simply because a vehicle is unavailable.
This becomes particularly noticeable as fleets grow. A single inactive vehicle may not seem significant but hundreds of inactive vehicles spread across multiple cities quickly become a major financial problem.
That is why many operators invest heavily in fleet visibility and operational tools. Platforms such as ATOM Mobility's vehicle sharing software help operators monitor vehicle status in real time and identify issues before they affect large parts of the fleet.
Fleet balancing becomes a business of its own
One of the least visible costs in shared mobility is fleet redistribution. Users naturally travel between different parts of a city. Over time, vehicles begin clustering in some areas while disappearing from others. The result is familiar to most operators – too many vehicles where demand is low and not enough where demand is highest. Solving this problem requires people, vehicles, planning, and technology. Large operators often maintain dedicated teams responsible for things like fleet redistribution, battery swapping, charging operations, station monitoring and demand forecasting.
Academic studies of bike-sharing systems consistently identify balancing and redistribution as some of the biggest operational challenges because they directly affect both utilisation and customer satisfaction. When users cannot find a vehicle nearby, they often choose another transport option instead. It’s even more difficult during big events, tourist seasons, weather changes, and rush hours when demand patterns shift rapidly.
Charging operations can become a major expense
For operators managing electric scooters, bikes, and mopeds, battery charging creates another layer of operational complexity. Vehicles must be collected, charged, swapped, and returned to high-demand locations. Labour, logistics, warehouse space, charging infrastructure, and electricity costs all contribute to the overall cost of fleet operations.
As fleets grow, charging efficiency becomes increasingly important. Poor battery management can increase downtime, reduce vehicle availability, and create unnecessary operational costs. For operators managing thousands of electric vehicles, charging and battery-swapping operations can require dedicated teams, warehouses, charging infrastructure, and specialised software to coordinate daily tasks efficiently.
Small maintenance issues rarely stay small
Most vehicle problems start as minor issues but then become a bigger problem. A slightly damaged brake, a worn tire, a loose component, or a battery performing below normal levels may not immediately remove a vehicle from service. Left unresolved, however, these issues often become larger repairs that require more time, more money, and more operational effort.
For this reason, maintenance is no longer viewed as a reactive task by many successful operators. Instead, it is becoming an ongoing operational process supported by automation, diagnostics, and task management systems. So it’s important to identify problems before users do.
Many operators are moving toward more structured maintenance workflows, similar to the approaches discussed in ATOM Mobility's fleet management automation insights.
Customer support grows with every vehicle added
Customer support is often not thought enough about during launch planning. Founders typically focus on vehicles, apps, and pricing. Few spend enough time calculating the operational cost of helping users when things go wrong.
Support requests usually involve payment issues, failed unlock attempts, damaged vehicles, parking questions, account verification, trip disputes and other day to day problems. A fleet generating 100,000 monthly rides may receive hundreds or even thousands of support requests related to payments, parking violations, damaged vehicles, or account verification.
The cost of poor support is often higher than the cost of support itself because unresolved issues directly affect retention and reviews.
Regulation creates costs that did not exist five years ago
The shared mobility industry has grown significantly. A decade ago, many cities welcomed operators with relatively few requirements. Today, most cities expect detailed reporting, parking compliance, safety measures, accessibility standards, and operational transparency.
Operators increasingly need to invest in:
- reporting systems
- compliance processes
- city partnerships
- parking management
- operational monitoring
These requirements create additional costs, but they are quickly becoming part of doing business in the sector. At the same time, cities are becoming more selective about which operators receive permits and long-term partnerships, making operational quality an increasingly important competitive advantage.
The strongest operators focus on efficiency, not just growth
Hidden costs rarely appear in business plans or launch announcements. They emerge gradually through downtime, maintenance, balancing, customer support, charging operations, and compliance requirements. Individually, each cost may seem manageable. Together, they often determine whether a mobility business becomes profitable.
Shared mobility businesses often talk about fleet size, market expansion, and trip volume. The operators that build sustainable businesses tend to focus on a different set of metrics, including vehicle utilisation, downtime, maintenance efficiency, and operational automation. Growth still matters, but it becomes expensive quickly when operational control is lacking.
Across the shared mobility industry, operational excellence is increasingly becoming a stronger competitive advantage than fleet size alone.
How technology helps control hidden operational costs
Many of the hidden costs discussed in this article can be reduced through better operational visibility and automation. Modern mobility management platforms help operators monitor fleet health, detect issues before they lead to downtime, automate maintenance workflows, prioritise field operations, optimise redistribution using real-time demand data, coordinate charging and battery-swapping activities, automate refunds for unsuccessful rides, and generate compliance reports with no manual effort.
At ATOM Mobility, we've seen these challenges across more than 300 shared mobility projects worldwide. While every market is different, operators that invest in operational efficiency early are often better positioned to achieve sustainable growth and profitability.
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Why station-based bike sharing is coming back: research and real-life examples of successful businesses
🚲 While dockless scooters and e-bikes often seems to be the popular choice, many of Europe's most popular shared mobility programs are station-based bike-sharing networks. Systems like Vélib' in Paris, Bicing in Barcelona, and BikeMi in Milan continue to grow by combining predictable parking, strong integration with public transport, and increasingly popular e-bike fleets. What these programs have in common, how they operate at scale, and why many cities continue investing in station-based bike sharing?
June 11, 2026
min. read
During 2019-2025, most of the attention in shared mobility went to dockless scooters. They were quick to deploy, highly visible, and seemed like the future of urban transport. But while many scooter operators expanded, consolidated, or exited markets, station-based bike-sharing systems quietly continued growing.
According to the 2025 European Shared Mobility Index, public bike-sharing schemes generated around 238 million trips in Europe, while private bike-sharing operators recorded another 124 million trips. Together, bike-sharing services accounted for more than 360 million annual rides out of more than 700 million rides (the other half was generated by free-floating scooters). While the industry spent years experimenting with different models, station-based bike sharing remained remarkably resilient. In many cities, it has become part of everyday transport infrastructure rather than simply another mobility service.
The bike-sharing market is becoming more structured
One of the clearest themes from the latest index is that the market is becoming more disciplined. Operators are no longer chasing every possible market. Instead, they are focusing on locations where shared mobility can operate sustainably over the long term. Cities are becoming more selective too, favouring systems that fit into wider transport networks rather than uncontrolled fleet expansion.
This shift has created favourable conditions for station-based bike-sharing systems. Unlike dockless fleets, station-based programs offer more predictable parking, easier fleet management, and stronger integration with public transport. These advantages become increasingly important as cities focus more on accessibility, compliance, and long-term mobility planning.
What do Europe's largest station-based systems have in common?
The strongest argument for station-based bike sharing is the performance of some of the world's largest programs.
Vélib' (Paris)
Paris' Vélib' remains one of the most successful bike-sharing systems in Europe. The network combines thousands of regular bicycles and e-bikes across an extensive station network that covers much of the city. Vélib' generated approximately 48.5 million trips in 2025, making it the highest-ridership public bike-sharing system in Europe.
What makes Vélib' particularly interesting is that, for many Parisians, it has become part of their daily commute alongside buses, metros, and trains. That level of adoption only happens when riders know they can reliably find and return bikes where they need them.
Bicing (Barcelona)
Barcelona's Bicing demonstrates how station-based systems can scale with city support and careful planning. The system combines regular bicycles and e-bikes and has become deeply integrated into the city's transport ecosystem. Bicing recently surpassed 100 million total rides, making it one of the most successful public bike-sharing programs globally. Barcelona is becoming a fascinating mobility case study: shared scooters were banned, private dockless bike-sharing is being phased out, while the city continues expanding the public Bicing network. A clear signal that some cities are prioritizing station-based and publicly managed micromobility over free-floating models.
The success of Bicing also reflects a broader trend in Spain, where public bike-sharing systems continue receiving strong institutional support.
BikeMi (Milan)
BikeMi in Milan offers a slightly different model. Rather than focusing on rapid expansion, the system grew steadily through dense station placement, strong commuter adoption, and integration with public transport. Now BikeMi combines traditional bicycles and e-bikes, providing a reliable transport option for both residents and visitors. Its success highlights an important lesson for operators: long-term utilisation often matters more than rapid fleet growth.
Although Vélib', Bicing, and BikeMi differ in scale and geography, they share several common characteristics. All three prioritise station density, integration with city transport networks, and predictable rider experiences.
Electric bikes are changing the economics
One of the biggest developments in station-based bike sharing over the past few years has been the rapid growth of electric fleets. Public bike-sharing fleets are now approximately 48% electrified. More importantly for operators, electric bikes consistently generate more trips than traditional bicycles. Public systems average around 2.7 trips per vehicle per day, while some electric bike fleets achieve up to 4.6 trips per vehicle per day.
Higher utilisation means more revenue per vehicle, a faster return on investment, lower idle fleet costs, and stronger demand throughout the day. Electric bikes also make bike sharing accessible to a broader audience. Longer distances become practical, hills become less of a barrier, and riders who would not normally choose a bicycle are often willing to use an e-bike instead. This is one reason many newer station-based systems are launching with mixed fleets or even fully electric fleets from day one.
Why cities are backing station-based systems again
Across Europe, municipalities are placing greater emphasis on organised mobility systems that can be integrated into existing transport networks. The European Shared Mobility Index highlights several examples, including public support programs for bike-sharing subscriptions in Spain, continued investment in Barcelona's Bicing network, and London's decision to renew its Santander Cycles contract through a long-term investment programme.
For cities, the appeal is relatively clear. Station-based systems provide predictable parking, reduce street clutter, simplify accessibility planning, and make it easier to integrate bike sharing with buses, trains, and metro systems. As regulations become stricter and public space becomes more valuable, these advantages are becoming increasingly important.
Managing a growing station network
As fleets grow, operators need visibility into station occupancy, vehicle availability, charging status, maintenance workflows, payments, rider activity, and customer support. Managing these processes manually quickly becomes difficult, especially when systems expand across multiple districts or cities.
Many operators use platforms such as ATOM Mobility's bike-sharing software to manage stations, vehicles, rider applications, payments, maintenance, and operational workflows through a single system rather than relying on multiple disconnected tools. The largest station-based programs did not become successful simply because they deployed more bikes. They built operational processes capable of supporting growth over many years.
The growth of systems like Vélib', Bicing, and BikeMi suggests that station-based bike sharing has found its place in modern cities long-term. The focus now is less on expansion alone and more on operating reliable, efficient networks that riders can depend on every da
Check out the full 2025 European Shared Mobility Index here: https://fluctuo.com/reports
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