1.Fleet sizing — area, population, scooter count
Density beats coverage. A tight area with a scooter always in sight earns more than a sprawling one where riders give up looking. Size the fleet to the active core — the polygon holding most short trips — not to the municipal boundary.
| Deployment | Service area | Population served | Fleet size | Working density |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campus / estate / resort | 1–4 km² | 5,000–20,000 | 15–50 | 10–15 / km² |
| Small town / large suburb | 4–10 km² | 20,000–60,000 | 40–120 | 8–12 / km² |
| Mid-size town | 10–20 km² | 60,000–150,000 | 100–250 | 8–14 / km² |
| City core | 20–50 km² | 150,000+ | 250–800 | 10–16 / km² |
Three cross-checks, use all of them:
- Per area: 8–16 scooters per km² of active core. Below ~6/km² riders stop finding vehicles and the habit never forms.
- Per population: roughly 1 scooter per 150–300 residents of the population actually inside the service area.
- Per demand: target 2–5 rides per scooter per day. Sustained under 1.5 means the fleet is too large or the area is wrong — shrink the polygon or move vehicles before buying more.
Start at the low end of a band and let utilisation pull you up: adding 20 scooters to a working area takes a week; recovering 100 idle scooters from a failed one takes a season. The console's rides-per-vehicle and heat view tell you which you are in by the second week.
2.The service area and its zones
Every fleet needs one primary service area — a drawn boundary, not just a fleet name. In the operator console this is the Operational zone type, and it is the container every other zone lives inside.
Draw the Operational zone first — it becomes the fleet's boundary
Console → Zones → draw a polygon (or circle) around the streets your scooters are meant to work, with the zone type operational. Saving it does two things at once:
- It becomes the envelope the system judges every vehicle against — leaving it raises the out-of-zone anti-theft signal and, with Out-of-operational alerts on (the default), notifies your dispatch the moment a vehicle strays.
- It becomes the fleet's own geographic boundary: the fleet's centre and radius derive automatically from the service area you drew, so ride attribution, area rules and per-fleet pricing know exactly where your business operates. A fleet with no drawn service area is only a name.
Multiple operational zones are allowed (a two-campus operation, both sides of a river) — the fleet boundary grows to enclose all of them.
Then place the zones inside it
| Zone | What it does | Placement practice |
|---|---|---|
| Parking | Legal end-of-ride bays. With Parking required on, a ride can only end inside one; ending outside can carry an automatic fine. | A bay every 250–400 m in the core; at every transit stop, mall entrance, campus gate. 60–80% of rides should end in a bay — audit monthly. |
| Slow | Caps speed inside the zone (Slow-zone limit, e.g. 12–15 km/h). The street's limit always beats any vehicle or rider setting. | Promenades, squares, school and hospital precincts, shared pedestrian streets. |
| No-go | Entry raises an alert and can fine; riding there is never permitted. | Highways and on-ramps, water edges, rail reserves, private land, event exclusion areas. |
Nested zones belong inside the service area. The console warns on save when a parking, slow or no-go zone sits outside the fleet's operational boundary — a bay outside the envelope is a bay riders get flagged for reaching. A no-go just beyond the boundary is the one legitimate exception (belt-and-braces at a hard edge), which is why it warns instead of refusing.
3.Batteries and charging
Swappable batteries keep scooters on the street; charge-in-place fleets lose their nights. Plan the battery pool, the charge room and the swap threshold together.
| Planning figure | Range | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Batteries per scooter (total pool) | 1.6 – 2.2× | One riding + 0.6–1.2 charging or in the van. Below 1.5× the swap run starts skipping vehicles. |
| Real-world range per charge | 25–45 km (≈ 8–15 rides) | Hills, rider weight and winter cut brochure range by 25–40%. |
| Swap threshold | 20–30% | Below 20% you strand riders; above 35% you swap too often. Set the warn level with Low battery — warn (%) and refuse unlocks below Minimum battery to unlock (%). |
| Charger slots per 100 scooters | 40–60 | Charged in staggered batches, mostly overnight on cheaper power. |
| Battery service life | 500–800 full cycles (≈ 18–30 months) | Budget replacement from month 18; capacity-test quarterly, retire at ~70% health. |
The charge room is your biggest physical risk. Rack batteries individually (never stacked or bagged), on non-combustible shelving with smoke detection and an extinguisher rated for lithium fires; charge with the supplied chargers only; quarantine any dropped, swollen or water-exposed pack in a metal container outdoors; keep the room ventilated and never charge fully unattended overnight without detection in place.
4.Daily operations — the swap run and rebalancing
One disciplined loop, twice a day, keeps a fleet alive: swap what is low, move what is stranded, lift what has fallen, photograph what is damaged.
The operations vehicle
- 1 small van or bakkie per 60–100 scooters on the road daily — it carries 20–40 charged batteries, 4–8 replacement scooters and the spares crate.
- In a dense core an e-cargo trike covers 30–50 scooters per shift at a fraction of the cost, and parks where a van cannot.
- A 2-vehicle fleet (one van + one trike) comfortably runs ~150 units; scale linearly after that.
The route, in priority order
- Battery-priority: the console's low-battery list, lowest first — every unit below the swap threshold gets a fresh pack.
- Out-of-zone and alerts: anything flagged overnight (out-of-zone, illegal-move, tamper) is recovered or stood upright.
- Rebalance to demand: morning — move vehicles to residential edges and transit stops; evening — back to nightlife and the core. The live map's ride heat shows the pattern inside two weeks.
- Sweep: fallen, mis-parked or reported vehicles; photograph damage before loading.
Rides cluster 07:00–09:00 and 16:00–19:00. Run swaps just before each peak, not during it.
5.Staffing
| Role | Per 100 scooters | What they own |
|---|---|---|
| Field operations (swap, rebalance, sweep) | 2–3 (shifted) | The daily route, battery logistics, street recovery. Roughly one person can swap/attend 40–80 units per shift. |
| Mechanic / technician | 0.7–1 | Preventive services, repairs, quarantine queue, spares stock. One workshop bench per ~150 units. |
| Operations coordinator | 0.5 | The console: alerts, dispatch, rider support tickets, refunds, daily numbers. Doubles as second field pair at peak. |
| On-call (nights/weekends) | shared rotation | Theft and incident response — the alert email/push reaches them off-console. |
A 30–50 unit pilot runs on two people wearing all the hats; a 100-unit fleet is 3–4 full-time equivalents. Give every staff member their own named console access with the right role (staff vs read-only) from the Team page — shared passwords end at the first dispute.
6.Maintenance, spares and availability
Cadence
- Every swap visit: 30-second visual — brakes bite, stem tight, tyres inflated, lights work, QR legible, deck clean.
- Every 2–4 weeks per unit: preventive service — brake adjust, fastener torque, tyre wear, throttle/controller check, firmware/telemetry check, lock actuator test.
- Quarterly: battery capacity test; retire packs under ~70% health.
Spares to hold
- Ready-to-ride spare scooters: 5–10% of fleet — a damaged unit is swapped out on the street, repaired at the bench, not queued in public.
- Parts crate (per 100 units): tyres/tubes or solid tyres (10–15), brake pads and levers (10), throttles (5), controllers (3–5), kickstands (10), grips/fenders/reflectors (10 each), QR/label blanks, lock actuators (3–5), fasteners kit.
Availability is the operating KPI: keep ≥90% of the fleet rideable. Track it as (units online and above the unlock battery floor) ÷ (total fleet). Every point of availability is roughly a point of revenue.
7.The business model
Per-scooter unit economics decide everything. Work in monthly figures per unit, then multiply by the fleet — planning ranges below, in rands; replace them with your console's actuals from the first month.
Revenue per scooter / month
| Average fare (unlock + per-minute × 12–18 min) | R18–R30 |
| Rides per day (target band) | 2–5 |
| At 2.5 rides × R25 × 30 days | ≈ R1,875 |
| Passes / subscriptions uplift | +10–20% and steadier weeks |
Cost per scooter / month
| Hardware amortised (R12k–20k over 24–36 mo) | R450–R700 |
| Field labour share | R350–R600 |
| Maintenance + spares | R150–R300 |
| Battery pool + electricity | R80–R150 |
| SIM / data | R30–R60 |
| Insurance, permits, incidents | R100–R250 |
| Payment fees | ~3% of revenue |
| Total | ≈ R1,200–R2,100 |
The break-even line sits near 1.5–2 rides per scooter per day. Above 2.5 the fleet compounds — margin funds the next 20 units. The levers, in order of power: utilisation (placement + density), availability (maintenance discipline), vehicle lifespan (36 months versus 24 changes the whole model), then price.
Secondary revenue once the core works: multi-ride passes and monthly subscriptions, corporate/campus schemes, deck or app advertising, and off-peak delivery-mode rental. Points and rewards keep riders in your fleet without discounting the fare.
8.Standard operating procedure
Daily — open
- Console sweep: offline units, low battery, out-of-zone, overnight alerts and rider tickets.
- Build the swap route (battery-priority, then alerts, then rebalance).
- Load van: charged packs, spare units, parts crate.
Daily — close
- All flagged units recovered or accounted for, damage photographed and quarantined.
- Drained packs racked and charging; room checks done.
- Log the day: rides, availability, incidents, fines issued.
Weekly
- Preventive-service batch (the 2–4 week rotation, ~¼ of fleet).
- Bay audit: % of rides ending in parking; move or add bays where they don't.
- Zone review against the ride heat map; adjust slow/no-go as the city changes.
Monthly
- Full fleet audit against the register; spares stocktake and reorder.
- Battery health tests; retire and reorder packs.
- Permit/insurance/compliance check; pricing review against utilisation.
Incident response
- Injury/crash: people first — emergency services, then secure the vehicle, preserve the ride record and photographs, notify insurer within 24h.
- Theft / out-of-zone: the alert fires at the boundary; track on the live map, recover in daylight with two staff, involve SAPS with the tracking record for repeat cases.
- Vandalism/water damage: photograph in place, quarantine the battery, bench-strip before any recharge.
9.Industry standards and compliance
- Municipal permission: cities typically govern shared fleets through permits or MOUs covering fleet caps, no-ride and parking rules, and data sharing. Engage the municipality before launch day, not after the first complaint — a written scope, even a pilot letter, is the difference between an operator and a nuisance.
- Road rules: e-scooter classification differs by jurisdiction and is evolving in South Africa — confirm where your vehicles may legally ride (roadway, cycle lane, shared path) and reflect it in your zones and rider terms.
- Helmets and rider rules: follow local law; encourage helmets in the app either way. Your ride terms are shown and accepted before every unlock.
- Hardware safety: buy vehicles and packs certified to recognised standards (UL 2272 / EN 17128 class); IP-rated locks and packs (IP67 class) survive the street. Uncertified grey-import packs are where fleet fires come from.
- Insurance: public liability for the fleet, cover for staff and the ops vehicle; keep the tracking and maintenance record — it is your defence file.
- Rider data: collect the minimum, protect what you hold (POPIA applies), and keep money records exact — receipts are minted per ride and tariffs are frozen on the record.
10.Launch checklist
- Draw the service area — the Operational zone (Console → Zones). It becomes the fleet's boundary.
- Place parking bays every 250–400 m, plus slow and no-go zones. Turn on Parking required if your city expects tidy ends.
- Register the fleet — onboard units, verify each appears on the live map with battery and lock state.
- Set the money — tariff (unlock + per-minute), fines, caps; run one end-to-end test ride and check its receipt.
- Build the team — named accounts and roles; alert email routing to whoever carries the phone.
- Walk the SOP for one week with a 10–20 unit soft launch cohort before full deployment.
- Measure week two: rides/vehicle/day, availability, % rides ending in bays, alerts per day — then scale by the sizing table, not by ambition.
Want the console itself explained control by control? That is the Operator manual. This guide is the business around it.