‘The death penalty is unhappy customers’: Dott chief on why London has lost control of its e-bikes
The chief executive of Dott has described London’s e-bike market as “out of control” after the group pulled its vehicles from the capital amid an absence of regulation.
“It’s a bit out of control, actually. And that’s why you end up with these inconsistent experiences for users,” Henri Moissinac, who co-founded the company in 2019, told CityAM
Dockless e-bikes have exploded onto the scene in recent years, with a slew of providers including Lime, Dott and Forrest competing to win borough-by-borough contracts and steal market share.
Unlike e-scooters, which Dott continues to operate under an ongoing trial, electric bikes are largely unregulated and not under the oversight of Transport for London (TfL).
“The scooter scheme is properly organised, it works well, everybody has proven it safe,” Moissinac said.
He explained “it’s not the case for e-bikes. E-bikes are not under the control of TfL, it’s very disorganised borough by borough.”
Senior figures at TfL called on the Department for Transport (DfT) in April to introduce regulations to improve the “confusing” system.
Moissinac told CityAM users had been infuriated by the so-called geofence, a key factor in the firm’s decision to pull the plug on London and focus on its core markets in Western Europe, Israel and Poland.
The geofence prevents users inadvertantely crossing over borough boundaries and straying into rival operators’ territory but has created a backlash among users as once an e-bike crosses into an unregistered area, the ride suddenly cuts out.
“A lot of our users were riding our bikes… and then suddenly they bump into some artificial barrier between two boroughs and they are absolutely furious about it,” Moissinac explained.
“We got so much negative feedback about the bikes because of these geofences which make absolutely no sense for the user.”
“We got so much negative feedback about the bikes because of these geofences which make absolutely no sense for the user.”
Henri Moissnac, co-founder and CEO of Dott
A lack of compulsory parking areas has thrown up further issues, with Moissinac claiming that rival operators had been more inclined to let users leave their bikes strewn on the streets.
“We believe in compulsory parking, we think it’s good for the users [and] non users and it’s good for the city.”
He told CityAM Dott’s product had become less competitive than its rivals “because they give more freedoms to the riders at the expense of, you know, orderly and tidy streets for the non riders”.
Dott’s head insisted he would “absolutely love” the service to return to London, having lived in the captal for over a decade – but only if a single geofence was put in place to resolve the issues.
“There is no reason why you cannot make [London] financially sustainable to operate, but if you have the type of problems we described with consumers and every one out of three rides leads to a problem… you’ve got to do a refund and try to apologise, and then trying to explain becomes impossible.”
“Our recommendation is it should be organised by TfL just like scooters… So then you have a consistent geofence [that] makes sense for the end user.”
Dott’s London exit comes as key providers battle to turn a profit in an industry whose fragile finances have fallen under increasing scrutiny.
Rival Lime reached that milestone earlier in the year and despite the set back, Moissinac said Dott was “inches away” from following suit. He refused to speculate on a timeline for a possible IPO.
The micromobility boss estimates withdrawing its e-bikes from the capital would cost “several hundred thousand” but the exit would not be “a death penalty”.
“The death penalty here is an endless stream of unhappy customers,” he said.
The DfT, TfL and the Mayor’s office were approached for comment.