Scooter rental. How profitable is it to run this business?

Organization

This business does not require any special difficulties. All you need is a few 49cc scooters and a good location to get a flow of customers. Almost anyone can ride, age limit is from 14, target audience is 16-30 years old. For starters, it would be a good idea to get five or even ten mopeds. To avoid unnecessary problems, when placing an order you need to adhere to several rules. Firstly, any issuance of a vehicle on the basis of documents , i.e. a signed arena agreement with an evenly stated period of issue. There should be penalties if the moped is not returned in a timely manner. Equipment is issued upon presentation of a passport or a specified amount of money as collateral. In order not to subsequently engage in conversations and shaking up funds for repairs and restoration after damage to your scooters, immediately write down all possible options for damage to property and liability. Negotiations must be made on the shore. A scooter is not a motorcycle, since its engine capacity does not reach 50 cubic centimeters, therefore, a driving license is not needed. However, it should be taken into account that the law restricting the right to drive mopeds was submitted to the State Duma in 2012.
Probably in the near future it will be necessary to have rights to control such equipment.

Which business format to choose

First, you need to decide on the segment of motorcycles in which you will work.

Official dealer.
Some showrooms operate as official dealers of famous brands. Despite a number of advantages (exclusive rights in the region, staff training, support with the supply of spare parts for the service), this format also has a certain disadvantage - an impressive threshold for entering the business. Manufacturers, as a rule, strictly regulate the size and design of the premises for a motorcycle showroom, the availability of the necessary product stocks in the warehouse and the standards of work of the sales and service departments.

Sale of used motorcycles
- another direction of the “two-wheeled” business that can be developed. The demand for used copies is comparable to the excitement for new motorcycles, while requiring much lower costs at the start. Many people start with a banal outdoor site and a simple hangar, eventually growing into an impressive business with good sales volumes.

Custom studio.
Custom studios stand apart in the sale of motorcycles - these guys do not sell equipment in large volumes, but rather specialize in the implementation of exclusive projects. This business format is closer to tuning, although motorcycles are not always made for a specific client. In recent years, the impetus for the development of custom sales has been the growing interest of potential buyers in such types of motorcycles as cafe racers and scramblers. These are “iron horses”, stylized in retro style, which are made on the basis of popular classic models.

Today we will look at a business development model for selling motorcycles using the example of dealership of an inexpensive Chinese brand and the sale of used equipment.

Place

You don’t need to be particularly sophisticated when choosing a place. It is better to stay closer to the places of so-called folk festivals and large gatherings of people. This refers to squares, parks, beaches and surrounding areas. You can also choose a place that is as convenient as possible, so that from there it would be interesting to go somewhere for a ride, at road junctions. When choosing a moped rental location, you can rely on two main strategies. The first is that you attract random people who decide to rent a scooter spontaneously. In this case, this is the audience you should work for. A brighter sign , a more comfortable environment, so that the desire to ride only intensifies as you get closer to your small business. The second strategy is to attract customers who are willing to rent a scooter for a longer period of time. For example, to get out into nature, to the same beach, or, on the contrary, to go to a place where you can get rid of annoying vacationing neighbors. In this case, you need to immediately think about where your new travelers can go. In this case, the places to leave the city in the direction of beautiful places are just right. Getting out into nature not in your own car, but while driving a small moped is an exciting and attractive activity, especially after a difficult, hard everyday life. There are many who are ready to leave the everyday hustle and bustle and unwind. It’s worth talking separately about in which localities this area of summer business will be interesting. With a calm and measured village life, the desire to rent a moped is unlikely to appear, and besides, the overall population of the village is not encouraging. But a large city, filled with everyday bustle, traffic jams and simply overpopulated with everyone, has the opportunity to bring a lot of people . It turns out that the larger the city, the more attractive the business. A fair remark for almost any type of business, if you do not forget about competition.

Opportunity for PR in a narrow niche - bloggers

In the spring of 2020, we decided: we need to change something, we need new communication channels. Back then, bloggers were “uncharted territory” for us. We tried different formats of interaction with them and gradually learned from our own mistakes. I’m sure I don’t need to repeat myself today and tell you about the basic principles of interacting with influencers. And Cossa has written about this several times.

The most realistic and effective way to collaborate with bloggers in our highly specialized field is to use the resources of the BMW Motorrad test fleet.

The BMW Motorrad Press Park is a space on the ground floor of the BMW Group Russia training center. This is an exhibition center where bloggers, journalists and BMW employees can get acquainted with the products of the two-wheel division: motorcycles, scooters, protective equipment and accessories. Before each season, we order about 35 units of two-wheeled equipment, which we subsequently use in the press park from May to October. The short duration of the motorcycle season in Russia is one of the limitations that we have to contend with.

Competition

The more interesting the business, the more profitable it is, the more people who want to do it appear. It's hard to be an innovator in the scooter rental business today. I think this business exists in any medium-sized and especially large city. Therefore, it is simply necessary to analyze the competition. Perhaps all the interesting places are already occupied, and given the simplicity of organizing a business, competition issues can be resolved simply. You can just hit the cap. The main thing here is to find a suitable place to catch more clients. A good next step might be to count your competitors. For example, you have already found a place for your future scooter rental and you understand that it is a little better (or a little worse) than another rental that caught your eye. It would be a good idea to analyze its work in order to obtain primary information about the possible number of clients and assess the possible flow. Take the trouble to watch their work, count how many orders they have per day, how much equipment they have, what their prices are. Evaluate your competitors and do better than them. Then your chances of success will increase significantly.

How to open your own scooter rental station?

A city scooter is a very convenient way to get around. You don't need any special skills or protection to ride; it's easy to fold and take with you on public transport. Last fall, our stations opened in Sochi, St. Petersburg and Krasnodar. Samocat Sharing rental stations will appear in Finland in April. Our goal is to create a microtransport network that will allow people to quickly cover the distances that they currently have to walk.

The Samocat Sharing project started in 2020; in 2020, the rental system was tested in Finland on the campus of the University of Espoo. In September 2020, we launched our franchising program and by the beginning of the summer season we will have launched a network of approximately 400 scooter stations, of which 90% belong to our franchisees. Today we have a large number of requests for a franchise from aspiring entrepreneurs who would like to start their own business and participate in the creation of a microtransport network.

What is the essence of the project, and where are microtransport rental stations in demand?

The pace of life is increasing and people want to move quickly. We cannot use transport everywhere. If, say, it takes 15-20 minutes to walk from the metro to the office or entrance, this can become a problem. Take, again, the areas of huge shopping centers or exhibition centers, university grounds and the like. A huge number of people are interested in quickly getting to a place, meeting, transferring documents or goods. In any city there are routes with the highest pedestrian traffic that are convenient to travel on a scooter. It is in such places that rental stations are in demand.

Our stations are fully automated. To rent a scooter, just install the application, go through a quick registration by linking your phone number and bank card to your account, and start the ride. You can return the scooter at any station with free locks, and the rental will end automatically. The stations operate autonomously from batteries; there is no need to install a power supply point at the installation site, but the station must be connected to the Internet. Our stations can easily be converted for rental of electric scooters, if desired by a partner. To do this, they will have to be connected to the network.

In a business center with high traffic, a shopping center, near a metro station, one scooter is usually rented at least 5-6 times a day. The average trip duration is 60-80 minutes per day.

We recommend that budding entrepreneurs install stations in private areas: in shopping and business centers, exhibition areas and country hotels. There is no need to obtain permission from municipal authorities to install automatic stations, and you can negotiate with the owner of a private territory to install them free of charge or for a minimal rent - after all, this is a convenient infrastructure for clients, employees and partners.

How much can you earn from a scooter station?

The cost of scooter rides varies and is determined by the franchisees themselves. Suppose one trip per day costs 100 rubles. When installing a rental station, you should be guided by the fact that on average, where a thousand people pass a day, each scooter will be rented three times a day. If there are 10 scooters at the station, we get revenue of 3 thousand rubles. in a day. Accordingly, the turnover of one station will be 90 thousand rubles. per month. As the experience of our franchisees shows, the turnover of one station for 10 scooters ranges from 30 to 180 thousand rubles. per month. The cost part is as follows: when creating a network of 10 stations, you need to invest 440 thousand rubles in the purchase of one station; when creating a larger network, the cost of the station is reduced to 396 thousand. 20% of the turnover will be a commission for using the infrastructure. As a rule, the average payback period for one station is one to one and a half seasons.

What project features need to be taken into account?

1. Seasonality

In the South, in Sochi and Krasnodar, scooter rental is available all year round. In the middle zone, for stations located in open spaces, the season lasts 7 months. Theoretically, even in the middle zone, if the city is well cleaned, a scooter can remain a convenient means of transportation. However, now we recommend that our partners preserve the stations for the winter. During the off-season, the stations can be moved indoors, but they will also overwinter outside without consequences. The main thing is to carry out conservation measures on time according to our instructions, so that in the spring the station begins to operate without breakdowns.

2. Maintenance

Rental stations require simple maintenance, such as rebooting, minor repairs (tighten nuts), and cleaning scooters. This function is assumed by the franchisee. He can use the services of an existing service center or create his own, earning up to 20% of revenue from servicing other network partners.

Samocat Sharing has its own call center, where any client can call if any questions arise, and which will inform the franchisee about any emergency situation. In the event of a serious breakdown, the scooter can be delivered to a special Samocat Sharing service center.

3. Customer Service

The station has no buttons or screens; it is completely autonomous and automated. We have created the Samocat Cloud information system, which is capable of providing 100 thousand trips simultaneously. The user interacts with the system through a mobile application.

4. Vandalism

The design of the station is vandal-proof; it can only be damaged using some special tools. We encountered extremely rare cases of vandalism. If the station is located on the street, then the risk of vandalism is higher, but we are constantly working to improve the designs. And, of course, in enclosed spaces on the territory of shopping centers and business centers that are under security, problems associated with vandalism are practically excluded. In closed hotel areas, these problems are completely eliminated.

Economy

From an economic point of view, moped rental is a profitable business. However, you can look at it from different angles. In terms of income per invested ruble, you can have a good return. But from the standpoint of absolute income numbers, this is the most small business . A business that you can do on your own, with friends, for pleasure and entertainment. You won't be able to make a fortune renting scooters, but having fun and making money at the same time is quite possible. The purchase price of one scooter varies from twenty to sixty thousand rubles. You should also acquire good contacts for the purchase of components and spare parts, since you will have to repair your equipment often. In general, one scooter pays for itself in a season. The rental price for one hour is 200-300 rubles. It's better to work hard and come up with ways to entice visitors to rent scooters for a few hours. The discount system works great, especially when there are hours of 100% downtime. Giving out mopeds for the day is also an interesting option . Here you need to think about what price to set for daily rental, taking into account the average workload of the scooter, so that it is no less profitable than renting it out during the day.

Motosharing service staff

Since the business is strictly seasonal, many consider opening a motorcycle sharing service not as their main income. In this regard, it seems logical to hire staff so as not to distract the owner from his main area of activity. These are 1-2 customer service managers (payroll 25-30,000 rubles), who can be hired, for example, among students during the holidays, as well as a technician on a piece-rate wage system (for periodic repairs of scooters and their maintenance).

Managers will be responsible for issuing equipment, maintaining cash discipline and concluding contracts with clients, and can also work in the format of a small call center to remotely resolve issues that arise with clients during operation.

More thoughts

In addition, you can consider the possibility of renting bicycles. This is relevant if there is somewhere to ride from your point. It is still advisable to use such a trick for the second season, when the mopeds have already paid for themselves, so as not to take unnecessary risks. Or consider the possibility of delivering a scooter to a specific location with long-term rental. But this is already an addition, when there is confidence that the business will survive in its main area of activity without additional services. There can be a lot of additional ways to earn money when organizing scooter rentals, starting from renting helmets and repairing other people’s equipment. In addition to a good income, you can also spend your summer interestingly by gaining good experience in organizing a business. And last but not least, a video demonstrating the advantages of a scooter as a mode of transport:

Starting a business

To open your own salon selling motorcycles, you must register an LLC with the following code according to the OKVED classifier:

45.40. Trade in motorcycles, their parts, assemblies and accessories; motorcycle maintenance and repair.

To organize a salon for the sale of motorcycles, a covered premises with an area of 200-300 square meters, located next to the main transport routes of the city, is suitable.