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- Moving people & goods: increasing fees, diversifying into new solutions, concentrating on profitable markets and cutting valuations
Moving people & goods: increasing fees, diversifying into new solutions, concentrating on profitable markets and cutting valuations
Lyft increases fees; Uber launches ads and P2P Carshare; Turo downunder; Bolt taxis in Paris and Uber taxis in Belgium; OEM car-sharing ownership map; Bird exits Germany, Sweden, Norway plus dozen of US & EMEA cities; UberEats and Grab moving away from dark locations; DoorDash in NZ; Deliveroo in Qatar & leaves Netherlands; UberEats drug mules #2; GoPuff lays off another 250 employees; Arrival focusing on the US (bye bye UK); Mobileye IPO is low; and the (sad) state of the gig economy.
Moving people & goods 🔴
🛴 Bird exits Germany, Sweden, Norway and several dozen US and EMEA markets, as it is “Refocusing on our road to self-sustainability”. Bird will be exiting cities who “lack a regulatory framework necessary to facilitate the development of an innovative, competitive, self-sustaining micromobility industry”. It is not clear which ‘several dozen’ markets, when, and how long a notice those cities will get.
🥡 UberEats UK creates a pilot rapid-20min-delivery partnership with Iceland, starting with three London locations; no more dark, expensive warehouses - the future is delivering from retailers' existing points-of-sale. Grab closes dark warehouses in Indonesia amid efforts to adopt an asset-light business model. Have we come full circle with delivery?
💸 A gig economy analysis (spoiler: bust) from Oversharing. Bird is worth less today than its seed round; in addition Helbiz 97%, Lyft 82%, Grab 76%, DoorDash 55% and Uber 39% - down since IPO. Instacart cuts valuation to $13bn, the 3rd time the company devalued itself. Back in 2021 Instacart raised at a $39bn valuation… times have changed.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedRide-hailing, car sharing & DRT 🚙🚌
Changes in OEMs traditional and P2P car-sharing activities 2015-2022; almost all OEMs have some activity in the ‘industry’ - take a look at the ownership map.
Lyft increases service fees, to combat increasing insurance costs. The 18% increase in service fee translates into a 3% increase in average ride cost. Uber is testing in-car ad-displaying tablets in LA and SF; the company formed an advertising division that will also create revenues via the app, emails, on car-top ads etc. This follows a similar step by Lyft.
Uber Carshare. 10 months ago Uber acquired Australian P2P car-sharing ‘Car Next Door’, and is now rebranding as Uber Carshare. The P2P solution will make its way to the US in 2023. Turo is expanding to Australia. Back in June Turo expanded to France via the OuiCar acquisition, and now is executing its 2nd 2022 international expansion.
Bolt starts working with taxis in Paris, joining FreeNow and Uber. Uber partnered with ABVV-BTB, the Belgian union of transport workers, in a first in its kind EU Uber-taxi partnership. Uber gains access to taxi fleets in Belgium, with drivers receiving greater say and representation. Yet, the question of whether drivers are employees or independent contractors has not been solved. FlixBus insists on inclusion in Germany’s planned €49 public transport ticket, The new ticket (coming after the €9 scheme) currently does not include long distance travel. Mexico is planning to regulate ride-hailing and delivery riders as employees, as soon as 2023.
Padam launched “TheRobin”, DRT in Gloucestershire, UK. Iomob launches new ‘MaaS’ mobility platform; the platform has partnerships with the likes of CMAC, Bolt, Human Forest, Q-Park and Karhoo, and currently offers access to more than 7,000 taxi fleets, 10,000 car parks and 1,800 public transport feeds in more than 270 cities. Via powers ‘IndyGo” service uses cars on a corner-to-corner service. We can ask ourselves why microtransit (DRT) uses cars rather than mass-transport vehicles, when it was cars it was supposed to replace in the first place. It seems that cars still have a place in the transportation mix.
Freebee, US electric ride-hailing, gets a $6M investment from BP. The company has 150 vehicles with 230 drivers operating in 15 locations in Florida and Virginia. Money will be used to expand in the US.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedDelivery 🍽🧺
DoorDash expands to New Zealand, starting with Christchurch. Deliveroo is live in Qatar, its 3rd Middle-Eastern market. UberEats will start delivering marijuana in Toronto, by partnering with cannabis marketplace Leafly. It will be the retailer’s staff, not Uber drivers, that will handle the dropoff. Prior to this, since November, you could only order take-away via the app. Amazon plans to double the number of European cities where it has ‘micromobility hubs’
Deliveroo to exit Dutch market on November 30th, after announcing the move two months ago. The company is still active in 10 markets. GoPuff lays-off ±250 employees from the customer service team, continuing an effort started in July to reduce 10% of the workforce.
Rabbit, Cairo 20 min delivery service, announced it is operational positive. The achievement, announced ±week ago, is attributed to the month October, which, looking at the calendar, is still on-going.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedAutonomous 🤖: Scotland’s first autonomous bus pilot project launched in Inverness, with Stagecoach and Navya. Auve Tech launched MiCa, its new self-driving shuttle. Waymo plans to launch a 24/7 robotaxi service in Los Angeles, where the company has been present since 2019.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedManufacturers 🛺⚡️: Arrival is pivoting away from the UK to the US, focusing on a “family of van products”. The move is probably going to cost many jobs, more info to be shared in November's earning call. The refocus is also attributed to a new US tax credit scheme. Rivian hires ex-Waymo ex-Zoox executive to lead autonomy and AI. Mullen acquires ELMS, EV manufacturer, for $240M in cash, accelerating Mullen production plans. ELMS has recently filed for bankruptcy, after completing a $1.4bn SPAC in 2021.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFlying cars 🚁☁️: Blade and Eve announce UAM partnership to expand eVTOL sector in India. Blade will operate EVe’s eVTOL, sharing customer experience and operations with Eve. Plana joins the eVTOL race with a $8.3M series A round. Joby Aviation to apply for Japanese aircraft certification.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedIn other news 📰
Mobileye is expected to IPO at ±$15-20bn, 60% down from the once announced $50bn and roughly the amount Intel paid in 2017. Ouch. The IPO date is expected on October 26th, and only ±6% of the company will go public. The rest will probably wait for better days, but both Mobileye founder and Intel want to IPO now; Mobileye’s founder because he wants independence for Mobileye to operate in the market vs. Nvidia and Qualcomm, and Intel because they are to gain ±$1bn out of the move.
Fleet management IOT project of the year competition by Wialon. Cold chain deliveries optimisation for Amazon and Carrefour, construction industry dispatching, AI video telematics and two fuel monitoring projects are the winners.