Despite 'kidnappings', dockless bike service passes 100K rides in Auckland

Tuesday, 28 August 2018

Onzos are famed for being left in hard-to-reach places.

They've ended up in trees, have been hauled out of creeks and urban legend says they're used by a drug-peddling gang of homeless people, but the bright yellow-and-black Onzo bikes are becoming part of Auckland's urban scene.

Launched less than nine months ago, the dockless bike-sharing service has just marked its 100,000th journey.

But it hasn't been a smooth ride. Onzos are famed for being left in hard-to-reach places.

At one point, Onzo worker Min-kyu Jung considered extending the company's sales pitch: 'You can leave our bikes anywhere,' to include: 'But not up a tree.'

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A 'kidnapped' Onzo bike lodged in a tree in Brewster Ave Mt Albert.

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'Kidnapped' is the term used for bikes that haven't been left in a readily accessible public place for the next user.

Scouring the city for the bikes is a full-time job for employees Harry and Han, who spend their days extracting them from hard-to-reach places.

Harry Yang (closest camera) and Han Li, scour the city-scape trying to source kidnapped bikes

However, Onzo spokesperson Han Li said kidnapped bikes were decreasing gradually because people were used to using them.

Despite the Onzo team never having heard of the homeless gang, Li acknowledged kidnapped bikes were justpart of the dockless deal.

'When we first started we underestimated the follow-up of the job. Bikes are stolen and damaged, often,' Li said.

Helmets are a new target for thieves and the team are trying to address that too.

Since the launch of Onzo in October 2017, bikes up trees and coated in barnacles aside, the bikes have successfully grown in number and users.

Currently, there were around 1500 bikes in the city, all traceable by a built-in GPS.

Li said there were about '500-ish' daily users now, mostly from people in the CBD. But Westies were big fans of the black and yellow service too.

'Mostly people like to use Onzo where there are bike paths, such as Wynyard Quarter, along Mission Bay,' Li said.

'People can really start to rely on Onzo more as a method of transport.'

Onzo is a private enterprise run by a team of 10 guys in the CBD, including founder Nigo Hu.

Its bikes feature a dockless locking system, meaning the rear wheel is immobilised when not in use.

Users can unlock the bikes by scanning them with the Onzo mobile app.

Cyclists pay $0.25 for 15 minutes, $1 an hour. Bikes have all the safety features and come with helmets attached, as per New Zealand law.

Once the ride has been completed, the user simply relocks the bike and leaves it in a public place for the next person.

Bike businesses similar to the Onzo sharing scheme have failed in Melbourne and other parts of the world.

'As far as we know, we are the only one in Auckland,' Li said.

'The dream would be to have enough bikes to be a viable source of transport - every 500 metres or so.'

Looking to the future, the team were talking to other city councils about bringing Onzo nation-wide, to cities Wellington and Whangarei.

'We are always trying to grow,' Li said.