Environmentally friendly mobility concept with high growth potential
More and more people than ever before are signing up to Bilkollektivet, a co-operative founded 25 years ago in Oslo and the oldest car sharing provider in the country. Every month, 400 to 500 new people register up for the ever-growing pool of vehicles.
A co-operation between the Norwegians and the German mobility software specialist MOQO now makes car sharing even easier, more transparent and more convenient for both the operators and the approximately 11,000 users it now boasts.
Bilkollektivet currently has 603 cars in the capital Oslo and 15 cars in Stavanger, the fourth largest city in the country. The co-operative works in such a way that members become shareholders when they join the co-operative.
They pay a monthly fee to use the car sharing service and otherwise pay only the fees per booking. Fuel and tolls are included.
The co-operative is not only successful in terms of growing membership and usage (40 per cent in 2020) but also economically: in 2019, it returned profits of NOK 618,000 (around EUR 55,000) on a turnover of NOK 57.1 million (around EUR 5.6 million).
Sales increased by 15 per cent and profit by 19 per cent. For 2020, expected sales are around NOK 70 million (around EUR 6.76 million).
A convincing mobility concept with profitable figures and a strong position
The Bilkollektivet success story is set to go even further.
Morten Munch-Olsen, CEO of Bilkollektivet, says: “Our mission is to offer an alternative to owning a car and to enable mobility with a non-profit car-sharing service. Everything we generate as a non-profit organisation is dedicated to expanding the vehicle fleet and providing even more benefits for members.”
He characterises his co-op members. “These are people who have a genuine interest in reducing unnecessary journeys by car and the number of cars in the city.”
Expanding the business model with the mobility service provider Digital Mobility Solutions
At the end of 2020, Bilkollektivet partnered with the Aachen-based mobility service provider Digital Mobility Solutions to use the innovative smart app MOQO.
MOQO digitally maps all the processes necessary for shared mobility – both for the car-sharing provider and for the customer: from information about the availability of vehicles, registrations and driver’s licence validations to booking requests and billing processes to services such as cleaning and recording damage or vehicle status.
Bilkollektivet’s management has chosen MOQO for good reasons. Munch-Olsen explains: “MOQO impresses with a number of good, successful reference projects.
The system architecture is modern, the app user-friendly. The MOQO team is forward-looking, agile and offers professional customer management. MOQO has the resources to help us continue to excel.”
MOQO mobility software as a support for sustainable shared mobility models
The MOQO app has already been successfully established on the market: The shared mobility specialists at Digital Mobility Solutions have been developing and marketing the software since 2010 and already manage around 120 projects using MOQO.
In 2020, user numbers for the MOQO app grew by 100 per cent to more than 40,000 users across Europe. Revenue growth for the company is expected to be even higher this year.
Dr Michael Minis, managing director of Digital Mobility Solutions, sees MOQO as a central software building block for shared mobility solutions: “With MOQO, shared mobility offers are easily customizable. They also work for large vehicle fleets – as will be the case in future with our partner Bilkollektivet in Norway.
“MOQO is ideal for mobility concepts that are designed for growth and profitability – for locally operating mobility initiatives as well as for municipal companies or internationally operating companies that have mobility as their business core.”
Expansion plans: Complete package ‘Bilkollektivet and MOQO’ for the whole of Norway
MOQO will be available for Bilkollektivet to use from 18 January 2021. Bilkollektivet wants to offer the total package “co-operative car sharing with the MOQO app” to Norwegian municipalities not yet equipped for car sharing.
Other regions are to be able to offer shared mobility themselves on a co-operative basis.
Munch-Olsen says: “We have proven that we have the right business model to deliver a compelling service at a reasonable price.”
