LTA approves licences for 6 bike sharing operators

Only GBikes got rejected.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) approved full licenses to Mobike, ofo, and SG Bike whilst sandbox licenses will be given to Anywheel, Grabcycle and Qiqi Zhixiang by end October, following their payment of licence fees, an announcement revealed.

The said applicants passed the assessment criteria, which include the applicant’s ability to manage indiscriminate parking, fleet utilisation rate, financial strength, redistribution plans, overall demand for shared-bicycles and availability of parking spaces.

Meanwhile, GBikes did not pass the assessment criteria and shall not be given a license as a bicycle sharing operator.

LTA will require licensees to right-size their bicycle fleets to the approved fleet size.

“We will give operators sufficient time to right-size their fleets and transit to the new licensing regime,” the agency said.

For sandbox licensees, a maximum fleet size of 1,000 will be granted. LTA will then monitor their performance closely before determining whether to grant them full licences.

Furthermore, licensees will be required to transmit data to LTA, remove indiscriminately parked bicycles and implement QR code geo-fencing and ban on users who repeatedly park their shared bicycles indiscriminately.

“Licenced operators that do not comply with licence conditions will face regulatory sanctions, which may include financial penalties of up to $100,000 for each non-compliance, reductions in fleet size, suspension or termination of their licences.” they explained.

Photo from Mobike.