Italy (Brussels Morning Newspaper), In the coming weeks, the city of the Strait will be able to boast reaching a thousand scooters and two hundred electric bikes (here the link), improving the “sharing mobility” service and promoting sustainable mobility in the historic center of Messina and the city’s tourist spots. However, the service, which was supposed to start in the summer of 2023 and only began in October 2023, is currently at one-tenth of its implementation, with 115 scooters and 50 e-bikes in circulation, provided by only one out of four companies (Verde Mercurio), with five having withdrawn since they were allocated in May.
These figures, subject to further withdrawals, confirm that from the publication of the notice for the acquisition of the event by companies interested in managing the service in the city (April 2023) until July 2023, the administration had to re-modulate the distribution of vehicles five times (due to withdrawals), with the final decision made in July 2023 and authorization to proceed with the service implementation given to the three companies that have yet to put their vehicles into circulation just this Monday (the delay is due to appeals filed by other companies and waiting for the Administrative Court’s ruling, explained by the Mobility department of the Municipality of Messina). And that’s not all, because, at the moment of the count, 300 bikes are missing, not (yet) assigned.
In April 2023, the Administration issued a call for expressions of interest in carrying out the rental service of electric scooters and pedal-assist bicycles with a free-floating system within the municipal territory. Ten companies participated in the call, nine of which were then tasked with putting vehicles into circulation (here the link). This led to a long process of determinations to re-modulate the distribution of vehicles as, in stages, week by week, various companies withdrew.
The first distribution was in May 2023, just after the expression of interest notice; then there was one at the beginning of June after Bit Mobility withdrew; then a third in mid-June due to the withdrawal of Ridemovi and Emtransit; a distribution accepted by four companies (two of the six expected did not respond, namely Lime and Drivio), reducing the number to four companies, then back to five because Ridemovi’s withdrawal was deemed positive, thus readmitted, forcing the Administration to make a new distribution at the beginning of July; and finally, a new distribution was made in July 2023 when the Administration decided to exclude Ridemovi again because the determination readmitting the company “could have led to unequal treatment among Economic Operators with possible consequent exposure of the Administration to appeals.”
The second determination in July, currently definitive, therefore distributes the fleet vehicles to only four of them: Verde Mercurio Società Cooperativa, based in Messina and the first operator (and the only one at the moment) to put vehicles into circulation last October (here the link); Voi Technology Italia s.r.l.; Toogo s.r.l.s.; and Vento Mobility s.r.l. This is why Verde Mercurio delivered more vehicles in October than initially assigned in May by the Administration: from 36 scooters and 14 e-bikes to 115 and 50. Voi Technology, the largest among these, was supposed to provide the city with 182 scooters and 14 bikes and now, instead, will provide the service for 556 scooters and 50 bikes.
Toogo and Vento, finally, were supposed to manage 36 and 73 electric scooters and 14 e-bikes each, a fleet that has now been increased to 111 scooters for Toogo, 222 for Vento, and 50 bikes for each of the two companies. With these numbers, the shared mobility vehicles available to the people of Messina and anyone in Messina equipped with the scooter or e-bike control app reached 1004 scooters (4 more than the forecast in the expression of interest notice in April 2023) and 200 electric bikes. 300 less than the same notice. Why? This is the total number proposed to be put into circulation during the participation in the call by the four companies currently in charge of managing the service. For the time being, the mobility department informs, that the e-bike fleet will not reach 500, but after the trial period, another call will be considered to reach the initially planned quota.
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