PedalMe Crowdfund

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OP
OP
Boopop

Boopop

Guru
Arrowfoot said:
A large truck with 2 staff would have done the job faster. I use to live next to Lambeth, there is hardly any traffic that will impede a large truck doing distribution.
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Again, I disagree.

It was an operation to drop off care packages, presumably meaning one or two boxes to each household. Lambeth has modal filters as part of the Low Traffic Neighbourhood they have implemented. One lumbering truck driving around residential streets, navigating parked cars and tight corners would have taken a lot longer I think. Not only can the cargo bikes get through modal filters, they're easier to park and they'd have multiple people doing deliveries in parallel for a lower cost than running a single truck. I really do not think a truck and two staff could deliver 400 care packages a day in a built up area. When I've received deliveries from parcel companies I think the highest stop number I've been on a route is something like 100 or so.

I think 400 parcels a day for two people and a truck in a residential area is extremely optimistic. If they worked a 10 hour day that would be a delivery every 90 seconds. Even a 14 hour day would be a delivery every two minutes and six seconds, and both those calculations exclude breaks, lunch, and so on. Based on those calculations I think you'd need at least 4 or 5 separate vehicles to do that, at which point you'd be at ten staff in pairs doing a delivery every ten minutes roughly, with hopefully enough time for a break.

Given the running costs of 4/5 vans/trucks and ten staff, I think it's pretty reasonable that a set of cargo bike riders could do it cheaper and more efficiently.

EDIT: Clearly e-cargo bikes aren't as effective a solution for huge sprawling cities full of stroads, multi-lane highways and a wasteland of empty car parks, or indeed rural areas, but I strongly believe for relatively compact built up cities and residential zones like what London has, they're the future.
 
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Drago

Drago

Legendary Member
Location
Suburban Poshshire
Arrowfoot said:
According to the FOI, their quoted rate was cheaper than others. The quoted rate may not have covered their cost and most start-up do it to gain a profile. Ocado ran for years without making a profit and no dividends. And it is also not in Lambeth Council interest to see if Pedalme is covering their cost.
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To be fair to Ocado, they had massive backing so could afford their loss making operating model while they established the concept.
 
nickyboy

nickyboy

Norven Mankey
Location
You want hills? We got hills
Unfortunately for Pedal Me, it's costing them more to attract one customer than one customer delivers in revenue, hence their widening losses.. So they are either going to have to do capital raise after capital raise, diluting shareholders into oblivion or they are going to have to find someone to buy them with deep pockets. Or they go bust
 
dutchguylivingintheuk

dutchguylivingintheuk

Über Member
nickyboy said:
Unfortunately for Pedal Me, it's costing them more to attract one customer than one customer delivers in revenue, hence their widening losses.. So they are either going to have to do capital raise after capital raise, diluting shareholders into oblivion or they are going to have to find someone to buy them with deep pockets. Or they go bust
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Yeah that's with virtually all services like this, the one's surviving rely on their drivers bringing/buying their own equipment which is basically what Deliveroo, Just eat and uber eats are doing but then with food.
But that would make this a lot more complicated as the bikes they use are expensive, it hard finding reliable employees, even harder of they have to put down 5-6k before starting to earn something. probably excluding the cost of training etc.
 
A

Arrowfoot

Guest
classic33 said:
Now appears to have folded.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10809090
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Not all surprised.
Arrowfoot said:
Though noble, the barrier to entry is low, productivity / efficiency ratios are low etc at a commercial level. If I the rider finds that I have good business over time transporting cargo good, I would appeal to my family for a loan to get a second hand white van and cover more and make more. The company becomes vulnerable.

To retain this noble cause it would make sense for local municipal to allow individuals to run the service like they do with pedicabs in London.
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I stated earlier that it is not commercially viable.
 
Dogtrousers

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
fossyant said:
Accounts were only made upto 2019 - something dodgy going on, or they've switched to a different 'company' name ?
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Or it's a different Pedalme company that's been dissolved?? Very odd.
 
Dogtrousers

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
dutchguylivingintheuk

dutchguylivingintheuk

Über Member
Dogtrousers said:
Actually the personnel of Bike Taxi and that of PedalMe (dissolved) are quite different. And BikeTaxi Ltd includes - or included - the names of some of the founders of PedalMe given in Wikipedia. So maybe PedalMe Ltd being dissolved is a bit of a red herring?
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Dissolved rather than bankrupt is the interesting thing, ik would have expect bankrupt because that would mean they load it with debts and move on to a other company, a very dodgy but well used trick here in the uk and elsewhere.
But dissolved is just ceasing to exist are there some taxed they might dodge dissolving within a x amount of years?
 
classic33

classic33

Leg End Member
cougie uk said:
On the crowdfunding site - it's bike taxi down as the name of the company.
Not actually Pedal Me.
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The advertising on the bikes states clearly "Download the pedalme app", along with pedalme and their logo clearly visible.

Which is it?
 
Dogtrousers

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
classic33 said:
The advertising on the bikes states clearly "Download the pedalme app", along with pedalme and their logo clearly visible.

Which is it?
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I don't think that there be has to be a relationship between trading name and registered company name. I think you can trade under any name you like.

But if someone else has prior claim to the name they can take action to stop you.

But I'm no expert.
 
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