Ola launches new offering of bicycles ‘Ola Pedal’, to run pilots on college campuses

Homegrown cab aggregator Ola has launched another segment of rides, ‘Ola Pedal’ for users to cover short distances. According to a statement from the company, Pedal is India’s first-of-its-kind bicycle sharing service meant for short distances inside college campuses, tech parks and for last mile connectivity, with the aim to make rides more earth-friendly.

These are meant for ‘distances not far, but too far to walk,” according to the company.

The bicycles, made in India, come with a dockless smart-lock system. Available on the Ola app, the machine-learning algorithm, Ola claims, will ensure that the ride is always available for users when needed.

"We are piloting Ola Pedal in various campuses, to begin with. Bicycles are a sustainable and efficient alternative for covering first and last mile mobility needs in our cities. With superior technology and available to book on the same Ola app, used by millions of Indians on a daily basis, Ola Pedal will go a long way in solving larger issues like pollution and congestion in our cities, especially for short distance trips,” a company spokesperson said.

Ola Pedal will first be piloted in various campuses, where Ola says, it is seeing massive interest across the city. The first pilot began in IIT Kanpur on November 2. In the coming weeks, Ola will be working on expanding the scope of the offering across the country.

The service is free for the first 30 minutes and post this it will a charge Rs 5 for every half an hour. When a student books a bicycle on the app, they will get a code, which can be used to unlock the service, according to an IIT Kanpur student community Facebook page.

As per a VCCircle report, the company put out around 600 bicycles, while another set of more sophisticated bicycles with GPS, QR Code and smart locks will be soon deployed on the campus.

This is the company’s second earth-friendly offering after it launched India’s first electric vehicle charging station in Nagpur. It is also looking to partner with Tata Motors to launch an EV version of Nano, which will be deployed as part of Ola’s fleet of taxis in Delhi/NCR by the end of 2017.