The 7 benefits of launching a shared mobility business in a small town
July 31, 2023
min. read
Whether we're talking car sharing, mopeds, or scooters, shared mobility is usually associated with large, buzzing cities. More potential customers, longer distances to travel, and higher demand for transportation services – these often seem like key business factors for aspiring mobility entrepreneurs.
But large cities present hurdles, too. From intense competition to higher operating expenses, establishing yourself in a major urban center is a costly uphill battle that's becoming more difficult by the day.
In response, mobility entrepreneurs are increasingly eyeing small towns for their operations.
Launching a shared mobility business in a small town comes with a distinct set of advantages that may be particularly suited for those taking their first steps in the industry. While industry veterans are also exploring opportunities to expand their operations beyond the big cities, smaller towns might not meet their desired level of profitability and hence are typically overlooked.
In what follows, we'll detail seven important benefits of launching a shared mobility business in a small town and take a quick look at what such an operation could look like.
7 reasons to launch a shared mobility business in a small town
Unless you're working with massive capital and are willing to go to war with several other operators, a small town can be the perfect place to begin your shared mobility business journey. Especially if you yourself come from that or a nearby town.
1. Meet real needs
One of the most significant advantages of operating in a small town is the ability to meet genuine transportation needs. Local entrepreneurs, themselves part of the community, possess an intimate understanding of the unique requirements and behaviors of their fellow residents.
Accordingly, it can be very rewarding both financially and socially to provide a mobility solution that tackles specific issues, and no large competition can do it as quickly or efficiently as a local entrepreneur.
2. Better collaboration with authorities and residents
Working with local authorities in small towns is often a more streamlined and collaborative process. This makes obtaining permits and navigating regulations considerably easier compared to larger cities.
The smaller scale and close-knit nature of these communities allow entrepreneurs and city officials to establish closer working relationships, fostering open communication, and a joint vision in developing mobility solutions that are best suited for the town.
3. More effective marketing
Marketing and advertising efforts in small towns can be significantly simplified and more effective. Sometimes marketing might even be unnecessary. Local entrepreneurs have the advantage of leveraging community events, traditions, and personal connections to create impactful marketing campaigns that resonate deeply with the residents.
This localized approach not only enhances brand visibility but also establishes a sense of familiarity and trust among potential customers – elements that outside brands may find very difficult to replicate.
4. Little-to-no competition
One of the most enticing aspects of launching a shared mobility business in a small town is the lack of competition from major players. Major companies may overlook these areas due to perceived limited profitability potential, leaving the market wide open for local entrepreneurs to establish themselves as the primary mobility service provider.
With little or no competition to contend with, entrepreneurs can seize the opportunity to capture a significant market share and build a loyal customer base from the outset.
5. Faster service adoption
A major challenge when launching in a big city is slow adoption. Travelers have lots of options to choose from and they typically already have mobile apps for the most popular service providers. As a result, this can make them hesitant to download another app or to change their habits.
In smaller cities, this is a non-issue. Word of mouth travels fast and it's much easier to get noticed when you have little-to-no competition. Ultimately, this helps your mobility business start generating more revenue faster.
6. Easier B2B or B2G partnerships
The local nature of small towns enhances the potential for fruitful partnerships and collaborations. As a local business, shared mobility entrepreneurs are more likely to garner the interest and support of other organizations in the vicinity. Building partnerships becomes more accessible, as there is a shared understanding of the community's needs and a mutual interest in driving positive change.
For instance, establishing collaborations with local businesses to offer corporate fleet services or working in conjunction with the local government to provide special discounts for specific groups of citizens can create mutually beneficial arrangements. These partnerships not only expand the business' customer base but also strengthen its reputation.
7. Simpler and more effective ground operations
Small towns, by their very nature, offer a significant advantage in terms of simplified and efficient ground operations for shared mobility businesses. With smaller geographical areas and populations, the logistical challenges associated with tasks such as vehicle collection, relocation, and maintenance are greatly minimized.
The compact size of small towns often results in lower operational costs, enabling entrepreneurs to maintain a lean and cost-effective operation, while keeping customer satisfaction high.
A typical small town operation
The needs of a city with a population of 20-30k people can be effectively met with a reasonable fleet size of 80-150 scooters, which is an optimal starting size for scooter-sharing businesses. As mentioned, such a fleet is also easy to maintain and keeps ongoing operational costs low.
Small cities are often surrounded by other nearby smaller 5-10k people towns, which offer expansion opportunities without dramatically increasing servicing and maintenance costs and efforts. This allows the fleet to be managed by a single employee on the ground, while keeping the central ~20k population city as an operational hub.
From our own 100+ operators, we see that small town operators with no other competition are earning more money per vehicle than their counterparts in bigger cities – a very important metric, particularly in the early stages of building a shared mobility business.
Best =/= biggest
When you hear “burgers” you think “McDonalds”. But when you hear “best burgers in town” you probably think of some local burger joint that you would choose over McDonalds every day of the week.
It's a similar story with shared mobility businesses – most entrepreneurs aspire to be Uber or Bolt, to take over the big cities, and to become a dominant name in the industry. But the reality is that you can find great business success by shining locally.
If you're interested in starting your own shared mobility venture, join our ATOM Academy to learn more and see if it's the right car sharing or scooter sharing software for you.
Interested in launching your own mobility platform?
Click below to learn more or request a demo.
Blog
Digitizing your vehicle rental business: Best apps & software for small operators
🚗📲 Whether you're renting out cars, bikes or scooters, the best rental businesses in 2025 are fully digital. No more paper contracts or office keys – just tap, unlock, and go. In our latest article, we explore top apps (like Donkey Republic, MOBY Bikes and Forest) that show what a modern rental experience looks like. Plus, we explain where a full platform like ATOM Mobility fits in when you're ready to scale.
January 28, 2026
min. read
Running a rental or sharing business today means delivering a smooth, digital-first experience. Whether you rent cars, bikes, scooters or other vehicles – users expect to book online, pay, verify identity if needed, unlock a vehicle, and ride or drive without extra friction.
To make that happen reliably, you need good vehicle rental software or platform backing your service. Below are some successful examples of apps and platforms that show how this works and what is possible.
Donkey Republic
Operates in several European cities offering shared bikes and e‑bikes. Users find a bike in the app, unlock it with a smartphone, ride, then park at a designated drop‑off spot and end the rental. Pay‑as‑you‑go, daily rates or memberships are all handled via the app.
MOBY Bikes
Targets electric bicycles and e‑cargo bikes across certain regions, with a “tap‑and‑ride” system that uses its proprietary app for booking, unlocking, and rental management. The platform supports mixed-use fleets (shared bikes, cargo bikes, delivery fleet, even B2B rentals), which illustrates flexibility – useful for operators exploring different business models beyond simple consumer rentals.
Forest
It is a dockless e‑bike sharing operator in London. It runs a large fleet and offers bike‑sharing through a mobile app. The service demonstrates how a relatively simple, dockless rental model can scale at urban level using app‑based rentals, unlocking, and flexible parking.
These examples show how micromobility‑focused services already rely on booking, payment, unlocking and fleet management tech – the same core capabilities needed by any modern vehicle rental business.
What makes these apps work – and what to borrow from them
From these operators you can observe several useful traits that a good rental/sharing software should provide:
- Seamless user journey: crate account in seconds → search → book → unlock → ride/drive → return. Users don’t need paper contracts or to meet staff to get a vehicle.
- Flexible pricing & rental models: per-minute, hourly, daily, subscription, memberships – enables both occasional users and frequent commuters.
- Smart access control and vehicle tracking: unlocking via app or smart lock, GPS tracking, drop‑off in defined zones or docking stations, helps maintain order, reduce theft, and support dockless models.
- Support for different vehicle types: from bikes to e‑bikes and cargo bikes – showing that underlying software can be agnostic to vehicle type, useful if you plan a mixed fleet.
- Scalable fleet operations and maintenance: availability updates, booking history, maintenance logs, geofencing or parking zones – these help manage many vehicles across zones without chaos.
These are exactly the kinds of features you need when you move from small‑scale operation to proper fleet business.
Why to choose ATOM Mobility
If you plan to just test the market or to operate a larger and more complex fleet - multiple vehicle types, multiple cities, or advanced operational requirements - a full-stack platform like ATOM Mobility becomes essential.
ATOM Mobility is designed for operators who need full control over the entire mobility operation: booking flows, unlocking logic, payments, KYC/ID verification, backend administration, fleet analytics, dynamic pricing, and multi-modal rentals across cars, scooters, bikes, and more.
The platform provides a unified backend that supports cars, scooters, e-bikes, mopeds, and additional vehicle types within a single system. Operators can manage bookings, payments, users, smart locks or connected vehicles, fleet health, and city-level scaling without fragmenting their tech stack as the business grows.
This approach offers far greater flexibility than single-vehicle or bike-only solutions and removes the need to migrate systems when expanding into new vehicle categories or markets. Check out the full service here.
How to choose: when to use franchising vs full platform
Join a franchising when you:
- prefer operating under an established brand
- value a clear operational playbook and central support
- want simpler marketing thanks to brand recognition
- are comfortable with limited control over technology and product decisions
- accept franchise fees or revenue sharing in exchange for convenience
- don’t need heavy customization or experimentation
Use a full platform (like ATOM Mobility) when you:
- aim to manage a larger, mixed fleet (cars, scooters, bikes, e-bikes)
- need full backend control (admin, analytics, pricing, reporting)
- require payments, KYC/ID verification, and automation built in
- want freedom to customize booking flows, pricing, and partnerships
- plan to scale across cities or add new vehicle types over time
- prioritise brand ownership and customer relationship control
- want no revenue sharing or franchise fees
There isn’t a one‑size‑fits‑all solution
For simple bike or e-bike fleets, the technology barrier is already low. Joining a franchise can be a fast way to get operations running with minimal setup.
However, operators with long-term ambitions - expanding into multiple vehicle types, scaling across locations, or maintaining consistent service quality - typically outgrow narrow tools. In those cases, a full-stack platform like ATOM Mobility offers the flexibility and control needed to support growth without rebuilding the tech foundation later.
Some operators start small and migrate as complexity increases. Others choose to build on a full platform from day one to avoid future transitions. The right choice depends on how clearly you define your growth path, desired level of control, and operational complexity from the start.
Blog
How AI is already powering shared mobility: Real-world use cases from ATOM Mobility
📱AI in shared mobility isn’t a future trend – it’s already here, and for good. From detecting car damage to forecasting demand and verifying parking in real time, operators are using AI to reduce manual work and run more efficient fleets. In this new article, we break down 3 real use cases already live on the ATOM Mobility platform: 👁️ Vision AI, 🔍 Precision AI, 📊 Prediction AI. See how AI is changing shared mobility, and how you can start using it now.
January 21, 2026
min. read
Artificial intelligence is no longer just a trend in mobility. For modern vehicle sharing and rental services, AI is already solving real operational problems and unlocking new ways to grow. At ATOM Mobility, several AI-powered features have already been implemented into live products and tested by operators across Europe.
This article shares three real-world AI use cases that are already helping operators reduce manual work, improve asset control, and better match vehicle availability to demand.
1. Vision AI: Camera-based parking control for micromobility
Micromobility parking continues to be a challenge in cities where dockless vehicles can end up blocking sidewalks, crossings or entrances. Manual checks are costly and often too slow to solve the problem in real time.
ATOM Mobility now uses computer vision to solve this. With Vision AI, riders take a photo when ending their ride. The system analyses the image using a neural network to understand if the vehicle is parked correctly – within a designated zone and without creating obstructions. If not, the app notifies the user and prevents trip completion until the parking is corrected.Each parking photo is automatically tagged as “Good parking”, “Improvable parking” (the user receives guidance on how to improve the parking), or “Bad parking” (the user is asked to re-park).
If the user fails to submit a “Good parking” photo after several attempts, the system will accept the photo with its current tag (“Improvable” or “Bad parking”) and flag it in the dashboard for further customer support review.
This solution has been live with many operators already. It helps reduce complaints, improve compliance with city regulations, and lowers the need for manual reviews.
2. Precision AI: Detecting car rental damages with cameras and machine learning
In traditional car rental, damage inspection is slow, manual, and often inconsistent. With self-service rentals becoming more popular, operators need a smarter and faster way to verify a vehicle’s condition between trips.
ATOM Mobility has integrated AI-powered damage detection using computer vision. Customers scan the vehicle at pick-up and drop-off. The app compares images and flags scratches, dents, or other visible damage with high accuracy. This allows operators to quickly assess responsibility and reduce disputes.
The system helps protect the fleet, lowers repair costs, and adds trust for both users and operators. It’s especially useful for car sharing and self-service rental models where physical handovers are skipped.
3. Prediction AI: Forecasting demand and automating vehicle relocation
One of the biggest cost factors in shared mobility is rebalancing the fleet. If scooters or cars are idle in the wrong location, revenue is lost. At the same time, relocating vehicles manually is expensive and not always efficient.
ATOM’s AI models use historical trip data, usage trends and contextual signals (such as day of the week or weather) to forecast demand and suggest the best relocation zones. This gives operators a map of where and when to move vehicles – improving utilisation and saving time.
The system can even be combined with automated relocation logic, where users are incentivised to park in high-demand areas. This shifts part of the rebalancing cost from operators to riders and keeps the fleet productive.
Why this matters now
AI tools are finally reaching the stage where they can operate reliably, even in complex environments like cities. These examples are not abstract ideas or lab tests. They’re active features helping ourcustomers run leaner, smarter fleets today.
For micromobility operators, Vision AI reduces complaints and ensures regulatory compliance. For car rental providers, Precision AI saves hours of staff time and improves trust. And for both, Prediction AI improves margins by making sure vehicles are where users need them.
What’s up next?
These are just the first steps. AI in mobility will continue to expand with smarter pricing engines, voice-based support, predictive maintenance, and more. But the examples above already prove that even small AI integrations can bring major improvements.
At ATOM Mobility, we continue building these tools directly into our platform so that operators don’t need to develop them in-house. If you want to see how these AI-powered features work in action, get in touch with our team.
AI in shared mobility is not about replacing people. It’s about giving operators better tools to run faster, smarter, and more efficient services.
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