Insights and news from the ATOM Mobility team

Launching a scooter-sharing business no longer requires millions in funding or a team of software engineers. What once took large mobility companies years to build can now be launched in a matter of weeks. The challenge has shifted from technology to execution. Today's operators compete on reliability, operational efficiency, and the ability to work with cities rather than around them.

The opportunity, however, remains strong. According to the 2025 European Shared Mobility Index, Europe recorded more than 640 million shared mobility trips in 2024, with scooters remaining one of the largest mobility segments. For entrepreneurs looking to enter the market, the biggest advantage is that they no longer have to build everything from scratch. Proven business models, mature hardware, and established software platforms have made launching a scooter-sharing service much more accessible than it was just a few years ago.

Here's what to consider before launching your first fleet.

Step 1: Choose the right city

The success of a scooter-sharing business often depends more on the city than on the scooters themselves. Before investing in vehicles, take time to understand the local market. Does the city issue permits for scooter-sharing operators? Are there already established competitors? Is the population dense enough to support frequent short trips? Well-developed cycling infrastructure and strong public transport networks can also work in your favour by creating first and last mile travel opportunities. Competition isn't necessarily a bad sign. If multiple operators are already active, it usually means there is proven demand. The challenge is understanding whether there's room for another service and how your business can differentiate itself.

Step 2: Build a business model that fits your market

One of the first decisions is choosing how riders will use your service. Some operators choose a free-floating model, where scooters can be picked up and parked anywhere within a designated service area. Others prefer station-based systems that require trips to start and end at fixed locations. Free-floating fleets offer greater flexibility for users, while station-based systems usually provide more predictable operations, simpler charging logistics, and fewer parking issues.

Pricing deserves just as much attention. Many operators combine an unlock fee with per-minute pricing, while others introduce subscriptions, ride bundles, or daily passes for frequent users. It's also worth defining your target utilisation rate before purchasing vehicles. A fleet of 200 scooters averaging five trips per day is generally a healthier business than a fleet of 500 scooters averaging only one or two.

Step 3: Choose hardware that will last

Buying scooters is only one part of the investment. Operators should look beyond purchase price and evaluate durability, battery capacity, weather resistance, maintenance requirements, spare part availability, and the total cost of ownership over several years.

The hardware inside each scooter is equally important. GPS tracking, remote locking, battery monitoring, vehicle diagnostics, and theft protection all depend on reliable IoT connectivity. Many newer operators also choose swappable battery systems because they reduce downtime and allow batteries to be replaced on the street instead of transporting scooters back to a warehouse for charging.

Choosing hardware that integrates smoothly with your software platform will make expansion much easier later on.

Step 4: Select software that can grow with your business

The customer usually sees only the mobile app, but software runs almost every part of a scooter-sharing business. Beyond booking and payments, operators need tools for fleet management, pricing, subscriptions, maintenance scheduling, customer support, analytics, reporting, and day-to-day administration. As fleets grow, managing these processes manually quickly becomes unrealistic. When comparing software providers, look beyond the list of features. Consider how well the platform integrates with your hardware, whether new vehicle types can be added later, and how much of the daily operational work can be automated, what other operators are saying about the software.

Platforms such as ATOM Mobility's vehicle-sharing software bring rider apps, fleet management, payments, maintenance workflows, and analytics together in one system, allowing operators to manage the business without relying on multiple disconnected tools.

Step 5: Think about your first riders before launch day

Successful operators usually spend weeks preparing their first marketing campaigns before the fleet goes live. Referral programmes can encourage existing users to invite friends, while partnerships with universities, hotels, offices, residential developments, and local businesses help introduce the service to potential riders. Introductory discounts often work well during launch, but long-term success depends on giving people a reason to keep coming back after the promotion ends.

Step 6: Prepare your operations before the first ride

Many mobility businesses don't struggle because demand is low – they struggle because operations become difficult to manage as the fleet grows. Before launch, operators should already have clear procedures covering:

vehicle inspections
charging and battery swaps
maintenance and repairs
fleet balancing
customer support
incident reporting

It is also worth deciding when operational action should be triggered. For example, at what battery level should a scooter be collected? How many inactive hours should pass before a vehicle is relocated? When should damaged scooters automatically be removed from service? Answering these questions early helps create consistent operations as the business grows.

How long does it actually take to launch?

Building custom mobility software from scratch can easily take 6-12 months or more, particularly when mobile apps, payments, IoT integrations, and fleet management systems all need to be developed from 0. Custom mobility software also costs 10 times more and may not be delivered in time.

Using a white-label platform shortens that process considerably. With ATOM Mobility's vehicle-sharing platform, operators can often launch in as little as 20 days, depending on branding, hardware integrations, payment setup, and operational readiness. That allows founders to spend less time developing software and more time preparing the business itself.

Launching a scooter-sharing business has never been easier from a technical perspective, but long-term success still depends on execution. Choosing the right city, investing in reliable hardware, selecting software that can grow with the business, and establishing strong operational processes all have a much bigger impact than simply deploying more scooters. The operators that build those foundations early are usually the ones best positioned to scale in the years that follow.

Want to learn more?

For entrepreneurs who want to dive deeper, ATOM Academy (https://www.atommobility.com/academy) is a free online learning platform created by mobility industry experts. It includes practical video courses covering topics such as:

How to launch a shared mobility business
Fleet operations and maintenance best practices
Pricing and business models
Marketing, support and customer acquisition
Mobility software tutorials and platform walkthroughs
Industry trends and expert insights

Whether you're preparing to launch your first fleet or looking to optimise an existing operation, the Academy provides practical guidance based on real-world experience from hundreds of mobility projects worldwide.

Ride-hailing vs ride-sharing – what's the difference?

🚗 🛴 🛵 Ride-hailing, ride-sharing, carpooling, car-sharing, on-demand rentals, micro-mobility rentals, shared transportation, Mobility-as-a-Service… It's a bit much, isn't it? No wonder people prefer using and verbing brand names, e.g. “Uber to the airport” or “grab a Bolt”. 🔦 But, don't worry – we'll help you find your way in the mess that is the mobility industry's terminology. Understand the difference between ride-hailing and ride-sharing, discover what is MaaS, and learn a fun fact about Uber in our latest article 👇

March 26, 2024

It's easy to get lost in today's mobility landscape. It feels like every year a new type of vehicle hits the streets, and with it comes some weird new term or category adding to an already deeply confounding list – ride-hailing, ride-sharing, carpooling, car-sharing, on-demand rentals, micro-mobility rentals, shared transportation, Mobility-as-a-service,...

No wonder people prefer using and verbing brand names, e.g. “Uber to the airport” or “grab a Bolt”.

In reality, it's not that complicated. Virtually all of the terms listed above are self-explanatory and by the end of this article you'll have a firm grasp on the industry's terminology.

Understanding the distinction between these various concepts is important for entrepreneurs and anyone else looking to set foot in the industry, as using the correct terms:

Ensures everyone is on the same page,
Is relevant for regulatory compliance,
Matters in all your business endeavors from market research to strategy development.

Since the two terms that people get most hung up on are “ride-hailing” and “ride-sharing”, we'll take a closer look at those, and then follow it up with a disambiguation of the other terms on our list.

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What is ride-hailing?

Ride-hailing is – surprise, surprise – the hailing of a ride. Much like with a taxi, it involves hiring a person with a car to pick you up and take you to your destination.

So why don't we just call it a taxi service?

When mobility startups like Uber came to prominence in the early 2010s, they did so by disrupting the cab industry through digitalizing the hailing experience and introducing transparent pricing.

Read more: Uber's company history.

In other words, you could now hail a ride through an app on your smartphone and see exactly how much it would cost. Whereas previously, you had to call a taxi service or try to hail one on the street.

So the term “ride-hailing” was coined to distinguish this new type of on-demand app-based taxi service from the more traditional one. However, over the years, the ride-hailing service portfolio has evolved beyond just taxi-like operations and includes things like hiring drivers for moving, or even taking your kids to school. Traditional taxi companies also increasingly make use of a ride-hailing app.

Accordingly, the meaning of ride-hailing is the hailing of on-demand transportation services via an app. Most often it's used in the context of taxi-like services, but it's an umbrella term that can include other services, too.

Fun fact: did you know that Uber was originally named UberCab? Its founders dropped the “Cab” part since they didn't see themselves as a traditional cab service.

What is ride-sharing?

Again – the hint is in the name. At the most basic level, ride-sharing is sharing a ride. But, as with ride-hailing, there's some nuance that's important to understand.

Today, ride-sharing typically refers to multiple passengers sharing a single private ride on a route that passes their various destinations. You can think about it as on-demand carpooling.

Let's unpack this.

Though there are many similarities between ride-sharing and carpooling, they generally differ in terms of ride organization and journeys. Carpooling often happens informally, in the sense that a group of neighbors or coworkers traveling or commuting on the same route will agree to share a ride to, for example, save on gas. Carpooling can also be very sporadic and is primarily organized through private channels or local bulletin boards.

On the flipside, ride-sharing allows a person to carpool with others by simply finding an available seat through an app – drivers digitally share their route and seat availability and passengers can hop into a suitable ride for a small fee.

Notably, ride-sharing is often most popular with busy routes and times of day, as that's when there's highest demand.

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There's a reason why a lot of confusion arose regarding the difference between ride-hailing and ride-sharing, namely, the terms were used interchangeably early on. To this day, “Ride-sharing” is sometimes used as an umbrella term for all app-based mobility solutions, though this is going out of fashion, given the clearer differentiation between solutions.

So, while both ride-hailing and ride-sharing are app-based on-demand mobility solutions for getting to a destination in a private vehicle, they differ in passenger count, cost, route, availability, and popularity.

One key component further distinguishing ride-hailing from ride-sharing is the use of advanced software, designed to optimize operations and enhance user experience. Ride-hailing software supports companies in efficiently managing bookings, payments, and communication between passengers and drivers. To explore how this software can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ride-hailing services, visit our detailed ride-hailing software use cases page.

Other terms commonly used in the mobility industry

Though ride-hailing and ride-sharing are categories you'll hear most often, it's almost inevitable that you'll encounter other terms, which may sow further confusion.

Let's avoid that – here are some quick explanations of other popular terms.

Car-sharing

Car-sharing or vehicle-sharing is most often confused with ride-sharing, but despite sounding similar, they mean completely different things. Car-sharing refers to the app-based short-term rental of cars. The easiest way to remember it is that with ride-sharing people share a single ride, whereas with car sharing people share a single car – again, it's all in the name.

On-demand rentals

On-demand rentals is a category describing vehicles that are instantly available for rent, usually through an app. This includes both micro mobility solutions, like scooters and bikes, as well as larger vehicles like mopeds and cars. For those following along – yes, car-sharing is a type of on-demand rental!

Shared transport

As mentioned in the previous sections, “ride-sharing” is often incorrectly used as an umbrella term for all on-demand app-based mobility solutions. The correct term is shared transport or shared mobility. Shared transport is a broad category that includes both multiple people sharing a vehicle simultaneously (i.e. ride-sharing), as well as individual people sharing a vehicle over time (i.e. car-sharing/on-demand rentals).

Ride-hailing and other on-demand services related to mobility are also often categorized under the shared mobility umbrella.

Mobility-as-a-Service

Mobility-as-a-Service or MaaS is an approach to urban transportation that seeks to integrate a variety of mobility options (both public and private) into a single super-solution that answers a traveler's every mobility need. Often, MaaS solutions are sought out by local municipalities to provide effective alternatives to car use and minimize a city's carbon footprint.

Is the terminology really that important?

As you can see, a lot of the confusing mobility terms are simply categories and categories of categories – don't worry if you can't remember them all. If you know the difference between ride-sharing and ride-hailing that's already plenty.

Anyone in the mobility industry will tell you that it's perfectly acceptable to ask for clarification when talking specifics, as it's common for people to interpret these terms differently, and language barriers can be particularly troublesome for getting on the same page.

That said, you SHOULD pay close attention to the terminology if you're doing research for your own mobility business. A ride-hailing business is completely different from a ride-sharing one, and it's important not to compare apples to oranges during market research, as it can undermine your business from day one.

Other than that, all you have to remember is that ride-hailing is hailing a ride and ride-sharing is sharing a ride. Simple as that.

New feature that will boost your fleet uptime and client satisfaction – vehicle damage management

New feature alert! Say hello to vehicle damage managemet 👋 With this solution, you can boost your fleet uptime and improve client satisfaction by: 🔎 Learning about necessary repairs more quickly 🔧 Easily managing the repair process ⭐ Turning a negative customer experience into a positive one

March 9, 2024

Is there anything more frustrating for a mobility user than needing quick access to a vehicle and having none available nearby?

Yes – finding a vehicle on the app, making your way to it, and discovering that it's broken.

Vehicle damage comes in all shapes and sizes from broken scooter kickstands and headlights to damaged moped QR codes and car engine issues. Even minor damage to a vehicle can severely affect its usability, putting it out of order until a ground operations team catches and resolves the issue.

Worst of all, it's often the customer who first encounters the problem and does so during one of the most sensitive parts of the user journey, namely, when they have an acute need for transportation.

As a result, unresolved maintenance issues are not only directly hurting your bottom line by taking one of your vehicles off the road, but they may severely negatively impact client satisfaction, too.

That's why the ATOM Mobility team has added a new solution to the vehicle-sharing and rental modules – vehicle damage management.

Let's take a closer look at this new feature, explore why it's important, as well as understand how it works from both the user and operator perspectives.

Vehicle damage reporting – a better experience for everyone

In the simplest terms, the new feature allows users to easily report any vehicle issues through the app – and for your operations team to effectively respond to and manage the reports. This helps your mobility business in several ways.

ATOM Mobility's vehicle damage reporting feature:

Increases the speed at which you receive information about necessary repairs for your fleet,
Enables you to respond to this information in an organized manner, as it streamlines operator tasks through the Dashboard and Service app,
Equips users with a clear communication channel for reporting issues.

In unison, these help you ensure maximum uptime for your fleet, as well as offer various other benefits. These include:

Identifying issues that routine maintenance might miss, e.g. a trunk stuck shut,
Resolving customer anxieties by letting them report problems, e.g. people might be hesitant to use a damaged vehicle in case they get blamed for the issues,
Giving you better control over the customer experience, e.g. turning a negative encounter with your brand into a positive one through communication,
Easily tracking maintenance history for your fleet, e.g. discovering which vehicles fail often and require replacement.

Simply put, this new feature is a positive for everyone involved. All you need to do is set it up – let's find out how.

How does vehicle damage reporting work?

On the surface, it's simple – the customer reports some damage and you fix it. But underneath the hood, it's … still simple. Here's how the new functionality works from the perspective of your customers and your operators.

For your customers

In the user app, anyone can report an issue by clicking the “Report” button found on the vehicle card. For the Sharing module, it's located in the “More” menu, whereas for the rental module, the “Report” button is visible directly on the vehicle card.

After pressing the button, your customers will be able to indicate the faulty part, include a more detailed description in the comment field, as well as add up to three images of the issue in question.

The tags that the user sees can be customized in the Dashboard

Your customer can complete the damage report process quickly and painlessly and it wraps up with a friendly thank you message that lets them know that your team is ready to resolve the issue. The system will highlight previously approved damages for user convenience.

For your operators

Once a user submits a report, it will appear in your Dashboard. You can find “Damage reports” under “More” in your left menu.

Here the operator can verify, approve, and/or modify the reports. Once a report is checked, the operator can approve the report and then it gets passed onto the maintenance crew and their Service app. The admin can also add damages manually via the dashboard, for example if they notice any additional issues in the user pictures.

In the Service app, the approved reports appear as a task. When your team is done with repairs or maintenance, they can mark damages as fixed by clicking "Mark as done".

A highly useful feature is the ability to track damage reports and fixes, as well as who fixed them and how quickly – all of this data can be easily exported. This allows you to gain a broader understanding of the health of your fleet and its individual vehicles and make data-based decisions, e.g. about which vehicles to choose/avoid when growing your fleet.

ATOM Mobility – future-proof your mobility business

ATOM Mobility is a mobility superapp that equips mobility businesses with a robust solution for all their tech needs – from a modern user app to a functional platform for fleet management and more. This allows you to launch and scale your mobility business incredibly quickly, no matter the vehicle type.

More than that, a chief reason why many mobility entrepreneurs choose ATOM Mobility for the long term is that they benefit from the on-going improvements to the app – like the feature discussed in this article. Alongside our own continuous developments of the app, our team frequently receives requests for various custom additional features, and when we see broader applicability, we also make it available to our other clients.

But don't take our word for it – hear it from our clients in our latest case study.

Everything you need to know before starting your car-sharing business

What is car-sharing & how does it work? What's the car-sharing business model? How to launch a car-sharing business? Find out here.

February 23, 2024

Is it a good time to start a car-sharing business? Absolutely.

The car-sharing market is booming – it's estimated to grow 20% every year and reach a $20 billion market value by 2032. That's nearly a sevenfold increase from 2022's $2.9 billion valuation.

Despite app-based vehicle sharing being a relatively new entrant in the mobility ecosystem, it has exploded in popularity. People have been quick to pick up on its convenience and ease of use, especially in urban centers where maintaining a private vehicle grows increasingly costly and bothersome.

This spells an opportunity for entrepreneurs keen to answer real mobility demand.

But what is car-sharing and how does it work? What does the business model look like? And what are the first steps for getting started?
Find the answers below.

What is car-sharing and how does it work?

Car-sharing is an app-based mobility service that allows individuals to rent vehicles on a short-term basis. With this service, users gain access to a fleet of vehicles which are typically stationed throughout a city, ensuring that there's always a car conveniently nearby.

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The user's journey and benefits of car-sharing

Through an app on their smartphone, users can locate, book, and unlock the closest available vehicle, as well as pay for their journey automatically by adding payment details, thus providing a seamless experience and quick access to a car. Other common benefits for users include not having to worry about fuel or insurance, as those are included in the price.

Cities often encourage the use of shared mobility since it helps decongest streets, free up parking, and minimize the environmental impact of private vehicles on the city. Accordingly, public-private partnerships are common, conferring further benefits for users of this type of shared mobility: free parking, free use of bus lanes, and more.

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How does car-sharing work: the business perspective

On the business side of things, the operator is responsible for ensuring that maintenance and logistical tasks for their fleet are taken care of.

This includes regular maintenance tasks, such as vehicle check-ups, repairs, fuel fill-ups, and cleaning. Also, if you have a free-floating model (where users can leave their cars anywhere), the operator should regularly relocate cars to optimal locations for continued user convenience and reliability.

Beyond deploying and maintaining their fleet, operators also oversee the smooth functioning of their mobility app, as well as take care of user verification, namely, ensuring that the people signing up are who they say they are and have valid driver licenses. Of course, like any other business, customer support and other responsibilities tied to running the operation are a given.

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The car-sharing business model

So far, we have listed a lot of expenses – maintenance, management, insurance, IT. Add to this salaries, operational overheads, and buying or renting the fleet itself. How do businesses recoup all these expenses and turn a profit?

Note: Since car-sharing businesses operate at scale, they should aim to negotiate lower rates with service providers.

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Car-sharing businesses make use of several revenue sources. First and foremost, customers are charged for the time/distance use of the car. Additionally, branding and cross-promotion partnerships (e.g. advertising on the car or the app) are often used to secure additional revenue. It may also be sensible to create membership or loyalty programs to ensure recurring revenue, by offering subscribers added benefits, such as access to premium cars or longer reservation times.

The aim is to have your cars on the road as much as possible, so enterprises typically focus on maximizing vehicle usage and revenue per vehicle. Finding success is about finding balance in a constantly changing landscape – having too few cars may lead to overbooking and dissatisfaction with lack of availability, whereas having too many will lead to inefficient use of resources.

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How to start a car-sharing business

As with any business, launching a car-sharing project requires research, investment, development, and strategy. Let's take a look at each in turn.

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1. Market research

When exploring opportunities for starting a car-sharing business, numerous factors must be considered.

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Audience and demand

Understanding the demographics, preferences, and behaviors of your potential users is crucial. As is determining the level of demand. Some questions you should answer include:

Who is my target audience – urban commuters, occasional travelers?
What are their demographics? How should you communicate with them?
What segment offers the most promise – B2C, B2B?

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Competition

Identifying who's already operating in your area and why (or why not) can help you get a better grasp of what works and what doesn't. Some questions you should answer include:

Who are my competitors – other car/ride-sharing businesses, public transportation?
How can I differentiate my business from others?
Has any previous similar business failed in this area – why?

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Legal and logistical considerations

Determining whether there are any legal/practical barriers to launching your operations is a smart thing to do before you invest too much time and money into your project. Consider:

What are the legal requirements for operating this type of business in your area?
How will you handle insurance and liability issues for your fleet?
How and where will you run your day-to-day operations? If you're thinking about going electric – does the area have the necessary infrastructure?

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While answering these questions isn't necessarily a prerequisite for launching your business, dealing with them early on can save you a lot of headaches down the road.

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2. Investment

How much capital do you need to launch a car-sharing business?

It depends most on whether you're planning to rent or buy vehicles for your fleet. While renting is more accessible in the short term, it will take a sizable bite out of your profit. Owning your vehicles is typically the preferred option, as this offers price stability, long-term cost efficiency, freedom of operations, and other benefits.

To get a ballpark estimate for the starting investment, you should add up the total price of cars (EUR 12,000-20,000 per vehicle), insurance, car-sharing software procurement and maintenance, as well as expected operational overhead for getting started. It may also be wise to put aside some funds for unexpected expenses such as repairs.

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3. Development and launch strategy

Securing the vehicles and necessary permits can take a while, and you should account for this. During this time, you should put your plans into practice. Establish maintenance protocols and logistical plans for efficient fleet management. Implement user verification processes and responsive customer support for a secure and positive user experience.

As to the IT infrastructure, you can save a lot of resources by choosing a white-label IT solution to power your app and dramatically accelerate your time-to-market. Platforms like ATOM Mobility can equip your business with the app you need – all you have to do is customize it.

Speaking of customization, don't forget about branding. Create a compelling brand identity and plan for targeted launch and marketing campaigns to generate awareness the moment your business is ready for its first customers.

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Your car-sharing business journey starts here

Now you know how to start a business in this industry – entering this thriving market demands a blend of user-centric strategies and astute business decisions. But the key to success is reliable partners that can guide you in the right direction. Try out our free floating carsharing software and get on the road today!

‍Get in touch with ATOM Mobility to discover how you can power your new enterprise the smart way.

32 shared mobility stats from 2023 you should know in 2024

From the rise of ride-hailing services to the increasing popularity of shared vehicles, the industry's landscape is evolving rapidly. This article presents 32 key statistics from 2023 that provide valuable insights into the current state and future prospects of the shared mobility sector, offering a comprehensive overview for industry stakeholders and observers.

February 6, 2024