Ghislain Lestienne, former engineer for 17 years at PSA-Peugeot Citroën and founder of Pink Mobility, which designs, manufactures and markets electric scooters, tells us about the last mile delivery market. A market well known to the start-up which has chosen to tackle this market, from its creation, with the launch of its first electric utility scooter at the end of 2016: the Pink Up.
Delivery, a booming profession
Saturation of cities, explosion of delivered catering, appearance and uberization of new professions, diversification of methods of transporting products and 
commodities, there are multiple reasons to explain the strong move towards last mile delivery. An economic shift on which Pink has chosen to surf. Objective : convince delivery professionals to go electric. And the arguments hit home.
Electric scooter delivery, the future of delivery
If the ban on two-stroke engines had an initial impact on the reduction of two-wheelers with high noise pollution, it is often the neighborhood which dictates the change in mentality. Indeed, there are many neighbors who are opposed to the opening of a delivered food store near their home because of the backfiring and nocturnal departures under their windows. A strong argument for managers. Other size parameter: maintenance costs divided by two for an electric scooter and fuel costs divided by 20, to which is added the disappearance of trips to the pumps and all the money problems that such a practice can raise.
The practical electric scooter
Delivery often means long journeys and heavy loads in a tight time frame. 
It is therefore important to have sufficient autonomy to avoid running out of fuel. Pink has therefore developed electric scooters with removable batteries, rechargeable using a simple 220V socket. No need for a charging station or expensive installation. On the other hand, thanks to a dual battery pack of our utility electric scooter, the Pink Up, the user has almost unlimited autonomy: when one of the batteries is "rolling", the other can be charging. The delivery person therefore wastes no time.
A multifaceted microcosm
When we talk about “last mile delivery”, the collective imagination inevitably turns to the delivery of pizzas or sushi. However, a growing number of professions are turning to this type of transport for their goods or services. The palette of our customers proves it. Starting with this Parisian moving company which operates with a truck, in tandem with two electric scooter movers. Their mode of operation: unload the furniture from the truck on the sidewalk; the truck continues its route in the (numerous!) traffic jams while the two biker-movers collect the package, to leave behind the truck towards another delivery destination. But we also have troubleshooting electricians who transport
both cabling and radiators, or even market gardeners who have their organic baskets delivered (up to 8 per large capacity boxes) throughout Paris. What can we say about our baker who ordered a tailor-made basket for his freshly baked baguettes, or about this dry cleaning company that comes to pick up and drop off laundry, just like this startup that delivers groceries from haute couture stores?
From delivery to fleet logistics
Today, owning your own vehicle is no longer appropriate: we rent, we share; by the minute, by the hour, by the day, for the month or the year. If some people turn to rental with option 
purchasing, shared rental companies are flourishing: Cityscoot, YEGO, TIER, Lime, Coup, etc. All have large fleets scattered throughout city centers. Fleets that must be “operated” in the jargon of the profession. In other words, these thousands of vehicles need to be maintained, recharged and stored due to the fault of a few undisciplined users. Work carried out by “rangers” moving more and more… on electric scooters. If it is no longer a question of last mile delivery strictly speaking, we are indeed in a logistics business; a new profession that Pink has also chosen to support. Starting with TIER Mobility which manages the maintenance of its fleet of 5,000 scooters in Paris with Pink Mobility's Pink Up, or even YEGO in Bordeaux which rides in Pink Up to operate its fleet of electric scooters… Pink Style!
And for tomorrow?
Continuing the deployment of new markets, Pink is also aimed at couriers - very demanding customers today equipped with 125cc thermal scooters - but who are also looking to make the switch to electric, without giving up driving pleasure and their daily need of more than a hundred kilometers. When will there be a real electric scooter, eq.125cc, designed for last mile delivery?
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