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West Midlands Cycle Hire

As a strategic partner we manage all aspects of West Midlands Cycle Hire. The scheme covers the largest geographical area of any cycle hire scheme in the UK - operating across seven local authority areas.

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Journeys

Our end-to-end management of the scheme includes supplier coordination, fleet maintenance, rebalancing (to guarantee bike availability across the service area), marketing and customer support. 

The hybrid scheme of fixed and geo-fenced stations includes:

  • 1350 pedal bikes

  • 150 e-bikes

  • 162 docking stations

Local supply chain

It is a truly local scheme which generates employment within the region and has a local supply chain; we work with our trusted supplier Pashley Cycles from Stratford-Upon-Avon to deliver a British-made quality cycle and used a network of local suppliers in the West Midlands to produce the docking stations and locking hardware. 

The technology behind the scheme is also supplied by a British-based micromobility supplier who we work closely with to deliver an intuitive user app from which riders can find and hire available bikes. 

Serco have proven to be experts within the industry and the main reason the project has been a success is down to their hard work and knowledge that has helped shape the scheme to what it is today.

Stuart Everton
Director of Black Country Transport

Interesting facts

  • Within the first nine months of operation the scheme surpassed 165,00 journeys covering over 470,000km.
     
  • This equates to our riders travelling 12 times around the world.
     
  • 60,000 people used the scheme in its first nine months which equates to 1.5% of the local population. 

Technical advancement and innovation 

Innovation is at the heart of the scheme - through our experience with the London and Edinburgh schemes we designed a bespoke solution capable of meeting performance indicators, such as bike availability and docking station capacity.

We worked together with the local transport authority to integrate the cycle hire user app with their existing customer travel app. 

This enables customers to pay for their cycle hire journey via their existing travel account. 

We are also leading future developments with the authority’s travel app to enable the hire process to be integrated as well.

This will help us to provide a smooth and accessible customer user journey across the West Midlands transport system.

Customer engagement

  • Managed the stakeholder relationships between the seven local authorities.

  • Delivered fully integrated marketing campaign over paid and owned channels.

  • Achieved high customer engagement, rider uptake and public awareness.

Award winning

  • 2022 Winner - UK Digital PR Awards 2022 campaign of the year: Public transport.

  • 2022 Winner - CIPR Mark of Excellence - Public Sector campaign of the year.

  • 2021 Shortlisted: Modeshift’s National Sustainable Travel Awards 2021: ‘Sustainable Travel'.