According to data from the Ministry of Transport, as of September 2024, a total of more than 12 million shared bicycles have been deployed nationwide, with an average of about 27 million riding per day. With its convenience advantages, shared bicycles have opened up the "last mile" of Volkswagen's daily commuting and become an important part of the urban transportation system.
However, many shared bicycles have problems such as inaccurate positioning and poor return of cars during the return process. Industry experts said that policy supervision and planning should be further strengthened, shared bicycle positioning technology should be optimized, and dispute handling mechanisms should be improved.
"Positioning drift"
"It has clearly reached the return point located on the mobile phone, but the system just displays the wrong position and cannot be locked. Use the car for 5 minutes and return the car for 10 minutes." Xiao Xu, who works in Beijing, encountered inconvenience not long ago when returning the car: when the car parked downstairs of the company, the system showed a positioning error. "I used to be in this place, but I don't know why I suddenly couldn't stop the display." Xiao Xu said.
The reporter searched on a message board of a website and a complaint platform and found that there are many reflections on the problem of poor return of shared bicycles: "The positioning of the return vehicle was not effective, and it took 21 minutes to ride it for more than ten minutes", "I was unable to return the vehicle at the return vehicle point, and there were obviously many bicycles of the same brand nearby", "There are very few return vehicles, and the interval is very far away"...
The actual position of the vehicle is not uncommon, and the positioning of the system is not uncommon, and the industry insiders call it "positioning offset": Due to the different signal strengths between different regions and the interference of the surrounding environment, the positioning system of the shared bicycle is prone to disorder, and the system's positioning of the vehicle is offset.
The causes of "positioning offset" of shared bicycles are relatively complicated. The reporter learned from a shared bicycle company that large-scale high-rise buildings or substation boxes may cause delays in mobile phone network signals or untimely positioning updates, resulting in certain "positioning drifts". In addition, mobile phone system problems, such as the lower APP version, may also lead to inaccurate positioning.
In addition, the small number of return points and long distances are also one of the "pain points" that are often complained about by users. "There is no return point at the entrance of our community. The nearest return point is on the road behind the community, which is very inconvenient." A resident in Beijing said.
Optimize the appeal process
"A leasing contract relationship has been established between users and shared bicycle companies. As the lessor, the company has the obligation to ensure the smooth return function." Wei Siming, senior partner of Beijing On Law Firm, said that in response to the issue of "positioning drift" of shared bicycles, the company has the responsibility to optimize related services including the appeal process to ensure the normal user experience of users.
The reporter found that all shared bicycle companies have optimized the appeal process for the return issue: some brand bicycles are not positioned correctly when returning, but after clicking "repositioning" twice repeatedly, the system can automatically refresh the positioning and return successfully; there are also the second time after the brand failed to return the car, there will be options such as taking photos and reporting, scanning codes for appeal; some brand APP's "customer service center" has the "self-service return" function, which can manually end orders...
The causes of "positioning drift" are complex, involving many objective factors such as signal interference and equipment differences. For this reason, some shared bicycle companies said that they regard the optimization of user complaint process as one of the key breakthroughs to quickly alleviate user pain points.
The reporter learned that a shared bicycle company has also launched the function of optimizing the return point, so that users can independently feedback the parking point needs. For example, a bicycle mini program has launched the functional entrance of "Apply for Return Points", and users can feedback the parking point replenishment needs at any time. After receiving the feedback, the staff will conduct evaluation based on the operation data and offline surveys. After the point is approved, the filling point within the end and on the road will be completed as soon as possible.
Maintain the "last centimeter"
How to optimize the return mechanism of shared bicycles and truly achieve "good borrowing and good return"? Industry experts pointed out that maintaining the "last centimeter" of returning cars is a key link in ensuring the complete operation chain of shared bicycles. Policy supervision and planning should be strengthened, shared bicycle positioning technology should be optimized, and dispute handling mechanisms should be further improved.
Liu Yuanju, a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, believes that solving the problem of poor return of shared bicycles requires "close communication between bicycle operators and relevant government departments to achieve real-time synchronization of parking specification areas."
The reporter found that many places are actively communicating with shared bicycle companies and constantly optimizing shared bicycle parking spots: the relevant departments of Jinan City guided bicycle companies to add some electronic fence parking areas, sorting out and optimizing more than 1,000 parking spots in the city; Hohhot City re-planned the shared bicycle parking spots in the urban area in the first half of 2024, adding more than 600 new parking wireframes; Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province has set up third-level parking spots according to actual conditions, and plans to increase the number of parking spaces in large business districts, bus stops and other areas with large traffic flow...
The shared bicycle companies are also actively solving the problem of returning car positioning. The person in charge of a shared bicycle company told reporters that the company is currently optimizing positioning technology. For example, the smart lock used in bicycles currently integrates Beidou high-precision positioning and foundation enhancement, which can improve the lock positioning accuracy to the sub-meter level. At the same time, operation and maintenance personnel can also grasp the dynamics of road vehicles in real time through the backend and timely control traffic tides, vehicle accumulation, etc.
