CargoCraft solutions for micromobility docking

20th century transport networks were planned and built by central agencies around expensive, heavy vehicles and infrastructure. Cities lack smart micromobility (MM) infrastructure:

• Traditional bike racks are rudimentary: riders must carry their own bike locks, racks are a target for thieves and they cannot communicate nor integrated with intelligent transport networks • MM charging stations don’t exist, so riders must carry bulky portable chargers, with their charging leads creating tripping hazards, and faulty chargers and batteries creating fire hazards
• Shared MM fleets are not integrated into urban planning: privately operated MM fleets are randomly scattered on public streets, skewed towards tourists and casual users, are not integrated with public transport, and high battery swapping and vehicle rebalancing costs are passed onto users
• No integration with public transport: e.g. PT cards cannot be used to hire MM vehicles that fill first and last mile gaps in our PT networks. But many market sectors are being disrupted and transformed by the distributed economy, e.g. rooftop solar (distributed energy generation feeding a shared grid). Similarly, distributed micromobility (MM) networks have the potential to create more equitable, rapidly deployed and demand-responsive transport systems. They can be planned and built at a granular local level and owned by many stakeholders (the ‘crowd’).

MicroFleet® is a distributed MM platform that will catalyse a paradigm shift from heavy vehicles to sustainable light mobility. It will mobilise the vast global stock of private MM vehicles through peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing. MicroFleet also facilitates business to consumer (B2C) sharing and gives cities control over public MM fleets.

Additionally, MicroFleet facilitates private MM parking and integrates with public transport to augment PT networks and reduce car travel. The MicroFleet platform has three parts:

1. Fleets: Comprise any MM vehicle fitted quickly and cheaply with MicroFleet’s universal OneKey® connector.
2. Hubs: distributed MM parking stations comprising OneDock® universal digital racks, which automatically lock, safely charge and facilitate P2P and B2C sharing of Fleets.
3. Software: RFID vehicle locking and releasing; smartphone and remote payment interfaces; fleet management software, wireless networks and IOT devices to connect Fleets and Hubs