The Client
The OV-fiets is an easy bike rental system at stations and other busy locations. The principle of the OV-fiets is simple: as a registered user you have access to a bicycle at almost 300 locations. Per 24 hours you pay ‘rent’ which is debited from your account afterwards. Since the introduction of the system in 2003, the numbers of participating customers and participating racks have increased significantly.
The Challenge
The digital systems couldn’t keep up with the OV-fiets’ exponential growth over the past few years. So, NS Stations teamed up with INFO to create a solid foundation for their digital platform.
Our solution
Scalable and future-proof platform
INFO helped to create the digital product strategy and roadmap. Based on this, INFO designed and built several digital products that together create a scalable and future-proof solution.
This included FRAME, the complete bike-management application, and several other apps that are necessary to manage the bicycles are a part of this, as well as facilitating the innovative pilot with the new smart locks. As a result, the OV-fiets can continue to grow smoothly and offer the users a positive experience.
Map out the complete rental-bicycle chain
To provide all travelers with a bike each day, OV-fiets has to grow. However, the available space per location is limited, so simply adding bikes is not really an option. The solution was in improving the complete bike rental process.
In order to determine the areas for improvement, INFO made the OV-fiets rental chain transparent. Through extensive user research and a service design process, we discovered for instance that there was no possibility of gaining insight into how many bicycles were present at a certain location.
In addition, new hand scanners were introduced that had to be outfitted with a new app. Finally, a major problem that the NS was dealing with was that more than 2,000 keys were taken or lost by users each year, leaving the bikes temporarily unavailable. Together with NS, INFO built the digital products needed to solve these issues.
Smart applications provide ease of use
The bicycle-management application FRAME was developed to map the bike rentals. This system provides insight and is scalable so it can keep up with the growth of OV-fiets.
The choice was made to introduce new hand scanners for checking (both OV and private) bikes in and out. INFO developed the React Native app SCANIT that makes it possible for bikes to be scanned super fast.
Finally, the smart lock was developed, which allows bikes to be unlocked with a public transportation chip card, rather than with a key. In support of this new smart lock, INFO developed the React Native app LOCKIT, together with a Service App.
