On a windy and grey evening in early March 2019, Otto expanded their portfolio by venturing into the food delivery and courier industry with Otto Scooter.
The idea was to replicate the successful business model of Otto Car, which had seen the wave of ride-sharing in 2015 and now noticed the sharp rise in food delivery and courier services. With a growing number of established brands entering and dominating the scene, including UberEats and Deliveroo, Otto Scooter was set up to provide fully electric mopeds to its partners at a time when clean driving is on the political and business agenda.
Alberto Garnier, Luca Amaduzzi, and Fares Alaboud partnered up with Otto to run Otto Scooter, offering drivers our popular Rent 2 Buy scheme with a low deposit and courier insurance included. The mopeds themselves are brand new and electric, allowing delivery drivers to go up to 60miles without the need to charge up.
Online shopping has increased dramatically since going into lockdown and looking at the year on year figures, it looks like business is heading only one way, and that’s up. The value of internet sales as a percentage of total retail sales grew from a respectable 18.8% in May 2019 to 32.8% in May 2020. Many large retailers partner with delivery companies such as Hermes, who then use contractors such as courier drivers to complete orders.
Take-outs have jumped too, with UberEats orders rising 160% during the lockdown. It remains to be seen how these numbers will fare once things state to return to normality but there’s no doubt that app delivering is now truly embedded within British culture and isn’t going away anytime soon.
Otto Scooter now has the second-largest fleet of electric mopeds in London and it’s still growing, even in these uncertain conditions. The team has expanded and with the demand for take-outs and home deliveries increasing, the potential in this space is huge.
The team compiled some stats back in March and worked out their delivery drivers have reached the moon in distance, traveling the world ten times over and saved the environment over 38 tonnes of CO2e emissions.
Learn more about Otto Scooter and their popular ownership scheme Rent 2 Buy.
Written by Richard Tester