JCDecaux's self-service bicycles surpass the landmark of 500 million rentals worldwide

JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide and number one in self-service bicycle hire schemes, announces that its self-service bikes have now been hired more than 500 million times worldwide since the launch of the schemes.

With more than 12 years of international experience and 670,000 long-term subscribers, JCDecaux's 52,000 bicycles and 4,300 stations are located in 70 cities across 13 countries throughout Europe and Asia-Pacific and have covered more than a billion kilometres worldwide.

As a pioneer in soft mobility with the installation of the first bicycles in Vienna (Austria) in 2003, JCDecaux has developed and advanced its self-service bicycle systems to reach record numbers of hires, whilst maintaining a positive relationship with users. In October 2015, the Customer Relations Department of Cyclocity – JCDecaux's bicycle hire service – won the Customer Service of the Year award for 2016 in the "Individual Transport" category, a testament to an effective organisation and the excellence of its services.

Building on this success, JCDecaux, which strives to anticipate the needs of cities and their inhabitants, continues to be innovative. Its self-service electric bikes with a lightweight portable battery (e-bikes) were launched in April 2015. From 30 November to 13 December 2015, during the COP21 (of which JCDecaux was an official partner) a positive energy station equipped with 30 e-bikes was exhibited in Paris, allowing users to test the benefits of this new soft, urban and shared mode of transport.

Providing a complement to public transport, self-service bicycle schemes have been shown to improve the quality of city life and to optimise travel options, in line with current environmental and public health targets. The success of JCDecaux’s bike hire scheme is largely based on the early decision to make the service widely available and easily accessible. The scheme also increased bicycle use in cities thanks to a carefully tailored pricing strategy, with payment made via credit cards, link ups with other public transport cards and online payments, as well as instructions in foreign languages on the terminals. The success is also the result of delivering city-wide networks, reliable equipment, high quality maintenance and an effective system to regulate the distribution of bikes, as well as a high quality Customer Relations Department, which has been an NF-certified "Customer Relations" Department since July 2014.

Jean-Charles Decaux, Co-Chief Executive Officer of JCDecaux, said: "We are very proud of the success of our self-service bicycles. By hitting the landmark number of 500 million rentals, our self-service bicycle systems confirm the users' ever-growing enthusiasm for this user-friendly and ecological scheme. Thanks to the work of the JCDecaux teams, who provide rigorous maintenance and optimised regulation of all of the systems on a daily basis, five self-service bicycles are rented every two seconds, on average, in the world. With this innovative scheme, which resulted from an overall analysis of travel options and quality of urban life, JCDecaux has reinvented cycling in cities. It has made cycling a real alternative form of transport that complements all existing public transport networks, meeting the needs of local communities with a sustainable solution, through a virtuous business model that protects their budgets by providing a public service funded by advertising.
This success will reinforce our position as the number one worldwide in self-service bicycles, inspiring us with even greater energy and creativity in our drive to further revolutionise the concept of sustainable mobility."