"We provide full operational leasing of electric vehicles with two, three or four wheels, but stay away from the automotive market for now," said Van Raak. "That means we also manage and maintain the vehicles." There is a lot involved in that. For the all-in price, GreenMo offers 24-hour service and preventive maintenance. "To this end, we have equipped our fleet with IoT applications. For example, when one of our electric scooters has driven five thousand kilometres, we change the tyres." In case of a breakdown report, GreenMo ensures that the customer is assisted within 24 hours. "Because we have a generic fleet of the vehicles we lease, if there is a tricky technical problem, we can simply replace the vehicle and then repair it in one of our hubs. We often see a service call from a vehicle before the customer does."
Landlord, manager, consultant
Besides acting as landlord and manager, GreenMo also acts as consultant. Van Raak: "The moment a new customer shows interest, we first take stock of its needs. Based on the transport movements and the transport volume (in kilos or litres), we come up with a recommendation of a pallet of vehicles." The company does that for not the least of parties: Thuisbezorgd, Domino's, Flink, Gorillas and Getir, for example, deliver on electric bikes and scooters from GreenMo. "To the CBR we lease a fleet of finishing scooters and for the police we have supplied a range of modified scooters that we can make less conspicuous where necessary."
The scooters of (enforcement) officials in the municipalities of Amsterdam and Utrecht also come from GreenMo's stable. "In the postal and parcel delivery sector, we now also work with PostNL. With the retail sector, we are now making a start." GreenMo is also now taking its first steps in corporate leasing. "Many large companies ended their car leases when people started working from home as a result of the corona pandemic. You see that those companies are now mostly going for greening their fleets - a mix of electric lease cars, but also eBikes and eScooters for commuting," Van Raak said.
Greening cities innovation team
Despite the glowing list of clients, sitting still is not an option for GreenMo. "Especially in our B to G activities (business to government, ed.), there is a lot of emphasis on further greening cities. We are going to set up an innovation team for that exclusively dedicated to that. Emission-free city logistics is already a complex issue, but it is further complicated by ever-increasing safety requirements from the government. For example, when charging batteries, it is now mandatory to use fireproof safes. Incidentally, we ourselves set high safety standards for our customers. For example, we only allow them to charge batteries when they are present themselves."
GreenMo's R&D team actively interferes in the design of the vehicles it procures. "We do that primarily to make everything better and faster repairable. We also ensure that each vehicle is optimally built for purpose. In the case of an urban logistics function of the vehicle, that means we ensure a better-performing battery and a more robust and safe design."
Surprised
In view of the city logistics innovation programme, Van Raak thinks CLIC is a more than interesting place for GreenMo to locate. "A lot of knowledge is being exchanged that we can benefit from. In addition, we can provide an important service to the other users of the campus with our expertise. We would like to seek that synergy." Van Raak says he is surprised that there are not more projects with the setup of CLIC so far. "It is incredibly good that the developers have started that project. There is increasing demand for space outside the ring road of Amsterdam, for example, and the location is absolutely ideal."
GreenMo, which has been in talks with CLIC's developers as a co-creator since an early stage, sees a threefold function for itself at the site. Van Raak: "Firstly, we can provide the other tenants with the electric vehicles they need to serve the city. Whether that is for food or in terms of service logistics. It is convenient for both us and them that we will soon be practical neighbours. Secondly, we would very much like to provide mobility on the campus itself. Think, for example, of electric bicycles that employees can use to get from the car park to their workplace, or vehicles for goods transport within the campus."
More sustainable infrastructure
Van Raak also indicates that GreenMo is currently considering a more sustainable infrastructure for the company in which CLIC could well play a role. "We are looking for locations where we can repair vehicles so that our mechanics spend less travel time, leaving more time for their main task. CLIC could well be such a central location." Finally, Van Raak says CLIC is an ideal place for his company because it shares a mission with GreenMo in large part: "We are both trying to make the world a little better vehicle by vehicle."
