Bixi: PBSC Urban Solutions brings bike-sharing to the world (Part 3) - solar powered street lights

It's worth thinking about the world around the city next time you ride Bixi: journey representsone on about 150,000 and ride almost the same bike for 45,000 months.
The bike was conceived, designed and assembled by the Quebec people of the province, and so was its software.
Behind all this is a private company called PBSC city solutions.
The company is composed of the assets of the public bicycle system company. (PBSC), the bike-
In 2009, Bixi's shared company was launched with great fanfare.
Before filing for bankruptcy protection last year, it had been funded by the City of Monterey.
With $50 million in debt, major cash flow problems, and buggysoftware running bicycles --
Sharing the system, the original pbsccompany was divided into two parts, and the City of Monterey purchased bicycles and docks to allow for non-
Profit company, Montreal, Bixi.
Bruno Rodi, Longueuil real estate developer, suddenly bought the other half.
The insolvent company bought international companies for $4 million.
He's the only bid.
He then turned around and sold most of his shares to local businessman Luc Sabatini for undisclosed prices in last January.
The company, renamedPBSC city solutions, is completely different from Bixi Montreal, which is based in Rosemont.
Selling bicycles with PBSC city solutions-
Share systems to cities around the world, including bicycles and docking stations, and serve existing customers.
Buying PBSC is a risk, but it also represents a huge business opportunity, Sabbatini said.
"There is a certain risk (PBSC).
This is a company that lacks a little love in recent years.
Unverified software is included in the risk.
In 2012, public bicycle systems after a dispute with the original software designer 8D technology
Decide to design the software yourself.
This, however, led to a series of embarrassing software failures that marked the beginning of the company's decline.
Sabbatini said the new company must quickly resolve software failures and reassure customers.
He builds city solutions from scratch, hires employees, and simplifies operations.
"It is difficult to get business enterprises to engage in international business operated by cities," Sabbatini said . ".
"It's a private company now.
This is a different way of doing business.
I think it's a little more agile.
"Under the new management, PBSC stopped providing companies with services that do not make money, such as operating customer service call centers in any city where bicycles are supplied
Share the show on the mainland.
These cities are now responsible for answering questions from their own customers, while PBSC is responsible for supplying-
Issues related to the city of buying bicycles-Shared Services.
"We are not involved in the action," Sabbatini said . ". “We train (
Individual cities)
We equip them and we go out.
Cities often employ third.
A party Company (
Maintenance and repair)the bikes.
Sabbatini said the new company made a profit 18 months after it went bankrupt.
It looks like this will be one of the best years for PBSC since 2009.
The company has completed orders for 6,000 bicycles and 500 new stops.
While Sabbatini said it would be better for private companies to run PBSC, he thanked the city of Monterey because it contributed a lot of resources at the beginning of bixi's founding, which is unthinkable for most private companies
The bikes were designed in Montreal and built by the Devinci bike of chicotimi, strong enough to stay outside in bad weather conditions and ride every day in the potholes of the cityladen roads.
It's actually theft.
Anti-lock mechanism and solar energy-powered Wi-
The Fi docking station was designed and built by the robot design company of Montreux.
"This is a pearl in Montreal and we should be proud of it," Sabbatini said . ".
"The product is amazing.
We have more than 100 patents in 45 different countries, so there is a lot of intellectual property rights due to investment in Montreal.
When Sabbatini boughtpbsc, he also received all customers from 15 cities around the world.
Since its launch, the company has added the Mexican cities of Guadalajara and andoluca, and ordered more bicycles from London, Chicago and Washington, D. C. C. among others.
Bixi in Montreal is also a customer.
Sabbatini provides parts and bikes if needed.
Although they are now separate companies, the separation is friendly, he said.
He even took potential customers to Bixi's headquarters in Rosemont to show how acity successfully deployed and managed abike-Sharing Plan
Sabbatini said buying PBSC was not a sudden appearance for him.
He initially proposed building the first bicycle in North America.
When he was president of ofAstral Media Out in 2008, the sharing project in downtown Torontoof-Home, L. P.
"I was bidding for a contract for street furniture (
Benches and trash cans)
I'm against all these big companies in Toronto, so I decided to be as creative as possible and I offered a bike
Share the plan as part of the bid.
At that time, there was no bicycle --
Sharing systems in North America, but already popular in Europe and Asia.
Sabbatini won the contract, but Toronto chose not to use bicycles.
Shared program at that time.
In the second year, Bixi began operations in Montreal.
He then worked with Bixi, when he was part of Astral, selling ads to pick-up stations and then acting as president of Bell Media sales.
The PBSC headquarters is located in the center of the langguur Industrial Park.
As soon as you enter the door, there is a spacious showroom with all the bicycles that PBSC provides around the world, arranged in a semi-circular shape, with a TV screen on the wall showing the lens of the bike.
Bicycles in each city are different, have their own colors, different names have different elements to adapt to the special circumstances of the city.
Aspen's 100 "we-
Bicycles "gray" have larger baskets, for example, because they are meant for visitors to go to different attractions such as the astheshopping area or a picnic.
The turquoise "Bay Area Bike Sharing" bike in San Francisco has seven speeds to handle the hilly terrain of the city.
Sabbatini pointed to the light blue frame and said, "My favorite is this," which says the word "Divvy", marking the bike in Chicago --sharing system.
"I like the color.
While crossing the warehouse, Sabbatini pointed to a huge pile of cartons, saying that each had 8 to 10 fully assembled bicycles in it, ready to go with a ship to London.
Devinci built and shipped bikes from Chicoutimi to PBSC.
The docking station arrived at the warehouse from another supplier, and the PBSC staff installed a cassette tape that locked the bike on the dock and assembled a computer terminal connected to each docking station.
The whole system: bicycles, docks and docks will be delivered to the ship in London. Because the Wi-
The Fi dock is solar and does not even need to be plugged in.
When they were sent to London, the staff in London just took the station to the location they wanted and connected them to the network.
The income of the PBSC comes from three sources: the provision of new bicycles
Share the system to a city or add it to an existing system, providing-of-a-
Cost of kind parts and software for bicycle repair.
Busabatini said the competitive environment for sharing bicycles has become more and more crowded, and he is not worried about it because sharing bicycles is a growing industry.
"Every city that wants to be a city must have a bicycle --Sharing Plan
It's much better to buy a bike for city traffic than to buy 50 to 100 buses that no one will notice.
It's a real trend and I don't think it's short term because there are a lot of cities that don't have bikessharing.
The key to staying ahead of the competition, Sabbatini said, is to provide better products, better customer service and better technology.
Sabbatini made a big bet on technology and invested $2 million in R & D this year.
The company is expected to release several new technology announcements in the coming months.
18 months later, Sabatini said he was pleased with his decision to leave Bell and travel to PBSC.
"I like this product," he said . " He added that he often rides a bicycle --
Shared systems for travel in other cities around the world.
"I could have found a more boring business than this.
This is cool.
This is a great product. It’s healthy.
Green technology. ”