Donkey Republic releases Code of Conduct in Copenhagen

AUTHOR

Erdem Ovacik

Urban cycling endows you with a kind of freedom and autonomy that Erdem has been pursuing ever since he was sitting as a teen on his hour-long commute to school in his native Istanbul. After riding through a bunch of different cities, he is now living and advocating his #lifebybike dream in Copenhagen, as the co-founder and CEO of Donkey Republic.

Donkey Republic releases Code of Conduct for Copenhagen! We think these six commitments mark the best-practices in the micro-mobility industry. Just like when we started the first hub-centric dockless bike share, and set a new standard in 2016. We will continue to work on an ever-better service, not only considering our riders and our investors, but also the cities and their citizens. Looking forward to more sustainable and equitable cities that are nicer to live in.

Download PDF: Code of Conduct for Copenhagen

Donkey Republic Code of Conduct for Copenhagen City

May, 2019

Background

Donkey Republic was born inspired by Copenhagen’s bicycle culture and  infrastructure. Bikes are meant to be for everyone, practical and sustainable. Donkey Republic have embedded these values deeply into every practice of the company from regulating use of public space to retirement of bicycles with second hand sales. Therefore, in addition to complying with relevant laws and regulations, we promise a higher set of standards we will follow.

Commitments

1. Maintenance and quality

Our bikes shall be of high quality and maintained to keep 80%+ availability rate.

2. Public space control

Donkey bikes shall only be allowed to park in specified virtual stations. These virtual stations will be public bike racks except for special circumstances. Parking in each station is limited to 5 bikes per station unless agreed upon with the city for specific station. Any user not parking at these stations will trigger relocation fees. We commit to limit bikes parked outside of virtual stations to be less than 5% of the fleet at any given time.

3. Sharing data

Donkey shall share live data with the city to provide: trips per bike, fleet condition, virtual station placement, average trip lengths and durations. We will pursue to share additional data to help the city develop its infrastructure. We will maintain a high level of security towards our riders’ data in line with GDPR requirements. We do not sell riders data to any third parties.

4. Sustainability

Donkeys consider sustainability in every step and aspect of the service:

  • quality bikes with ISO4210 certification and minimum 4 years lifetime.
  • second hand sales of bicycles as “Retired Donkeys”.
  • handling maintenance with appropriately trained and paid local workforce on company’s payroll.

5. Affordability

Donkey aims to be a service for everyone. Hence pricing of service observes high level of attractiveness vis-a-vis other mobility options, especially for locals and commuters who desire to use bikes frequently. We guarantee to offer a comparable Donkey subscription for locals at 30% or below the comparable local transit subscription for busses, train and metro with similar unlimited usage.

6. Service integration

Donkey is open and willing to combine its bike service with other transport offers to provide a smooth transit service. For this purpose, we are willing to ensure some minimum level of bike availability at transit hubs such as main train stations.