By Anywheel will be allowed to expand its bicycle-sharing operations from 10,000 bicycles to 15,000 from July onwards.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on Facebook on Wednesday (22 July) that they have approved the application submitted by the local bike-sharing company, which started in 2017.
Anywheel is now the second largest operator in Singapore after SG Bike, which has 25,000 bicycles on the ground.
The LTA also announced on the same day that its latest licence application cycle has opened.
Companies that wish to offer such services or existing operators who want to increase their existing numbers may submit their applications via LTA’s website by 26 August.
New bike-sharing companies can apply for a sandbox licence to test their operations on a small scale initially. They will be permitted to operate up to 1,000 bicycles in Singapore.
The LTA will then evaluate their operations, before they may apply to expand their operations.
In early 2018, there were close to 200,000 shared bicycles offered in Singapore by six operators – Anywheel, GBikes, Mobike, oBike, ofo, Share Bike SG, and SG Bike.
SG Bike bought over Mobike in November 2019.
Major operators oBike and ofo shut down
oBike, whose bicycles were once ubiquitous in Singapore, unceremoniously exited the Singapore market on 22 June 2018.
The first Singapore’s bike-sharing company said that it went into liquidation after facing difficulties in adhering to new laws under a licensing regime that tackles haphazard parking.
The regime, which was passed in March 2017, requires operators offering dockless shared bikes, personal mobility devices, and power-assisted bicycles to take steps in ensuring users parked responsibly.
These measures include users having to scan a unique QR (quick-response) code at the parking spot to verify that they have practised proper parking before they can end their trip.
Before oBike left the Singapore market, it had a fleet of about 14,000 bicycles and claimed that it had more than one million users here.
Along with it, GBikes and Share Bike SG closed down in 2018 as well.
Similarly, ofo’s licence was terminated by LTA in 2019 when it could not meet the new regulations of responsible parking as well.
The Chinese bike-sharing company had its licence cancelled on 22 April 2019 when it did not meet regulatory requirements such as using a QR code-based parking system.
ofo was given a deadline of 28 March to meet these conditions but it failed to do so. Thus, the LTA assessed that ofo has not “provided sufficient justifications on why its licence should not be cancelled”, which led to its termination.
At the time of termination, a former ofo employee revealed that the company had more than 90,000 bikes in operation in Singapore since they started its service in early 2017.