If you ordered a VanMoof bike last year, you may still be waiting for delivery. There are many reasons for this delay, as the world of mobility has undergone a transformation in recent years, with a move towards clean energy sources such as solar, wind, and water. While this process is not new, it has accelerated greatly since 2019.
Tesla became a pioneer of this transformation in the automobile industry by proving that electric vehicles are an alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles, and by making them attractive to consumers.
With a computer on wheels, autonomous driving features, and OTA updates that bring new features each time, coupled with a decrease in prices, demand for electric vehicles has increased. Sales of battery-powered vehicles have risen. Other electric vehicle manufacturers, as well as traditional car companies, have followed suit, leading to a surge in demand for chips and batteries needed for production.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has also had a negative impact on production and logistics, leading to longer waiting times for many products, including bicycles. With lockdowns forcing people to engage in more personal activities, cycling has become a popular pastime, leading to a surge in sales of both regular bicycles and e-bikes. However, the long waiting times for delivery have been an added issue.
I can remember, when the S3/X3 was first introduced and when I placed my order immediately after the presentation, the total waiting time for production and delivery was only one month. However, for orders placed 24 hours later, the waiting time had already reached six months.
“Make an Informed Decision: VanMoof S3/X3 or Wait for the Exciting New S5/A5” is the title of my article where I had sketched the following graph.
VanMoof’s e-bikes, with their impressive designs, technical features, and competitive prices, have attracted many customers, leading to a surge in sales. However, the company has struggled to keep up with demand, and early adopters have exposed many problems that were not noticed during the testing process. This has led to longer waiting times, customer complaints, and technical and quality control issues.
VanMoof was also growing rapidly, opening new service or sales points in a new city every day. I remember the chaos that ensued when they cut off phone access, and many customers wrote lengthy complaints. Even if delivery times returned to normal in 2021, technical and quality control issues were still a major concern. The ever-evolving technology and renewed focus on profitability by venture capital have also put the bicycle industry in the same cycle. If you can keep up with technology and shorten the product life cycle by selling new models, you can increase profitability and survive. In the bicycle industry, almost every market share holder has turned to e-bikes. Now, there is an e-bike model for every type of bike, whether it’s a mountain bike or a racing bike.
To address these issues, VanMoof has created a new bike: a modular, reliable, powerful, and durable e-bike. While there were some delays due to the pandemic and other challenges, the new S5 and A5 models were announced in April 2022, with limited delivery starting in December 2022. While there have been some minor problems and deficiencies, the S5 seems to be on track to achieve its goals. At least this is my personal opinion as someone who has been closely following VanMoof, especially for the last 5 years.
If you have concerns or problems with your VanMoof bike, there are several ways to seek support. Using the chatbot on their website can help, but explicitly asking to “chat with a human” may be necessary to speak to a real person. However, people who voice their concerns on social media platforms such as Twitter or Meta tend to receive priority support. Email communication may be the slowest option, with emails sometimes taking weeks to be processed.
Actually, the company had some maintenance and repair plans that I found super cool and somewhat Tesla-like. These plans would allow for automatic reporting of problems either by the rider or by the bike itself through error codes via VanMoof app seamlessly without the rider having to search for the problem themselves. Then the solution would be delivered to you before you even knew there was a problem, at least that’s what I was expecting. I understand, but it could be a good step for a company making efforts to solve problems to offer such innovative solutions. Of course, it’s also very important to prioritize and solve urgent issues first.
Another problem is the delivery times. When ordering a bike from VanMoof, you can track the progress of the bike from its production stages to the delivery date at your home address.
What was the exact problem? The problem was the uncertainty around when the bike would be delivered. The problem was that the delivery dates were possibly incorrect for more than half of the order holders. Many order holders complained about the (not transparent) delivery times and even reached the point of canceling their orders.
I know that these issues are actually more complex than discussed in this article, because even though VanMoof designs and produces its own parts, it still has to work with many suppliers and logistics companies without having full control over them.
However, I still need to suggest a solution and I can only suggest this solution based on the data I collected from social media without access to VanMoof’s own data.
An estimated delivery date based on a statistical data model that takes into account both the planned delivery date and the current situation could be displayed to the user. Yes, your order was originally planned to be delivered on May 19th, but the current data that is being fed in with a delay of 2–3 days and it is a reliable source of data. This daily updated batch delivery data fed by near-real-time information would help the user see the light at the end of the tunnel. This would also reduce the number of people occupying support channels, so indirectly improve the support line.
Companies have access to many other data sources besides its own data, such as traffic patterns, port occupancies, weather forecasts, personnel availabilities, etc. By using this information combined with the information received from logistics partners, the confidence factor can also be increased.
To address these issues, VanMoof could explore new data models for predictive maintenance, delivery time prediction, delivery route optimization, delivery tracking, and even take further steps with delivery demand forecasting models. By leveraging not only their own data but also other data sources such as traffic patterns, port occupancy rates, weather forecasts, personnel availability, etc., VanMoof can create more reliable and accurate predictions. This fusion of data would also increase the confidence factor of the predictions. With such predictive capabilities, VanMoof can provide a more transparent and satisfying experience for their customers while optimizing their operations and improving their bottom line.
You can also share whether you have received your order with us at https://bit.ly/vmsa5dm and track the results on vanmoofer.com. Additionally, we also provide daily updates on Twitter.
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