Lumala partners up with PickMe for an e-bike upgrade

PickMe announces that it has joined hands with Lumala, a popular Sri Lankan bicycle retailer, as a means of enabling its bicycle riders an option to upgrade to e-bikes. The announcement comes as Sri Lanka looks to tackle its economic crisis with sectors like delivery opting for long-term sustainable options.

According to PickMe, the Lumala partnership will essentially offer an easy e-bike upgrade mechanism to its bicycle riders. Although the specifics of the partnership are yet unclear, it’s likely this will work in a similar vein to what Uber Eats Sri Lanka did with its fleet. Back in May 2022, Uber announced it was deploying bicycles for food delivery. At the time, Uber Sri Lanka also indicated that it will facilitate flexible payment schemes via local partnerships for those looking to switch to bicycles.

Of course, PickMe itself first announced its move to alternate transport during the same period when it joined hands with local e-bike manufacturer, RHODA. The idea was that it would be tested within Colombo before moving to its other regions. The Lumala partnership likely indicates that PickMe is looking to expand its e-bike arsenal to the Gampaha, Negombo, Kalutara, and Kandy districts as well.

E-bikes, Lumala, and everything in between

Sustainable transport solutions have been making regular headlines in recent times, particularly following the country’s economic crisis that took shape in 2022. EVs, bicycles, and e-bikes started becoming popular alternatives in Sri Lanka’s corporate sector. Lumala, a retailer mostly known for traditional bicycles also began offering e-bikes last year. It even partnered up with RHODA for its bikes.

While it’s unlikely to expect delivery to switch to bicycles and e-bikes completely, there appears to be progress on this front. By September 2022, nearly four months after announcing bicycle riders, Uber had reportedly crossed 100,000 deliveries via bicycles. With both operators seemingly doubling down on building their alternate delivery fleet, one would imagine this number may change significantly over the year.

But conversations about going electric and other alternatives aren’t just limited to the corporate industry. Even Sri Lanka’s interim budget for 2022 and the consequent budget proposal dedicated a section to electric vehicles. One proposal indicated that the government would halt purchasing fossil-fuel-based vehicles and will switch to EVs, on a step-by-step basis by January 2026. There were also concessions in hopes of promoting local EV assembly.

Sustaining the future

As for PickMe, the Lumala partnership is among its latest efforts in sustaining the company’s operations amid the economic landscape and competition from the likes of Uber. Late last year, the company also unveiled the PickMe Pass, a monthly subscription service that offers perks for users including waived delivery fees and exclusive offers on its other verticals (Flash, rides, and trucks). “While this will provide a higher level of service to our customers, it will also directly benefit our driver network, partner outlets, and restaurants,” says PickMe Co-founder and CEO, Jiffry Zulfer.

On a broader note, the company claims it registered over 40,000 new drivers on the platform in 2022. According to PickMe, over 20,000 of them came from Colombo, 8,141 from Gampaha, 3,665 from Kandy, and the rest of the registrants spread across PickMe’s other 22 cities of operations. Though its growth isn’t without some setbacks. Much like Uber’s case, PickMe customers continue to face issues around card hires, cancelations, and food quality problems, to name a few. It should be noted that none of these are necessarily new, which in itself is part of the problem for many customers.

Either way, it will be interesting to see how PickMe will look for growth via partnerships like Lumala, while it addresses customer woes. After all, sustainable alternatives alone can only go so far.