We're a Cape Town-born company electrifying last-mile delivery — because we saw what petrol fleets were costing the people who run them and the drivers who ride them, and decided an alternative had to exist.
Last-mile delivery in South Africa is unpredictable, unregulated and unforgiving. It squeezes the people at both ends of every parcel.
Rising fuel and maintenance costs, mounting traffic fines, breakdowns, roadside call-outs and accident admin eat away at margins that were thin to begin with. Keeping a petrol fleet profitable means fighting on every front at once — routes, repairs, safety, cash flow.
Delivery drivers battle soaring petrol prices, vehicle rental costs, data costs and the cost of simply living — often earning per drop while carrying all the risk. When a bike breaks, the income stops. Many end up fixing their own bikes on street corners because there's nowhere else to turn.
Accidents involving food delivery drivers rose 30% nationwide in May–June 2020 compared to the year before — 109 incidents in two months. — Hein Jonker, Motorcycle Safety Institute of South Africa
Extensive research into fleet economics kept landing on the same conclusion: petrol bikes are expensive to run, expensive to maintain, and the costs fall hardest on the people least able to absorb them. An alternative was needed.
EVs were clearly right for last-mile work: fewer moving parts, a fraction of the running cost. But only if charging never took a driver off the road. That led us to battery swapping — and to solar — as the backbone of the model.
We watched drivers repairing their own bikes on street corners because no support existed for them. Then, in a single month, six delivery drivers lost their lives on our roads. That was the moment this stopped being a business case and became a responsibility. A platform built to support and empower drivers was created.
We built for the realities of the job: affordable vehicle rentals, fuel-cost elimination, data optimisation and hands-on maintenance support — designed with first-hand experience of what fleet managers and drivers actually face.
Our first software release went live with 80 bikes and 430 drivers on the platform — real routes, real shifts, real feedback. Every lesson from that fleet is built into the bikes and the network we run today.
Two purpose-built EVs engineered for Southern African roads, a growing battery swap network rolling out in phases across the country, financing paths backed by Eqstra, and a driver marketplace connecting fleets to the riders who keep them moving.
Holistic, reliable electric-vehicle and battery-swap solutions built specifically for the South African delivery market — not adapted to it.
Connecting drivers to cost-effective, dependable vehicles and the energy framework to keep them earning — with 24/7 support behind them.
Management, maintenance and financing solutions that take the operational burden off fleet owners and put predictability into their numbers.
Measurable emission savings for the organisations we serve — sustainability you can put in a report, not just a slogan.
Our goal: sustainable vehicles in the hands of 10,000 last-mile delivery drivers by 2030. We're already on our way.
“That first day when I got home, at night I was checking the bike and thought something was wrong. I consulted you and you responded so quickly — and the problem was solved.”
“It's only been a couple of weeks that I have been with ScootHero — and the difference in what I keep at the end of the day is real.”
Whether you run a fleet or ride for one, the switch to electric starts with one conversation.
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