'White Van Man' haunts re-distribution of Boris bikes

Rental van re-distributing the cycle hire bikes on Portland Place in central London

This photo I've just taken shows the difficulties facing Serco in distributing the Boris bikes.

Initially the plan was for 10 electric low emission "green" vehicles to redistribute the bikes along with 20 staff.

It quickly became clear that 10 vehicles couldn't cope around mainline stations where the docking bays are either full or empty.

So now we have rental transit vans being drafted in to help along with some Ford Focus estates with trailers. These extra vehicles are neither electric nor green.

Transport for London have confirmed there are now 20 vehicles and 40 staff distributing bikes.

That's double what Serco initially thought they'd need, and presumably it will mean double the cost for the contractor.

Are we going to see this contract renegotiated as happened in Paris? It's probably too early to tell.

Transport for London says the extra vehicles are a short to medium term solution until more docking stations are introduced.

There have been many computer glitches but it's looking like distribution is the real problem for the London Bike Hire scheme.

It's happening due to the huge number of train commuters at stations who want a cheaper alternative to getting the tube.

Paris introduced incentives to park the bikes on the top of hills, are we getting towards that?

UPDATE: 12.50pm

We were getting complaints about the bike hire scheme last night with some users having to take their bikes home as they couldn't find docking points.

Some users were told they would have to pay £50 for taking the bikes home.

Not surprisingly perhaps, usage was up massively due to the tube strike. This is the experience of one user who emailed us:

There was nobody from TfL/Serco at our docking station (Notting Hill). However, this was part of the problem! They kept promising us someone would appear, but to no avail. We waited 2 hours - my husband getting very cold having sweated whilst cycling.

The situation was frustrating for 3 reasons:

1. Obviously, the fact that no-one had planned ahead for the obvious consequence of the tube strikes - namely that many more people would be using the bikes to commute from the City to residential areas like Notting Hill.

A bit of foresight would have meant extra staff would have been on shift to move the bikes from residential areas back to the City.

2. The docking station computer system was obviously faulty, as it was saying spaces were available in docking stations that weren't. Serco staff on the phone would still say 2 spaces were available when we were standing in front of a full dock.

3. The customer service was absolutely appalling - staff were rude, openly laughing at the predicament people were finding themselves in.

Our operator said we'd have to pay for the bike being out of dock during our waiting time and laughed saying, 'just enjoy it.'

We arrived at the docking station at 8pm to find it full and all surrounding ones full - the Serco phone-lines were all busy, as obviously they were receiving lots of calls.

An Australian lady at the docking station with us was left on hold for 25 minutes, then put back on hold, then laughed at by a phone operator - she told them she will never use the scheme again.

Once we finally got through to a member of staff, he assured us someone would arrive within 40 minutes to clear some bikes from the docking station. At the same time, a gentleman next to us was being told that, categorically, no-one would be leaving the depot to collect bikes until 10pm.

We were continually told someone was en route. We waited for 2 hours. People were dumping their bikes at the dock or taking them home - whilst all the while dozens of bikers kept arriving and leaving again - directed their by Serco's faulty computer system that wrongly indicated there was space. What was simply a lack of foresight and proper planning became a customer service disaster.

4. Eventually, after my husband had given his details over the phone for the fourth time, he argued the phone operator into agreeing that he could take the bike home for no charge and return it in the morning. We won't have to pay, despite taking the bike home. The people who took their bikes home earlier, however, will have to pay £50. This discrepancy feels unfair.

I await a response from Transport for London. Anyone else suffer the same?

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