Ofo pulls out of London boroughs

Dockless bike hire firm Ofo has announced it is pulling out of the London boroughs of Waltham Forest, Richmond, Wandsworth and Redbridge as well as half of Southwark. The Chinese firm said the boroughs do not attract enough users and are “more complicated to manage by our teams”. “This modification will provide a higher density of bikes and better service for the majority of our users.” Ofo has also introduced a £15 “service rebalancing fee” if users park bikes outside its geofence. This will automatically be added to the user’s ride once the bike is parked and locked outside of the zone. “We've introduced this feature following feedback from our users about the availability of bikes,” says Ofo. In July Ofo closed its Sheffield and Norwich operations and scrapped plans to launch in Leeds as part of a global restructuring (LTT 20 July).