Small business: Electric warriors - Cleve Cameron and Locky Docks building a secure network for e-bikers

Cleve Cameron, founder and managing director of Big Street Bikers. Photo / Michael Craig

After years of working in the corporate world as an advertising creative and executive Cleve Cameron now leads a small team of passionate e-bike enthusiasts at Big Street Bikers. The company’s goal is to get more Kiwis out of their cars and onto bikes, making it easier with the nationwide Locky Dock network - secure locking and charging stations, all free to use. That has meant a bold leap into the world of PPPs (public-private partnerships) bringing together government, private sponsors and advertisers in a cohesive sustainable model.

What is Big Street Bikers and how does Locky Dock fit in?

Big Street Bikers began as a response to Auckland’s congestion problems. With co-founders Matt Weavers and Andrew Charlesworth, we launched in 2018 with the Rechargery - a solar-powered service station selling e-bikes on a subscription model - on Auckland’s Viaduct.

The concept was award-winning and world-leading at the time. This also began our partnership with Mercury, who have been a fantastic foundation sponsor and continue to be with the rollout of the Locky Dock Network nationwide.

Running the Rechargery for three years meant we had some excellent on-the-ground market research and insights into the opportunities and barriers to people choosing to ride electric.

The three main barriers that kept coming up were: theft anxiety, range anxiety and lack of awareness of safe bike routes. We mashed all these problems together and came to the solution of creating a network of secure parking and charging stations with digital screens to provide bike path maps and advertising called Locky Docks, where you lock, dock and charge for free.

Getting this model right has been critical to scaling as it’s meant we’re able to provide Locky Docks as self-funded infrastructure that serves as a free public amenity. This PPP model is a hugely relevant solution for councils and government.

The first Locky Dock network was launched in Christchurch, in 2020 as the country came out of the first Covid lockdown.

There’s now 55 stations across seven cities with this set to grow to over 100 stations by the end of the year through our partnerships with oOh! Media and Mercury. We have nine network designs under way, with councils in Christchurch, Whangārei and Whakatāne leading the way. Today we have a team of 15 working across our network. Our weekly online hui is a quick barometer of what’s happening across the motu. We also have an expert and experienced board and advisory board.

What is the goal of the business and how do you balance the bigger vision with commercial realities?

Our goal is to make Locky Docks the petrol stations of the 21st Century. As a new technology, we see the Locky Dock network rollout similar to that of the cell phone companies rolling out their networks in the 1990s - in terms of impact and significance in enabling a new urban lifestyle.

The impact of the network really drives the purpose of the business. Economic modelling from Sense Partners projects that every 100 Locky Docks delivers $320 million net social benefit and cuts emissions by 5800 tonnes of C02 over a 10-year term.

The commercial reality is that with this being a new technology infrastructure rollout, and introducing an innovation to council processes, it takes time. This has meant we’ve had to keep lean, focused and relentlessly positive.

What are the biggest successes to date?

Establishing a network of media-funded secure parking and charging stations as a free public amenity. And in doing so, making this one of the first media networks to declare 100 per cent free of fossil fuel industry content.

We have long-term partnerships in New Zealand with Mercury and oOh! (Australasia’s largest outdoor media company) and recently a 10-year distribution agreement with our technology partners Bikeep across Australia and NZ. The daily feedback from bikers on our app makes it all worthwhile, like “Love the Locky Dock” and “The free charging literally saved my life”.

...and biggest challenges?

Managing the demand, now coming in from Australia. Tasmania State Government have just requested a network design for secure parking, along with numerous commercial requests from the big island, including Westfields in Victoria.

You worked many years in the world of advertising, selling stories for other businesses. How different is it to be running your own?

Coming out of a career in the advertising world has been a pretty handy background for creating a new business, in terms of understanding the importance of generating demand and selling ideas. The first agency job I had was as a creative at Saatchi & Saatchi in Wellington around the turn of the century. It was an exciting time and an incubator for many who went on to run their own businesses, most famously being Geoff Ross with 42 Below. The main difference between agency life and running your own business, apart from the customary agency lunches, is becoming finely tuned to attracting the revenue to run the machine.

What’s your advice or tips for people who want to make that jump from corporate life to running their own business?

The most pragmatic and possibly most boring advice I could give anyone thinking of jumping the corporate ship for life in an entrepreneurial dinghy is to get yourself a two-, three-year salary sea chest, and a workspace with next to no rent. Because anything new takes time to bring into the world and you need a place for people to gather and for magic things to happen in. The rest is relentless positive action.