Standing and Delivering - Scootility Founder Antonio Loro on its new Utility Scooter With a Footdeck

Scootility is a Canadian startup that's developing a new type of e-scooter. Its utility scooter is designed for businesses making rapid urban deliveries of meals, groceries, and other items, as well as for other fleet applications, like maintenance staff on large campuses.  

"I began developing a concept for a scooter that's easier to ride and that offers ample cargo capacity. Starting out solo, I didn't have engineers to work with, so I taught myself what was needed to design and build the first working prototypes. Those prototypes proved that the utility scooter concept successfully combines rideability, compactness, and cargo capacity," Antonio Loro, Scootility's Founder, tells Auto Futures.

To develop the production model, Vancouver-based Scootility partnered with a team of industrial designers from Amsterdam called Springtime Design, and a team of engineers from Toronto called Engineering Design Lab. The outstanding feature of the scooter is a footdeck. 

"The footdeck enables a much more comfortable and balanced stance than a typical scooter with your feet side by side. That's especially important for ergonomics for riders working long shifts," he explains.

It offers a lockable cargo box with 140 litres capacity, plus a smoother ride, thanks to front and rear suspension, and much larger and fatter tires than a typical e-scooter.

Safety was also a key goal for the design, says Loro.

"Typical scooters are surprisingly squirrelly, for most people, it's a challenge to even raise a hand from the handlebars without losing control. The first prototype utility scooter was already quite stable, enough to enable riding for a few seconds without hands (for testing purposes only, of course). And we'll be doing more optimization of the design to further enhance stability as we develop the production model."

Responsive And Agile Handling

The utility scoooters offers a number of key advantages over e-bikes. It offers ample protected capacity that you don't get in a typical e-bike.

"At the same time, you get great handling - that's something that you sacrifice if you're on an e-bike with a heavy load strapped onto a cargo rack, which makes you top-heavy and cumbersome. Or worse yet, when an e-bike rider is schlepping a heavy load on your back - that's not ergonomic," says Loro.

"The utility scooter's stand-up form factor is a great match for riders on urban routes with frequent stops where you're repeatedly mounting and dismounting - no saddle makes starting and ending a trip is a more seamless, low-friction experience. It might sound trivial but it adds up over the course of repeated stops. Another point is that standing gives you a higher vantage point, which is especially useful in congested environments. Boosting how well you can see and be seen is a benefit for safety," he adds.

Loro went on to explain what it likes to ride.

"My overarching goal was to make a comfortable, safe, ergonomic tool for delivery riders and other workers who put in hours a day, week after week - I believe we've achieved that, and we'll only improve its performance as we refine and optimize the design for the production model. But as a bonus, it's also fun to ride with responsive and agile handling, much more so than front-loading cargo bikes."

The Benefits Of Micro-Mobility

The first production models ot the utility scooter will be delivered to customers 12 months after the completion of the current round of fundraising.

"To move forward to market as quickly as possible, we're raising seed funding which we'll use to build the next set of prototypes with full functionality and all the aesthetic touches you can see in the design imagery created by our Amsterdam design partners. Those prototypes will be ready approximately 5 months after we conclude our current funding raise. We'll use those prototypes for testing internally and with also for small-scale pilot trials with business partners who'll use them for delivery and other jobs," says Loro

Finally, we asked him for his thoughts on where urban mobility is heading.

"While automobiles are currently dominant in most cities, it's clear that more and more individuals and businesses understand the benefits of micromobility. The utility scooter we're developing is our contribution to the growing ecosystem of very small, very light, very efficient vehicles that are a great fit for getting around cities," he says.

"With truly useful, versatile micromobility vehicles like our utility scooter, I'm confident that the adoption of micromobility will continue to grow rapidly and will play an increasingly large and important role in urban mobility," concludes Loro.