by on Leave a Comment

How Micromobility Could Be Double Trouble for Uber and Lyft’s Profitability

As scooters become more ubiquitous and noticeable in many cities, we wondered how “scooternomics” fit in with profitability for Uber and Lyft. Are Uber and Lyft making more with scooters? How do other scooter companies play a role? RSG contributor Sergio Avedian dug in to see how Uber/Lyft profit from short rides, how scooter rides have cut into that profitability and what that means for rideshare and scooter companies.

As per recent Uber and Lyft data, most Uber and Lyft rides are around 6 miles, but the most profitable are the short ones (2-3 miles). For drivers, those minimum fare rides can be rough and sometimes the distance driven to the pick-up location is longer than the actual ride itself.

Drive with Uber 1

Need a car to drive with Uber? Try FAIR

CA drivers: Fair is the official vehicle partner for Uber and is a great option for drivers in need of an eligible rideshare vehicle. Click here to sign-up! Not a California driver? Fair has options nationwide, and you can sign up here and get $100 off the start-up fee when you use the code 'RSG100'.

[Read more…]

by on Leave a Comment

Bird Charger – Ultimate Guide For Charging Electric Scooters

Even though Uber and Lyft make up a majority of the on-demand economy, there is no shortage of other apps and services that you can work for. And when I heard about a new electric scooter company called Bird, I decided to sign up and give it a try.

Now if you’re wondering what electric scooters have to do with rideshare driving, you’re right! On the surface, they may seem like pretty different companies, but scooters and rideshare are both part of the shared mobility space, and they actually have a lot more in common than you may think.

Both businesses are mobility marketplaces: Uber connects drivers and riders while Bird connects scooters and customers.  And as it turns out, those scooters need able-bodied  workers to charge them every night, so that’s where workers in the on-demand economy come in handy.

After covering the rideshare industry for four years, I’m already seeing a ton of parallels between the two business models and, like we saw with rideshare driving when it first hit the scene, there’s a lot of opportunity for ‘Chargers’ right now since Bird is growing quickly and able-bodied workers are in high demand.

Bird Charger Pay – how much do you get paid to charge Bird Scooters?

Based on my own experience and from talking with other chargers, you can easily make $20-30 per hour working for Bird. If you’d like to download a copy of our free Bird Charger Quick Start Guide PDF, please opt in to our e-mail list below:

Bird Charger

Bird Charger

[Read more…]

by on Leave a Comment

RSG091: Nick Abouzeid on the State of the Scooter Industry in 2019

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

2018 was the year of the scooter. Here at RSG, one of our top posts was about how to be a Charger, and three of our top five videos on the YouTube channel were about scooters. Today, we’re going to get an update from someone who knows a ton about the industry, from charging scooters to writing about them.

If you’d like to read a transcript of this podcast, please click here.

[Read more…]

by on Leave a Comment

How To Start An Electric Scooter Rental Business Like Bird & Lime

E-scooters seemed to pop up out of nowhere and have been spreading around the US like wildfire – but what does it take to build a scooter company? Today we have a guest post from Asher Meyers on what it would take to build a successful and potentially profitable scooter company.

The scooter startups Lime and Bird have sunk hundreds of millions on building and deploying scooter fleets all over the world. Uber, Lyft, Skip and Spin have joined their ranks. How could the average Joe possibly run with the bulls, without tens of millions in funding?

These firms, particularly Bird and Lime, have had to spend on big fixed, upfront costs — things like:

  • Vehicle hardware design
  • Logistics software, to coordinate charging, deployment, repairs and legal compliance for scooters
  • The app, which people use to unlock the scooters
  • Lobbying local and state governments

All of these have classic ‘economies of scale’ — build it for one scooter or 10,000, and it costs a lot either way. They’re barriers to entry — hurdles that make it hard for new firms to form and compete.

[Read more…]