How much money can you make charging scooters

One of my favorite developments in recent years has been the rise of alternative transportation methods. In the time since I wrote that post, bikeshare systems have started to go dockless and other forms of non-car caj transportation methods have also started to pop up. The latest innovations in hoow space are electric scooters made by companies like Bird and Lime. There are two big players in the scooter world — Bird monej Lime, but there are other scooter companies out there, how much money can you make charging scooters Skip, Spin, and others too numerous to name even Uber and Lyft have come out with their own brand of electric scooters. After that, just drop it off wherever you are. Breaking it down, this is how much it generally mke to ride a scooter for various lengths of time:. Riding these scooters is cool, but here on Financial Panther, what we care about is how we can make money from. Since these scooters are electric, they need to be charged every day. Bird and Lime both utilize independent contractors — i. They call these people Bird Chargers and Lime Juicers.

1. Get as Many Chargers as You Can

Check out the Uber driver sign up bonus , Lyft driver sign up bonus , and DoorDash driver sign up bonus. 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. Advertisement: Use the GetUpside app to save money on every gallon of gas you buy bonus offer included. From there, the application asks for personal information, tax information and your bank account information so they can send you direct deposits. This part of the sign-up process was pretty standard. Uber driver requirements and Lyft driver requirements tend to be more focused on getting as many people into their application funnel as possible and have no real vetting other than the background check. Related article: Essential gear for scooter chargers. Just check out how this guy does it! Chargers are paid for each Bird they pick up, charge and release. But some Birds will pay more, depending on how difficult it is to find, charge and release.

2. Always Have Some Scooters On-Deck

So the cost to charge a Bird scooter is pretty minimal. This allows you to toggle into Charger mode, then capture and charge Birds. Birds are coded on the map in different colors and each color has a dollar value. All you have to do is scan the QR code located on the handle bar or enter the 4 digit code. Charging Birds is pretty straightforward, but you will need to get special chargers from Bird. The Chargers are free but you only get 3 to start since the charging supplies are in high demand right now.

2. Always Have Some Scooters On-Deck

B ird electric scooters have officially taken over Southern California. They are inexpensive to rent and can make transportation through a busy city like San Diego or Los Angeles absolutely painless. These scooters are fast and fun to ride, so whether you just need to get from point A to point B, or are looking for an exciting way to spend a sunny afternoon, Bird electric scooters are a no brainer. Note: The information found in this article is based on estimates.

Check out now the 9 hacks to make more money charging Lime scooters!

As a charger, you will see scooters on the map that need to be picked up, charged, and re-deployed along with how much you will get paid to pick up each scooter. But other competitors quickly sprang up. Even the original player, Razor got into the game and now offers scooter sharing in over 5 different cities. Right now, the same charging cables work on almost all scooters.

How much money you can make

Most dropoff locations will allow for scooters to be dropped off. Who is online. We have seen different applications from the same city get approved at different times. I only do this by foot. As you start to ramp up the number of scooters you charge in a night, you can buy things to help you make more money and to keep you safe. So it sits in the same place it was dropped off until a charger picks it up.

How charging works

Read on to learn how…. The industry quickly took off and now there are dozens of companies renting scooters. Razor scooters started off as a toy.

Bike sharing in China took off like crazy. These two trends combined leading to the scooter craze in the Americas and Europe. InRazor pioneered the two wheel, compact, lightweight scooter. The Razor started out as a toy and sold millions of scooters to kids across the US.

Slowly, Razor and other companies started building bigger, sturdier scooters for adults to use. These adult scooters gained usage in cities and on company or university campuses. Razor introduced electric motors to their scooters in A twisting throttle allowed the rider to go up to 15 miles per hour without pushing. But most of these electric scooters were still toys sold primarily to kids. Infive bike geeks at Peking University in Beijing decided to rent out their bicycles to strangers.

Bike rentals have been done for a long time, but this was the first time you could rent a bike with just your phone. And it was cheap! But other competitors quickly sprang up. A few entrepreneurs saw the bike sharing explosion of China and tried to apply how much money can you make charging scooters formula to the US.

In fact, Lime and Spin both known for scooters now, started as bikesharing companies in the US. While bike sharing began gaining traction in the US, it did not explode the same way that it did in China.

In Summer ofa new company called Telepod launched electric scooters in Singapore. Come lateBirdfounded by a former Lyft and Uber exec, launched electric scooters in Santa Monica.

These took off similarly to bikes in China. Bird scooters are dockless, meaning that you can pick them up and drop them off. You check the map to find a scooter near you, scan the QR code to unlock the scooter, and go. Most of the companies that were working on bike sharing in the US quickly pivoted to scooters.

Spin ditched bikes and got acquired as a scooter company by Ford Motors. Even the original player, Razor got into the game and now offers scooter sharing in over 5 different cities.

In addition, new scooter companies quickly emerged. Ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft quickly saw that shared scooters and bikes were causing them to lose rides under a few miles. Why would you order an Uber when you can jump on a scooter for a couple bucks and get their faster?

So ridesharing companies also got into the scooter and bike game. And these ridesharing companies are now working on releasing their own scooter rental programs. So most of the scooters on the streets today are very similar to the original consumer scooters.

Ninebot, founded insupplies most of the scooters for the current scooter companies. Xiaomi, a major Chinese electronics company, financed Ninebot and helped them acquire the Segway brand. So when you see scooters from Xiaomi, Ninebot, or Segway, they are probably all coming from the same factories. Other Chinese factories have started to pivot their production lines towards scooter production while companies already in the scooter business are working on growing their manufacturing capacity.

The industrial grade rental scooter is a new product so we are still seeing early stage product development. Scooter companies like to boast about their custom hardware but most of them are just ordering whatever they can from their Chinese suppliers. The electric scooters are powered by batteries in the scooter.

These lithium ion batteries resemble the batteries in your phone or laptop. As riders zoom around the city during the day, the battery in the scooter gets depleted. While a non-electric scooter is light enough to ride without power, the added motor and batteries make electric scooters hard to ride without an assist from the motor.

So when the battery in the scooters drops below a certain percentage, the scooter companies do not allow riders to rent them anymore. They now need someone to collect the scooters, charge them up, and put them back on the streets. Different companies run their charging operations differently.

Bird and Lime are the two biggest players and they rely on a contract workforce to pick up scooters. Skip is also using contract chargers. You can apply to be a charger in the Bird, Lime or Skip apps. Once you are approved, the scooter company will ship you charging cables. Right now, the same charging cables work on almost all scooters. As a charger, you will see scooters on the map that need to be picked up, charged, and re-deployed along with how much you will get paid to pick up each scooter.

Other companies use variations of an employee model where they pay workers hourly to charge scooters. These scooters are often charged at warehouses rented by the companies. There are pros and cons to both the employee and contractor models. At Scooter Map, we believe that a hybrid model will work best and we are working with scooter companies to help them set up their contract charger programs.

OK, that was a lot of background. But, how do you get involved? Now we need to figure out which scooter companies are in your city. Otherwise you can check out Scooter Map to see which companies have scooters in your town or in neighboring towns. Scooter companies are expanding quickly and want to be.

Not everyone gets approved as a scooter charger. In some markets, a scooter company may think they have enough chargers for the time being, so they will put a pause on accepting new chargers. Other times, your application could just be lost in the chaos. It can take anywhere from one day to six weeks to be approved. There is not a hard and fast rule. We have seen different applications from the same city get approved at different times.

So just because you apply before someone does not mean that you will be approved before. Check out the above section for what you can do to increase your chances of getting approved. These factors will also help you get approved faster.

Unfortunately, none of us at Scooter Map can check on or expedite your application. So contact the scooter company directly, not Scooter Map :.

Once you are approved as a charger, you will be sent charging cables by the company. Usually the company will send you 3 or 4 cables to start. If you want to charge more scooters than you have charging cables, you will have to charge up one scooter and then use the cable on a new scooter.

This gets annoying quickly since you will have to wake up to swap out your charging cables. But you can also buy extra charging cables in our store. We recommend starting off light to start. Start out with 3 or 4 scooters and see how it goes. As you start to ramp up the number of scooters you charge in a night, you can buy things to help you make more money and to keep you safe. These include reflective gear, gloves, wagons for scooters, flashlights and. Once you are approved as a charger and have charging cables, you can start making money charging scooters!

To find scooters to pick up, you can look at the charger map the company provides you or you can look at Scooter Map. Scooter Map provides tools to help you figure out what scooters to try and pick up.

We calculate a likelihood score for each scooter that indicates how likely a scooter is where it says it is on the map. You can use the Filter tab to only show scooters that are likely to be. Scooters are used over the course of the day by riders.

So it sits in the same place it was dropped off until a charger picks it up. That means places that riders are using the scooters are also going to be places where the scooters are going to be left for charging. To get an idea of where riders are using scooters, you can look at the rider mode in the scooter company app. This means that you will spend less time navigating and more time finding scooters and making money.

Scooters are released at the beginning of the day with full charge. Over the course of the day the battery is used.

The scooter companies will make the scooters available to charge once the battery is below a certain percentage. Most scooters will become available to be charged in the evening. Bird makes most of their scooters available to charge at 9pm local time, even if the scooter still has charge in the battery. When you find a scooter, you will need to scan that scooter using the scooter company app. You will open the scooter company app, go to charger mode, open the camera and scan the QR code on the scooter.

You should scan the scooter before moving it or putting it in your car.

I Tried the Scooter Charging Side Hustle for a Day

How to make more money charging scooters?

Yyou Scooter charging is one of the newest opportunities to hit the gig market. But how much money do you get paid to charge Birds? Plus, the money you earn from charging Birds is taxable. So what is a Bird Charger supposed to do? How are you supposed to make any money capturing Birds for a living? Do people really earn that type of money chasing scooters around the city? After completing the sign-up process, the company sends you three electric scooter charger kits in your welcome package. Each kit contains 3 wall plugs and 3 power bricks. Each one enables you to charge one scooter at a time.

How Charging Works

Bird electric scooters take roughly hours to charge, so you can probably do around 6 chagging in a night with 3 chargers if you work efficiently. Requesting more kits is a great way to grow your income. You can actually buy Bird chargers on your own if you to charge. Go out and collect scooters. Get one for every charger. Go home, plug them in, and wait for them to charge. Get more scooters and repeats. But, as you know, charging hours start at PM. And if you want to get paid for the scooter the next day, you have to have it out by AM.