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Capitalism: Poor economics of shared scooters
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

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    In October, The Information reported that Bird was spending $551 per scooter with a goal of reducing that cost to $360. At the time, I said that meant Bird needed five rides a day on a $551 scooter for 5.25 months just to recoup the initial cost.

    The picture painted by the Louisville data is even worse. Transit enthusiast Nathan Stevens also analyzed the Louisville data for Aug. 9 through Nov. 30, and I'm going to pull in some of what he found to back out scooter economics in Louisville:

    Utilization

    • 663 scooters in circulation
    • The average trip was 1.63 miles
    • The average trip lasted 18 minutes
    • The average scooter did 3.49 rides per day

    Revenue

    • Both Bird and Lime charge $1 to unlock a scooter and $0.15 per minute
    • At 18 minutes, the average trip generated $3.70 in revenue (note that this, based on three months of data in Louisville is nearly identical to the $3.65 in revenue per ride Bird reportedly told investors it was averaging as of June)
    • At 3.49 rides per day, the average scooter generated $12.91 in revenue per day

    General costs, based on reporting by The Information

    • Bird spent $1.72 per ride on charging costs
    • It spent another $0.51 per ride, on average, on repairs
    • Credit card fees cost $0.41 per ride
    • Customer support adds $0.06 per ride
    • Insurance is $0.05 per ride

    Louisville-specific costs, from dockless vehicle policy (pdf)

    • $2,000 for a probationary license (required for the first six months of operation)
    • Additional $1,000 to receive full operating license
    • Annual $50 fee per dockless vehicle
    • Daily $1 fee per dockless vehicle
    • $100 fee per designated group parking area

    Louisville daily scooter economics

    • A scooter generates $3.70 in revenue per ride
    • Deducting per-ride costs of charging, repairs, credit card fees, customer support, and insurance, leaves $0.95 per ride
    • Multiplied by 3.49 rides per day is $3.32 in net revenue per scooter per day
    • Minus the $1 daily fee leaves $2.32

    Our scooter company walks away with $2.32 in revenue per day from the average scooter in Louisville. As we said at the beginning, Louisville data indicates that the average scooter was around for between 28 and 32 days. That means the typical scooter generated something like $65 to $75 in revenue for the company after most operating costs over its lifetime.

    https://oversharing.substack.com/p/shared-scooters-dont-last-long

  • 5 Replies sorted by
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @Bernie

    Yep, actually had relation to development of few.

    For real life strongly suggest this - https://www.amazon.com/Razor-13013205-Air-Scooter-Black/dp/B07NL8VSJ5

    For EU guys preferring hard wheels

    From Chinese can look at such models (but need to get only local and test springs fit and such)

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  • BernieBernie

    @ Vitaliy "Looking at average trip all this guys can do much better with normal kick scooters. And much better for clients health." Have you any suggestions for a good kick scooter?

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Charging the batteries of shareable electric scooters overnight — the latest entry in our metastasizing gig economy — can be a bit of a thankless task. The pay is minimal, the scooters can be hard to find, and freelancers often complain about unsafe conditions. Lime, one of the main players in the shareable e-scooter business, is looking to bring some order to the chaos.

    Looking at average trip all this guys can do much better with normal kick scooters. And much better for clients health.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @LPowell

    They do not care much, as they use free money and wait for IPO to get more of the same.

  • LPowellLPowell

    Estimate on cost of disposing dead scooter carcass? Are they recyclable?

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