Bird, one of the largest e-scooter rental companies, now offers a monthly rent of EUR 25.
If you use an app on your mobile phone to locate a nearby e-scooter (or an electric scooter) to rent, the Bird now offers monthly rent for a flat rate of €25. The company is available to deliver the scooter to your door and will pick it up when you are done.
The problem is that Bird is not currently active in Greece and that the monthly rental only works in San Francisco and Barcelona. New service of monthly rent is only starting in these two cities, and if all goes well, the company expects to extend the package to others later. Note that the Bird company has already announced its expansion to 50 European cities for this spring, without yet naming which ones they will be.
Currently, going to San Francisco or Barcelona, users can open the Bird app and enter information such as where and when they would like their Bird e-scooter delivered (home, work, elsewhere). After completing your order, a Bird representative will confirm the details and arrange for the delivery of a Bird electric scooter, its charger and a lock. When the rental period ends, the company will come to your home to pick up the vehicle, charger and lock.
The price sounds particularly advantageous since current prices are global from all companies, 1 Euros for unlocking and 0,10-0,40 cents per minute. Greece charges 0,15 cents per minute, which means that for half an hour you will be charged 1 euro + 0,15 X 30 minutes = 5,50 euro as a whole.
But this is not a special offer. The San Francisco made a law which prohibit all e-scooter companies (except two, Scoot and Skip) from leaving e-scooters on sidewalks without first seeking permission from the city. Actually it is one control των απεριόριστων σε αριθμό e-scooters που διατίθενται προς ενοικίαση, διάχυτα στο κέντρο των πόλεων. Η πολιτική αυτή τέθηκε σε ισχύ τον Αύγουστο του 2018, και θεωρήθηκε ότι στόχευε στις εταιρείες Bird και Lime (η Lime δραστηριοποιείται στην Ελλάδα). Η Bird με το σύστημα παράδοσης στην πόρτα σας, αποφεύγει το πρόβλημα της απόκτησης άδειας από την πόλη για τη λειτουργία μιας υπηρεσίας κοινής χρήσης σκούτερ επί payment.