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 a monthly rent for a flat rate of 25 €. The company is ready to deliver the scooter to your door and will pick it up when you're done.
The problem is that Bird does not work so far in Greece and that the monthly rent only works in San Francisco and Barcelona. The new monthly rental service starts only in these two cities, and although everything goes well, the company expects to extend the package to other later. Given that Bird has already announced its expansion to 50 European Cities for this spring, without having yet to name what they will be.
At present, by going to San Francisco or Barcelona, users can open the Bird application and enter information such as where and when they would like their Bird e-scooter to deliver (home, work, etc.). After completing your order, a Bird representative will confirm the details and arrange delivery of a Bird electric scooter, charger and a padlock. When the rental period expires, the company will come home to pick up the vehicle, the charger and the padlock.
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 prohibits all e-scooter companies (except two, Scoot and Skip) from leaving e-scooters on the sidewalks without first seeking permission from the city. In fact it is a check of the unlimited number of e-scooters available for rent, diffused in the center of the cities. This policy came into force in August of 2018, and was believed to target Bird and Lime (Lime is active in Greece). Bird with the delivery system at your door avoids the problem of obtaining a city license to operate a paid scooter sharing service.
