Bird, one of the largest e-scooter rental companies, now offers a monthly rent of EUR 25.
If useste an application to mobile to find a nearby e-scooter (or 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 active in Greece so far and that the monthly rental only works in San Francisco and Barcelona. The new monthly rental service 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 to be delivered (home, work, elsewhere). After completing your order, afaceof Bird 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 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.
