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Around four o'clock in the afternoon, Long before the sun sets on the seaside town of Santa Monica, Mark Devlin roams the streets in search of electric scooters in the resuscitation phase. Wireless and dockless devices are very popular here, apparently installed in every corner of the city, in bright red, pink, black or green. But humans have to disconnect them to charge them. At the end of the day, there are usually a few who have fallen below an operational battery threshold. So, Devlin goes hunting.
"You have to watch the birds, see where they are going and see where they have gathered," says 57-year-old Devlin. "Then I strategize what my night will look like."
The real action begins after sunset. A large number of scooters, provided by at least four companies, including Bird, Lime, Lyft and Uber, are deactivated at 9:00 pm, at which time the services were closed for the night. So at 8 pm, Devlin parks the U-Haul truck that he rents for the occasion next to the biggest flock that he can find – for "pre-proclaiming," he says. – and wait.
At exactly nine o'clock, Devlin shifts up a gear. He goes home on a flock of birds using the application on his mobile phone, throws them in his truck and heads to the next place, then to find another loader (or "juicer"). Lime) seized the loot. No perspiration; Devlin advances. At another rally of scooters, Devlin sprints, successfully claiming a few seconds just before another loader. At 10 am, the streets once naked with scooters are swept away.
Devlin, a stage setter for rock artists like Metallica and Judas Priest, earns between $ 200 and $ 300 a night (between $ 5 and $ 20 per scooter), collecting between 40 and 60 scooters to be recharged as part of the bonus system. Bird and Lime for recovery. The night concert helps pay the bills of his family of four and allows him to be his own boss. "In fact, I earn more money than what my chosen job is willing to pay," he says. "Instant gratification is addictive."
With the help of a rented truck, Devlin carries scooters home to recharge it overnight.
Joe Toreno for Fortune
With no garage at home, Devlin loads scooters in his living room, half of which has been converted into a charging station. His wife does not like the new decor, but "she really likes what to pick up 60 birds hurts my body," Devlin says with a chuckle. (Each scooter weighs 20 pounds or more.) Twelve hours later, he is back in the street to drop his grip at an official "bird's nest".
Hundreds of millions of dollars raised, billions of dollars – to say that the humble electric scooter has stormed Silicon Valley and its southern sister, Silicon Beach, is a euphemism. Santa Monica has licensed 2,000 motorized scooters as part of a new pilot program aimed at solving the "last mile" of local journeys; San Francisco has lit up 2,500 at the green light. And electronic scooters appear in cities across the country, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Miami and St. Louis.
The logistics companies at the origin of these electric scooters are appreciated just like many companies, but many rely on computer equipment and an army of independent contractors like Devlin to maintain their fleet. Without the help of self-employed, some of these billion-dollar companies would bend. But the work, if not the whole of the company, is still in its infancy and its effects on the local community remain to be demonstrated. Under cover of the night, the scooter loaders compete in a fun concert for which the rules are at best blurred.
Some scooter chargers have been confronted with violence. Devlin, for example, claims to have called the police after being assaulted physically and verbally by a colleague who believed Devlin was playing with the system. Deedee Deschanel, a 29-year-old video producer, wears a bullet-proof vest with pepper spray when he goes on bird hunting on Saturday night in Santa Monica. "You never know," he says.
And for women like Brooke Thompson, who comes out at night, often alone, with a van to pick up scooters in the seaside town, the darker hours can be daunting. She says she was congratulated, even hunted down, at work in the early hours of the morning. "It's fun to be outside," she says, "but as a woman, I'm also a bit more vulnerable."
Electric scooters are a mixed bag for the cities in which they are deployed. Although many cyclists like them, some residents are less enthusiastic and consider them a source of visual pollution and a nuisance. Corporate launch tactics have also been scrutinized. In Santa Monica, Bird entered the scene in 2017 – the company is headquartered there – without the permission of the local government. The city finally sued; Bird agreed to pay a fine of $ 300,000. Even today, the anger over the incident has not completely disappeared; During a recent walk to Santa Monica, a Bird scooter was vandalized to indicate "TURD".
Thompson says that she felt the heat first hand. She received black looks, sarcastic remarks and complaints about Bird when she went away to scoot for money. Devlin's 11-year-old son avoided telling his friends that his father had participated in the Bird's Scooter bonus program; the name has "a certain amount of negativity," says the father. "It's like saying," My dad works at DMV. ""
"We found centrifuges enjoyed an hour or two of work in the evenings and in the morning," says Colin McMahon, who runs the Lime's Juicer program. He adds that the company correlates its supply of centrifuges to the demand of scooters in a given community. Regarding Bird, a spokesperson said the company's program could be an "excellent source" of additional revenue for its independent shippers.
Unlike Bird and Lime, Lyft, which only deployed its fleet of electric scooters in Santa Monica in September, employs full-time employees for reloading. For Caroline Samponaro, responsible for the policy of bicycles, scooters and pedestrians of the San Francisco company, it actually helps to reduce some of the competitiveness: "We can not control operational excellence if we do not have control" .
Which charging system is the best and which commissioning will prevail in the great scooter war of 2018 and beyond? Ask the shippers themselves, and the overview becomes clear.
"There is no doubt that Bird chargers will not exist in the near future," says Devlin, stressing the inevitability of technological progress. "But I do not know if I will retire. I love working I hope never have to stop myself.
Electric scooters … in numbers
Six things to know about a new explosive logistics company that spans the globe.
$ 3.1 billion
The combined assessment of Bird and Lime, which together raised $ 882 million in funding.
10,000
Number of Juicers, in 42 cities and more, who have registered to charge Lime scooters money.
70%
According to a Populus study, urban Americans have a positive view of electric scooters.
14.3m
Miles traveled by bird enthusiasts (over 10 million trips) as of the first anniversary of the company.
1,263
Quotes issued to electric scooter drivers through more than 15,000 stops, by the Santa Monica Police Department in 2018 to date.
1
Number of known e-scooter victims (a Dallas man died after falling without a helmet from a Lime scooter, according to police).
A version of this article was published in the November 1, 2018 issue of Fortune with the title "Meet New Tech Bounty Hunters."
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