Want to start e scooter rental business like Jump, Lime, Scoot or Spin? Know how to get a permit to start e scooter rental business.

If you a reader from San Francisco, just install the e-scooter app of any recently permitted operator and start riding e-scooter. But if you are an entrepreneur, wishing to jump into micro-mobility movement, invest 5 minutes in this blog and know how to decode one major challenge of e-scooter rental business – getting a business permit from the government.

In this blog, you will get to know,

• San Francisco e-scooter program
• How Jump, Lime, Scoot and Spin have managed to get the permit in San Francisco?
• Rules and regulations for micro-mobility operators in San Francisco ( and in other cities).
• How to satisfy each rule and get the permit quickly?
• How much does it cost to develop the e-scooter app? And how Coruscate helps you to get a permit?
• FAQs about e-scooter app, hardware and micro-mobility rules

San Francisco e-scooter program

 
San Francisco is the home of top e-scooter rental brands such as Bird, Spin and Lime. And so, these companies deployed e-scooters on the streets of San Francisco before any major US city. But people of San Francisco didn’t adopt it well. After receiving many complaints about poor parking, injuries and dangerous driving, the SFMTA asked operators to halt the operation and started working on some strict rules and regulations for both operators and riders to confirm the safety of people.

With new rules and regulations, SFMTA opened a new round of permit applications for operators. For that round, a total of 11 operators applied and after evaluating each application, SFMTA gave permits to a total of four operators (Jump. Lime, Scoot, Spin) with some restrictions.

Here is how SFMTA evaluated each application and what are those restrictions approved operators will be facing?

How Jump, Lime, Scoot and Spin have managed to get the e scooter rental business permits in San Francisco?

 
As a part of the city’s longer-term permitting program for e-scooters, the SFMTA has just granted permits to Jump, Lime, Scoot and Spin to operate their e-scooter rental business within the boundary of San Francisco from October 15, 2019.

However, SFMTA hasn’t given them full freedom – there are a few restrictions which operators have to keep in mind while doing business. Initially, each permitted e-scooter rental company will be able to deploy 1000 e-scooters only, with the potential to deploy up to 2,500 after running a business successfully for a few months. Additionally, SFMTA is requiring all e-scooters to be lock-to and each operator agreed to use W-2 workers who will work full-time as well as part-time.

Application evaluation process SFMTA has put forward was very straightforward. SFMTA scored each operator across hardware standards, safety features, pricing, plan for safe parking, operations and more.

Refer to the following table to understand the application evaluation process more rationally.

Here, in this table, if you have noticed, SFMTA scored operators across several factors and these factors are nothing but the micro-mobility rules and regulations every local authority is expecting operators to satisfy. So, now let’s quickly discuss the micro-mobility rules and regulations imposed by SFMTA for San Francisco e-scooter business. Since all other cities follow the same structure with minor changes in the few rules, you can derive benefits from this learning even if you are not planning to start an e-scooter rental business in San Francisco.

Rules for micro-mobility operators in San Francisco (and other cities)

• Operators should educate and train users to ride e-scooter safely.
• Operators should promote and distribute the helmets.
• Operators should make sure all e-scooters are properly parked.
• Operators should suspend or block the user if he does not park the e-scooter properly.
• Operators should provide service to low-income residents.
• Operators should allow users to pay in multiple ways including fare discounts.
• Operators should retrieve the e-scooter within the knowledge of two hours if it is broken.
• Operators should regularly check the e-scooters and hire staff with the necessary knowledge and skills.
• Operators should send user and usage data to the government. The government will use that data to build proper infrastructure for micro-mobility.

How to satisfy each major micro-mobility rule?

 
For a better understanding, the rules and ways to not violate it, are categorized here.

Safety

➠Basic:

E-scooter app must own a feature which demonstrates the proper ways to drive the e-scooter as soon as someone opens the app for the first time. Not only this, the app must be developed in such a way that it counts the online sessions of the users and after every 2 3 online sessions, it shows them the e-scooter driving and parking instructions either in the form of photos or GIF.

➠Advanced:

Add real-time alert and dynamic speed control. Real-time alert module alerts the user if he is approaching school, market or park. While dynamic speed control feature controls the maximum speed of the e-scooter based on the surrounding. To actualize these two features, Geo-tagging can be used.

Proper parking

➠Basic:

As soon as a rider ends the ride, shows him the guide to properly park the e-scooter. And when another user unlocks the same e-scooter, asks him about the parking method of the last user. This data seems very useless at first glance, but when it will turn into ‘big data’, it will be very helpful to find the parking patterns of users and make data-driven decisions.

➠Advanced:

When a user ends the ride, asks him to upload the photo of parked e-scooter. This data will not only help you (admin) to know whether he has parked it properly or not, but it will help other users to discover that e-scooter quickly.

Fare

Governments want you to offer e-scooter for rent at the very less fare and you want to earn more money by introducing a premium business model. So, will you overlook the rule for the sake of earning more money? Of course not. So, what is the alternative? Here it is.

Even if you continue offering affordable service, you can earn more profit per e-scooter by reducing the operational cost of an e-scooter. And to reduce the operational cost of an e-scooter, you have to make sure that any fault in the e-scooter is identified before it gets worse. For that, you can add a feature in both user app and Juicer app, which lets them report any mechanical fault in a particular e-scooter, so a team of hardware engineers can take quick action before an e-scooter which costs more than $500, stops working, completely.

➠Data sharing

To satisfy this rule, you should request e-scooter app development company to integrate a very important module in the admin panel which stores every data of users, filter it and sends it to a government authority, automatically.

How much does it cost to develop the e-scooter app and how Coruscate helps you to satisfy these rules?

 
Coruscate is the top e-scooter app development company which entertains many queries related to e-scooter app development. We accommodate a few highly skilled developers, designers, data scientists and IoT engineers who all together knuckle down to develop the best e-scooter app. Talking about the micro-mobility rules, our business experts have studied micro-mobility rules of all cities and discovered ways to satisfy each of them (you have seen the glimpse of it in this blog). Our business experts coordinate with developers and designers to develop an e-scooter in such a way that it does not disobey any rule.

With our rapid app development technique, we can develop the e-scooter app within 45-55 days and under $10000.

To know more about the app features or even micro-mobility rules of your city, please contact our business experts and app scientists.

FAQs about e-scooter app, hardware and micro-mobility rules

➯ Amid many reports of e-scooter riders’ injuries, is it true that e-scooter rental business is losing its charm?

 
Though recently many e-scooter riders met brutal accidents, it is not true that an e-scooter rental business is losing its charm. At least, after a report which says injured e-scooter riders are most often young men, without helmets, drunk or stoned.

➯ How hardware is important to satisfy the micro-mobility rules?

 
Governments have always been putting emphasis on rider safety and hardware is very responsible for offering a safe ride. It should be steady and reliable. Also, an operator should customize it if the geographic condition demands so.

➯ Should you develop an e-scooter app first or should you apply for a permit first?

 
First, you should develop an e-scooter app, but not for the urban city. You should start rolling out e-scooters with a mobile app in a small city, airport, universities or at community halls. Then after a few months of successful business, you can think about hitting the roads of big cities. Because the government will not grant a permit to you if you do not have experience of running an e-scooter rental business.

➯ How to decide the budget for e-scooter app development?

 
Generally, the cost of e-scooter app development depends on the number of features you ask e-scooter app development company to add into the app. So, before approaching any e-scooter app development company, do a study of the market and make a list of all necessary features only.