Stalking scooters — ‘like a treasure hunt’
Recharging their batteries is a lucrative side hustle
Each night after dinner, David Padover invites his kids to join him in a hightech scavenger hunt through their San Jose neighborhood. They pile into his Subaru Outback, turn on an app and hunt for electric scooters with drained batteries, pressing a button to make their quarry sound a tone and flash lights.
Their usual haul: a dozen or more scooters, which they plug into power supplies in the living room and kitchen.
“It’s instantaneous success,” said Padover, who rises early to drop off the scooters at designated locations to be ready for commuters. “You’re there, there’s a dollar sign for the scooter. It appeals to my
“It’s instantaneous success . ... It appeals to my competitive spirit.” David Padover, who enlists his kids to help collect scooters that have been discarded in their San Jose neighborhood, take them home and charge them overnight
competitive spirit.”
As motorized scooters for rent have flooded cities nationwide, a new gig has sprung up — people scouring the streets as freelance “chargers.” It’s easy to start, signing up with a few clicks and then being mailed charging packs, which look like laptop chargers.
Companies including Lime, Bird, Spin and Skip Scooters pay $5 to $10 for each recharged scooter, although ones that are hard to find or need maintenance can bring in as much as $20. The bounty hunters generally work a couple of hours at night, plus an hour or so before 7 a.m. to drop them off.
Scooter chargers have already developed their own lexicon and subculture, flocking to Facebook groups and in-person meet-ups. They “harvest” Limes, and “hunt, “capture” and “release” Birds into designated “nests.” Lime chargers are called “juicers,” while those for Skip are called “rangers.”
“Me and my girlfriend would walk around, listening to a podcast and picking up six to 10 every night,” said Nick Abouzeid who lives in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. “It felt really good to clean up my neighborhood and get paid for it. I was addicted to ‘Pokémon Go,’ and hunting the scooters felt like that.”
Abouzeid’s hobby has been on hold since June, however, when San Francisco required rental e-scooters to go on hiatus while their distributors apply for permits. A dozen companies are vying to be among five finalists that will get to operate a total of 1,250 scooters (the city could approve more in the future). San Francisco is expected to pick those companies this month.
“Rangers are a pretty important part of our business,” said Sanjay Dastoor, CEO of San Francisco’s Skip Scooters, which operates in San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley and Washington, and hopes to land a permit in San Francisco. “Working with a flexible team of freelance contractors helps make sure you have the right balance, because the number of vehicles in a city might change quickly.”
San Mateo’s Lime said its local operations teams handle most scooter charging, doing rounds in bright green vans. Still, it has carpet-bombed Craigslist with ads headlined “Charge Scooters, Make Money While You Sleep!” Other scooter companies also have lots of Craigslist ads.
Companies that rent electric bikes, which are heavier and bulkier, have employees collect them for charging, or swap out their batteries in place.
Chargers say the game-like elements keeps them engaged — although the competition can get cutthroat. Many complain about “hoarders” who stash scooters before they’re officially released on the app.
“It gets like Black Friday out there, with people running into each other all over,” said Armando Duran of San Jose. He was looking for a side hustle, but after several forays he isn’t sure that scooter hunting is for him.
“Driving around looking for them is kind of a pain in the butt, and finding parking when you’re by yourself is really challenging,” he said. “The last time I did it, I only found two.”
Lime spokesman Joe Arellano said it uses GPS to monitor any improper activity such as hoarding, and will remove juicers who “don’t follow our scooter collection protocol.”
Plenty of chargers are gung-ho.
“This scooter-charging thing saved my life,” said Jason Guillory of San Jose, who has another part-time job with variable hours. “I love that you get paid every day.”
He makes about $120 for charging up to 20 scooters a night, and he’s an evangelist for Skip, appreciating that its scooters can be folded up, making them easier to load.
He tries to avoid the freefor-all when chargers descend on a scooter, but sometimes it’s hard. “People are getting really desperate,” he said. “It can be frustrating.”
Padover, a Silicon Valley systems engineer, makes a six-figure salary but appreciates the extra income, which averages about $100 a day — $60 to $80 on nights when he has the kids, and almost double that when he searches solo. Charging costs him about $1 a day in added electricity.
The work can be physically demanding.
“I’ve started wearing gloves to protect my hands from getting cut up or smashed while loading and unloading the scooters,” Padover said. “My ankles and lower legs have some cuts and scrapes as well. I’ve been going to the gym less, but still getting a good workout.”
His daughter, Raya, 7, is a charging enthusiast as well.
“I like helping my dad find scooters,” she said. “It’s kind of like a treasure hunt. My favorite part is listening to the sounds they make when you press a button. Plugging them in is fun too; I like the lights on them that turn from green to red when they’re charging. It looks like Christmas.”