Published At: August 1, 2015
Over the past two years we have seen the rise of many micro-mobility companies. We believe these companies will be the key component of future urban smart mobility. However, the global pandemic had a mayor impact on this young industry.
In this blog we give you an overview of how 10 of the most influential micro-mobility companies are managing the challenges of this pandemic.
Bird is a micro mobility in the dock less electric scooter sharing industry. Bird was founded in September 2017 and has been operating for 3 years. Birds mission is to make cities more live able by reducing car usage, traffic, and congestion. In both 2018 and 2019, LinkedIn named Bird one of the most sought-after startups in the United States.
Bird has done so many things in responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as: increasing the daily frequency with which they clean and sanitize their vehicles in the field, including the sterilization of their helmets, increasing the frequency of their deep-clean that take place in their local service centers, providing extra gloves for their field service staff members as well as hand sanitizer for all Bird staff, closely monitoring the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from the Word Health Organization (WHO) and other trusted federal and global agencies to inform their hour-by-hour decisions.
On March 2020 , Bird scaled down operations (reportedly even suspending them within all markets), and terminated around 40% of its then about 1060 employees in a group Zoom meeting.
The same as Bird, Lime is also a micro mobility in the dockless electric scooter sharing industry. It is one of the biggest competitors of Bird. Lime Bike was founded in January 2017 by Brad Bao and Toby Sun, both of whom were executives of Fosun International's venture capital arm. As of September 2019, Lime operated in more than 120 cities across more than 30 countries.
In response to COVID-19, Lime has adopted a robust sanitization process and a standardized employee training program to implement scooter sanitization procedures consistently across all markets. Every time a Lime employee handles a scooter, they sanitize the scooter, which means Lime is regularly cleaning scooters both in their warehouses and in the field.
Lime are committed to rider safety education to ensure riders know how best to protect themselves, consistently communicate how Lime is working to keep our riders and teams safety by following the latest health and safety guidance, sharing this information with their riders through in-app messaging, hang tags on the scooter, our dedicated safety website, rider emails, and social media. Lime also advise the rider to wash their hands or use at least 70% alcohol-based hand sanitizer when arriving at their destination.
Starting in March 2020, due to reduced demand for electric scooters during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Lime had to suspend service in nearly two dozen countries.
Yulu Bikes was founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneurs Amit Gupta, RK Mishra, Hemant Gupta and Naveen Dachuri. The launch objective was simple: to decongest urban traffic by providing a scalable, affordable, efficient and clean solution for the first mile, last mile and short distance commute.
Ever since the Indian government announced the protocol for the national pandemic, Yulu have solemnly made sure that each bike is thoroughly and regularly sanitized to make sure that each Yulu ride is safe.
By providing single-passenger and self-driven vehicles, Yulu bikes provide a means of socially distant transportation. Since the driver are going to drive the vehicle independently, there is no contact with other passengers or a driver who would have to interact closely with different customers all day-like in some app-based public transport.
Tier is active in the e-scooters and e-Mopeds sharing industry. As of January 2020, Tier is the first micro-mobility company that claims to be fully climate-neutral. They go beyond reducing emissions linked to charging and include production, operational and transportation emissions.
TIER provides ongoing guidelines and updates through their app, website, and emails. In addition, they recommend all people in their TIER community to keep regularly updated with their local and national COVID-19 guidelines as well as the guidelines and global best practices of the WHO.
TIER simultaneously disinfected on all areas where a rider's hands come into contact with the vehicle. In cities that have e-scooters with helmet boxes or e-mopeds, the helmet box or compartment is disinfected, so is the helmet. Helmet boxes and compartments are equipped with hand sanitizer sachets. Not to mention that TIER are communicating health and safety guidelines and relevant updates to our riders via in-app notification messaging, social media, and this webpage.
TIER also takes thorough precautions when it comes to the health & safety of our employees. This has enabled TIER to remain operational throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic and provide socially-distanced mobility services.
Careem is a vehicle for hire company which is a subsidiary of American company Uber. It is based in Dubai, with operations in over 100 cities in 15 countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Careem is expanding services across its platform to include mass transportation, delivery and payments to become the region's everyday SuperApp.
Due to the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Careem announced on its blog it was laying off 31% of its workforce, amounting to 536 employees.
Careem’s COVID-19 Response Team is closely monitoring the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and local health agencies for the latest developments. They’re also following the guidance of local government and public health officials in each of our markets.
Careem's working around the clock to ensure that the riders keep their vehicles at the highest levels of cleanliness by regularly use hand sanitizers, clean wipes and disinfectants between rides.
Careem’s COVID-19 Response Team is in contact with public health authorities and local governments to offer transport and logistics assistance to support their response to the pandemic. Through working with local authorities, they may be forced to temporarily suspend the accounts of captains or customers that have contracted or been exposed to COVID-19.
Launched in August 2018, Voi is a Scandinavian micro mobility company offering electric scooters in partnership with cities and local communities around Europe. Voi provides the most sustainable, and fun way to travel via our e-scooter sharing network.
Voi offers free rides to critical workers and updates safety measures for COVID-19 restrictions. Voi will make their scooters easily available for people who still need to get to work such as hospital workers, store workers and the rest of the corner-stones of society. They are adapting their fleet due to the current situation and as a result Voi focused their fleet around commuter hubs, and in several cities they are doing the same around hospitals to support healthcare staff that still need to get to work safely.
Voi continue to monitor the situation and are in close dialogue with all our 40 European cities to be able to, in a safe manner, help out where it’s needed. They have temporarily paused their operations in France due to the country’s lockdown. Voi goal is to start operations as quickly as possible once the situation allows again.
Voi ask all their users to respect the World Health Organization’s recommendations related to hand hygiene and social distancing. Voi also encourage their users to wear gloves while riding e-scooters, and to greet your fellow riders with a smile instead of a handshake.
Founded in San Francisco, in 2016, Spin operates dockless mobility systems in cities and campuses throughout the United States. Our core team is comprised of engineers, designers, operators, lawyers, and public policymakers with experience from Y Combinator, Uber, Lyft, and other technology companies.
Following the impact of the coronavirus, Spin encouraged safety measures for COVID-19.
Everyone involved in Spin’s operations is an employee of the company and has undergone extensive training to keep themselves and our riders safe during this time. This includes implementing aggressive sanitization protocols in their warehouses and out in the field.
As of 27 March 2020, operations in Austin are paused until further notice. All other markets, Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington, DC, remain open.
As of 11 April 2020, all employees in paused markets and some employees in active markets were notified that they would receive up to twelve weeks in paid leave and remain on Spin’s healthcare for the duration of the leave.
Founded in 2000, Razor is the world’s leading manufacturer of electric scooters. For nearly two decades. It has become synonymous with scooters and can be found in millions of garages around the country. Razor has proudly built a brand centered around innovation, safety, and quality. Their products can be found at key retailers across the US and globally. Razor has maintained a robust design, maintenance, and customer service infrastructure that has successfully served millions of customers.
Given the spread of COVID-19, Razor Share is committed to promoting a safe and healthy workplace for their employees, and to following the best available practices and recommendations of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) when maintaining and deploying Razor Share scooters for their customers.
To minimize the exposure of their employees and customers to COVID-19, Razor have adopted mandatory disinfection procedures for all field and maintenance personnel. activities or battery swaps, using cleaning products approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for use against the COVID-19 outbreak.
Lyft develops, markets, and operates a mobile app, offering vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, and food delivery. The company is based in San Francisco, California and operates in 644 cities in the United States and 12 cities in Canada.
In April 2020, Lyft laid off 982 employees and furloughed an additional 288 in an effort to reduce operating expenses and adjust cash flows due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The company continued to offer scooters for rent in San Francisco, while the Miami government asked Lyft to halt operations.
Extra health safety precautions are necessary to help protect each other from COVID-19. They are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to inform new policies, products, and education tools. Their goal is to ensure every ride is safe and comfortable from start to finish for every driver and rider — no matter their age, income, zip or postal code. As always, drivers and riders can decline or cancel rides for safety reasons, including a significant risk to their health or safety.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, they’ve activated more than 500 partners through LyftUp — their comprehensive effort to expand transportation access to all — to provide free rides to those who need them most right now.
Helbiz was founded with the intention of revolutionizing transport by becoming a seamless last mile solution that prioritizes simplicity and convenience. To build on this initial goal, the Company strives to continue pushing technological boundaries and exploring services for the future of tomorrow. Helbiz officially acquires Skip Scooters on December 2020.
Since movement has been restricted globally, with public transportation no longer being viable options, Helbiz is determined to support the workers keeping their societies functioning. Helbiz vehicles can help to deliver food, medicine and necessities to those who are in need.
Helbiz are taking stringent measures to sanitize and clean their devices multiple times a day and will provide additional sanitizing resources upon request. Helbiz global employees will be taking every safeguard to make sure they’re protected as they continue to serve the markets Helbiz operate in.
Additionally, as the transportation leader in Italy, they’ve offered all emergency personnel as well as those who need transportation options throughout the nation, access to Helbiz fleets at no charge to help them efficiently reach their destinations as they heroically face this pandemic head on.
The COVID-19 crisis is causing some serious challenges to the multibillion-dollar micro-mobility industry. But we are still very hopeful for the future of micro-mobility services. What do you think about how micro mobility companies should deal with the consequences of the pandemic?
