Is it OK to pick up Bird Scooters in your car and move to another location to use?

Factual Questions
1

Is it OK to pick up Bird Scooters (rental scooters that you rent through an app) in your car and move to another location to use, or is that stealing for borrowing them without paying the company for rental time?

Although I have downloaded the app, I have never rented a scooter. When I look at the map where all the scooters are available, they are often 100’s of them concentrated just north of downtown. But supposed I wanted to scoop one up and park on the south side of downtown or other place where parking would be a hassle and start my rental there?

2

Wouldn’t your rental time start as soon as you pick it up?

I don’t think Bird care if you drive it elsewhere to use, as long as you drop it off OK. There’s certainly nothing in their rental agreement against it I could see.

3

I believe your rental time starts when you activate it using the app. When it is activated, the scooter is unlocked and ready to use.

I want to pick up the un-activated scooter, put it in the back of my car, drive to where I want to use it, then activate it there.

4

Some of the companies put obnoxious alarms on the scooters to dissuade people from moving them before unlocking them, but I’ve also read that the alarms go off so much that nobody pays attention to them (like car alarms).

5

Why would you want to do this? Where is the advantage for you? As soon as you pick it up, you have taken it for your own personal use and sending a message to other potential users that this scooter is MINE, get you own. It’s proper that you should start the rental time and activate it at the time that you deny another the opportunity top rent it.

6

This. Honestly, I don’t see how this isn’t plainly obvious.

7

From the terms of service (TOS), the company considers a scooter that has moved more than 30 feet from the last parking location to be stolen. Which according to the TOS becomes a problem for the last legal renter. The same TOS also doesn’t require a scooter to be returned to a specific location, only a location where the scooter can be legally parked. And the TOS doesn’t seem to address what the OP wants to do, but the general agreement is that a renter pays, by the minute, for the time he has the scooter. Best bet would be to contact the company before doing anything, but exceptions to automated processes never seem to go smoothly.

I think it’s odd that they don’t specify a location limit on where to park the scooter. Because someone could rent a scooter, put it in a car and drive it to a different city, use it there, and just park and leave it there, as long as it was parked legally. Not sure how far the company expects the scooters to migrate.

8

Once you put it in your car it is not available for others to use. You should be paying for that privilege.

9

With the unlock fee aren’t these things about $10 an hour to use?

What is the OP trying to save? Three lousy bucks? Five?

Get real. :rolleyes:

Start paying the fee the moment you take it.

10

What’s the distance between where it is and where you want to take it to?

Couple of blocks? Couple of miles? Couple of counties? Couple of states?

That seeems a pertinent detail to leave out, to me.

11

The OP did state:

So, “couple of miles,” it sounds like.

12

I honestly don’t see why this is relevant. If the OP takes it for personal use then the clock starts before he goes ten feet.

13

And not only is the OP trying to cheat, they’re trying to cheat for what is probably a minuscule amount of money for themselves, but they are cheating the company out of money they are entitled to, and they are cheating another person out of using the device they are willing to pay for.

The answer to the OP is, NO, it is not ok for you to do this. It’s unethical, immoral, and possibly illegal. Plus it’s incredibly petty. If you can’t afford a couple more bucks you are not for real.

14

Hmm, so I am guessing y’all are thinking that it not OK? : )

Let me flesh out my OP a little with real life scenarios so that you understand what I am trying to do and what I see is a slight flaw in the way that the Birds are distributed. Keep in mind I have never rented these scooters before and I have no idea how easy it is to get around on them.

Every day scooters are ridden by people and left wherever they finish using them. This may be downtown or it may be in front of their houses 10 miles from downtown. Each night, a team of people with a special app scoop them up and take them home to charge them. The next morning they have to have them placed in a public place by 7am.

The problem is that almost 100% of them (according to the map on my app) are left by the chargers at public spaces north of downtown (0 to 3 miles) and virtually none east west or south of downtown. I am guessing there are about 200 or 300 of them. There are none for people who live or have business on the other parts of downtown (at least at the start of the day). I do not believe that there is any direction or incentives for them to place them in a particular place.

Now about me. I live a 30 minute drive away from the edge of downtown. I enjoy going downtown and go down there frequently for parades, festivals, sporting events, museums, business and sometimes just for fun. However, there is a lot of traffic and parking can be difficult to find, expensive, and inconvenient.

There are numerous things that I do to deal with this problem. Sometimes I take the park and ride bus service which takes you from various malls around the city and drops you off at the event without stopping (I utilized this last night for a downtown college football game). If there is no park and ride but there is a chance there will be lots of traffic or difficulty parking, I will drive someplace that is near downtown that has available parking and take the bus from there, saving me a lot of time on the bus. During one downtown festival, they have a bike corral so that you can ride your bike in and out and they will watch it for you. I am just looking for another option (which could be fun).

I do not want to rent a bird close to my destination because I want to save money or I am lazy (cmon it is like 15 cents a minute). I want to rent a bird close by so that I don’t have to traverse a busy downtown landscape. If I could only ride a scooter 1 mile instead of 4, I would feel safer and more likely to use the scooter option. I also have a friend who lives just south of downtown. It would be great to be able to pick up a nearby scooter or two, park there, and have a scooter ready for us to go. I have also thought they would be useful for touring a chain of missions that is out of the downtown area. There are plenty of rental bikes, but no scooters there.

Just exploring my “last mile” transportation options y’all!

15

You could ride a rental bike to the scooters. Or just stick with the original plan but pay for the time that the scooter is in your car.

16

Then your solution is simple. Activate the scooter and start paying for it before you load it up and transport it to your starting point. That is the only method which satisfies your desires without violating their Terms of Service.

17

I’m not really grasping your transportation situation and how you’re attempting to maximize your convenience. No matter. In principal, it’s quite simple.

If you want to move the scooter from where you find it then you need to activate it and start paying the rental fee immediately. If you have it loaded in your car or otherwise under you personal control then you are choosing to deny others the ability to rent that scooter. You have two choices. First option, pay the rental fee thus purchasing the right to use the scooter for your own needs. All is right with the world. Second option, don’t activate the scooter, drive X number of minutes during which you have chosen to deny the scooter company their lawful payment and potentially denied someone else the needed use of the scooter. At best, this makes you a cheapskate trying to make your life easier at the expense of others.

If you want to activate the scooter and start paying the rental fee then load it into your car and take it to where it’s convenient then cool. Subject to the scooter operator’s terms of use, I’m not seeing an issue. I just don’t see how you’re entitled to move the scooter any distance at all for your own personal use, before paying the fee.

18

Yes, I believe that is the simplest solution since it seems like no one has a problem with me transporting the scooter as long as I am paying for the transport time. Thanks for being solution focused.

19

Perhaps you should contact Bird customer service and ask them about placing a charging station / distribution point south of downtown?

20

I’m unfamiliar with Bird scooters, but I think I’ve got the gist (unless by “scooter,” you’re referring to mopeds, or mini-bikes, or some other motorized contraption). For now, I’m thinking of a human-powered conveyance. If one can practicably be ridden to a distant bus stop, and then carried onto a bus, is that a violation of the TOS? If not, ISTM that this would be the acceptable way of transporting it in your privately owned vehicle.

If, OTOH, they are motorbikes, my response is mere gibberish, and I implore you to dismiss it from your minds.

TIA