Over the past few years, electric scooters have started taking over urban areas.
On every street corner, sidewalk, and heavily trafficked public area you’ll find scooters of every shape and color.
The rise in scooter sharing companies around the United States has paved the way for another side hustle for gig workers like yourself — electric scooter charging.
Scooter charging is relatively new to the gig working scene but is on a quick ascent in parallel with the popularity of scooter sharing services.
Today we’re going to look at the popular scooter companies Lime and Bird to compare the scooter charging opportunity each presents.
We’ll look at how each charging job works, how much extra cash you can make, and how you can start making money by charging scooters.
Lime Juicer
Lime is one of the most popular scooter sharing services in the country.
With the Lime app, customers can locate scooters, unlock them, and ride them around the city.
Lime scooters cost only $1.00 to unlock and $0.15 for every minute ridden.
Once customers are done with their ride, they can safely park them, lock them through the app, and go on with their day.
Since Lime-S electric scooters are dockless and operate off a battery, it’s crucial that they’re routinely charged.
Instead of employing a fleet of full-time workers to do this job, Lime hires independent contractors called Lime Juicers who get paid for each scooter they charge.
How Does It Work?
Lime scooter chargers (also known as “Juicers”) drive around the city and collect scooters that need to be charged. Juicers will then take these Lime-S scooters to their home or another secure place and charge scooters until they reach 95% battery life.
At any time throughout the day, you can open your Lime app and search the map for low battery indicators.
You can then drive to the scooter location and pick it up for charging.
Once 9 p.m. hits, you can then pick up any scooters that are below 85%.
If a Lime scooter is completely dead, it should take around five to six hours to reach a full charge.
After charging, Lime Juicers will then deploy scooters to the designated locations around the city by 7 a.m. the next morning to receive the full payout.
Using your Lime app, you’ll be able to see drop-off points in your area where you can deploy scooters.
When you arrive at the drop-off point, you’ll park them safely and scan the QR code on the scooter, and then you’re done.
You’ll then be paid almost immediately for your efforts.
One thing to note is that you must have a Lime charger for each scooter you pick up.
So if you only own four chargers, then you can only pick up four scooters at a time.
Chargers cost $20 for a four-pack and can be purchased from Lime during your sign-up process.
The more chargers you own, the more money you can make every time you decide to collect and charge scooters.
How Much Do Juicers Make?
Lime Juicers typically make between $5 and $12 for each charge.
In some cases, one charge can fetch you as much as $20 depending on the difficulty of the charge.
According to the company, some Lime Juicers can make $30 per hour or $100 per night charging scooters.
Again, we stress that the more scooters you’re able to charge every night, the more money you’ll be able to make.
When looking at the map on your Lime app, you can see how much each scooter charge will pay you.
Some charges will yield high payouts, however, these scooters are generally in places that are hard to access or are quite far away.
Tracking down these high payout scooters might not pay off since you’ll be wasting gas, time, and energy trying to find one $20 scooter, when instead you could pick up four easy-access $5 scooters.
The location of scooters isn’t the only factor that plays into higher payouts.
If there are many dead scooters and the demand for scooter chargers is high, then the payouts will increase.
Requirements to Become a Lime Juicer
Lime makes it relatively easy to become a scooter Juicer.
For the most part, you just need to be able to adequately pick up and charge scooters.
Here is the complete list of requirements to become a Lime Juicer.
- Must be at least 18 years old
- Own a vehicle capable of carrying scooters
- Have access to a secure place to charge scooters
- Have a smartphone with service to use Lime app
- Provide a Social Security number to prove you can legally work
- Provide a bank account in order to get paid
Since you aren’t dealing with customers face to face, you won’t be required to pass a background check.
You will, however, need to have a quick chat with a Lime representative during the sign-up process.
Let’s take a look at how you can become a Lime scooter Juicer.
Sign Up to Become a Juicer
The Lime sign-up process is pretty straightforward — you apply to become a Juicer, partake in a quick phone call interview, complete a short onboarding session, and then start charging.
In order to apply, you can head to this sign-up page.
If you need more information regarding Lime, you can check out our Lime Juicer guide for more details.
Bird Charger
Outside of the color of the scooters and availability from city to city, there’s not much that’s different between Bird scooters and Lime scooters.
From a consumer standpoint, Bird scooters work the same way.
You use the Bird app to locate scooters, unlock and reserve them by scanning a QR code, and park them in a safe location when you’re done.
The price point is also exactly the same as Lime — $1.00 to unlock and $0.15 for every minute you ride.
But how do these two services differ when it comes to making money as a scooter charger?
How Does it Work?
With Bird, you’ll be performing nearly the same task as Lime — using the Bird app to locate low-battery scooters, driving to pick up scooters, charging them in a secure location, and then deploying them in designated areas in your city.
Instead of only letting you pick up nearly dead scooters during the day, Bird offers three different tiers of scooter charges.
When you look at the map on the Bird app, you’ll see three different color pins of scooter charing opportunities — green, yellow, and red.
- Green Birds: Easy to find scooters that pay around $5 per charge
- Yellow Birds: Harder to find scooters that pay closer to $10 per charge
- Red Birds: Hardest to locate and pick up and offer the highest payout
Another difference with Bird scooters is that you must charge three at a time whereas Lime permits you to charge only one if you’d like.
Since you’re required to charge three at a time, you’ll also need to deploy three scooters at a time in designated areas.
Also, Bird scooters must be deployed between 4-7 a.m. the next day in designated areas known as “nests.”
Lastly, Bird scooters take much less time to charge compared to Lime.
Bird scooters take only three to four hours to charge compared to five to six hours for one Lime charge.
This means that you have a quicker turnaround with Bird scooters and can charge more scooters per hour.
So how much can you make as a Bird scooter charger?
How Much Do Chargers Make?
Typically, Bird ends up paying around $5 per charge, however, the minimum payout is $3 per charge.
Some charges can even be as high as $25.
Using the Bird app, you’ll be able to see the payouts and locations of scooters all around your city.
Similar to Lime, it will be up to you to determine your strategy — whether you want to be on a mission to track down hard to find $20 charges, or pick up many easier charges.
When you first start, Bird will send you three chargers for free.
Once you prove that you’re a reliable charger, they’ll send you additional chargers for free.
It’s nice that Bird sends you free chargers rather than making you pay for them like Lime, however, you may be impatient and would rather start charging many scooters right off the bat.
If you’d rather not wait around for Bird to send you more chargers, you can buy some online from Amazon for $25 a pop.
If you’d like to find ways you can make more money charging, make sure to check out our guide to maximizing your earnings with Bird.
But what does it take to become a Bird charger?
Requirements to Become a Charger
The requirements to become a Bird charger are nearly the same as Lime.
The only difference is that with Bird, you must have a vehicle that’s capable of carrying at least three scooters at once.
Here is the complete list of requirements to become a Bird charger.
- Must be at least 18 years old
- Own a vehicle capable of carrying at least three scooters
- Have access to a secure place to charge three scooters at once
- Have a smartphone with service to use Bird app
- Provide a Social Security number to prove you can legally work
- Provide a bank account in order to get paid
Like Lime, you also won’t be required to pass a background check, but you will be required to do a brief phone call interview before becoming a charger.
Sign Up to Become a Charger
Signing up to become a Bird charger is also quite painless — you apply to become a charger, complete a quick phone call interview, wait for your chargers to arrive, and then start charging around your city.
In order to apply, you can head to this sign-up page.
If you need more information regarding Bird, you can check out our Bird charging guide for more details.
Extra Money While You Sleep
Charging scooters is one of the more novel and unique opportunities in the gig economy.
If you’re in a prime downtown location near many scooters in need of charging, it may not be a bad option to make a few extra bucks here and there.
After all, there aren’t many opportunities out there that allow you to make money while you sleep.
