From "For the Birds/I spent two weeks trying to charge electric scooters for extra cash. What I got was a lot of headaches" (Slate).
IN THE COMMENTS: Left Bank of the Charles said:
This guy needs to read Moby Dick on the subject of loose fish and fast fish. He assumes the guys in the pickup trucks are ripping off the company, but maybe their strategy is to collect scooters as quickly as possible, and then take the time to log them when they get back to their charging stations. That may be working perfectly well for the company.And here it is, Chapter 89 of Moby-Dick, "Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish." Excerpt:
I. A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it.
II. A Loose-Fish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it. But what plays the mischief with this masterly code is the admirable brevity of it, which necessitates a vast volume of commentaries to expound it.
First: What is a Fast-Fish? Alive or dead a fish is technically fast, when it is connected with an occupied ship or boat, by any medium at all controllable by the occupant or occupants,—a mast, an oar, a nine-inch cable, a telegraph wire, or a strand of cobweb, it is all the same. Likewise a fish is technically fast when it bears a waif, or any other recognised symbol of possession; so long as the party waifing it plainly evince their ability at any time to take it alongside, as well as their intention so to do....
Is it not a saying in every one's mouth, Possession is half of the law: that is, regardless of how the thing came into possession? But often possession is the whole of the law. What are the sinews and souls of Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish, whereof possession is the whole of the law? What to the rapacious landlord is the widow's last mite but a Fast-Fish? What is yonder undetected villain's marble mansion with a doorplate for a waif; what is that but a Fast-Fish? What is the ruinous discount which Mordecai, the broker, gets from the poor Woebegone, the bankrupt, on a loan to keep Woebegone's family from starvation; what is that ruinous discount but a Fast-Fish? What is the Archbishop of Savesoul's income of 100,000 pounds seized from the scant bread and cheese of hundreds of thousands of broken-backed laborers (all sure of heaven without any of Savesoul's help) what is that globular 100,000 but a Fast-Fish. What are the Duke of Dunder's hereditary towns and hamlets but Fast-Fish? What to that redoubted harpooneer, John Bull, is poor Ireland, but a Fast-Fish? What to that apostolic lancer, Brother Jonathan, is Texas but a Fast-Fish? And concerning all these, is not Possession the whole of the law? But if the doctrine of Fast-Fish be pretty generally applicable, the kindred doctrine of Loose-Fish is still more widely so. That is internationally and universally applicable.
What was America in 1492 but a Loose-Fish, in which Columbus struck the Spanish standard by way of waifing it for his royal master and mistress? What was Poland to the Czar? What Greece to the Turk? What India to England? What at last will Mexico be to the United States? All Loose-Fish.
What are the Rights of Man and the Liberties of the World but Loose-Fish? What all men's minds and opinions but Loose-Fish? What is the principle of religious belief in them but a Loose-Fish? What to the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but Loose-Fish? What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish? And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?
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32 comments:
By his own account, this guy made $8 to $12.50 an hour charging these gadgets. What did he realistically expect?
If it sounds too good to be true ...
Anyway, now we know what one can do for a living if one’s only success in life was playing Pokemon Go.
Imagine that. People taking advantage of a well-intentioned system to benefit themselves. Right there in Santa Monica, CA no less.
Wait -- what? You mean it wasn't free money sitting on the sidewalk?
Wow, I'd be so surprised and disappointed.
There's still a sucker born every minute, I see.
so, it's the early 1900's, and this WOP (undocumented immigrant) walks off the boat into New York city. He came because (back home) he'd heard 'the streets were paved with gold'
on 5th avenue he sees a $20 coin (double cartwheel) laying on the sidewalk. He grins! bends to pick it up; and then stops and thinks: " why should i start working my 1st day here?"
The only thing worse than this program not working would be if it DID work. Walking or driving in Philadelphia should be eligible for hazard pay due to the bicyclists who swoop at you from every angle. Imagine the addition of a few thousand scooters.
If you see money on the sidewalk, don't bother picking it up. Somebody else would have picked it up already if it were real money.
Sounds like a lot of these problems could be fixed with existing technology. Every scooter is transmitting its GPS location, and anyone using the charger mode of the app is also having their location tracked. If someone is using the charger mode, and an increasing number of scooters are traveling with them, then they are collecting scooters without marking them. If they then try to get paid for charging them, they should be informed ( at the time they drop off the charged scooter at a nest ) that they violated the terms of service, and will thus not get paid for charging.
A bird on the charger is worth two on the sidewalk.
Rule number #1 of human behaivor: If a system can be exploited for the benefit of one at expense of others, it will be.
Alistair Cooke, in his great early-70s PBS series "America: A Personal History of the United States:, recounted the interview of a man who immigrated here from Europe around the turn of the century. When asked what he had learned about America, the man responded "There is no free lunch", which is supposedly where the phrase originated.
I imagine some percentage of these things end up at teeny weeny "chop shops" where the parts of these scooters get sent to some place where there's a demand for a lot of little scooters - India, or the Philippines, somewhere like that.
Anyway, the "Bird Vehicle Share Rental Agreement, Waiver of Liability and Release" - while probably pretty standard for bike & scooter rental companies - explicitly charges the user with the responsibility for everything up to and including "Rider assumes all responsibilities and risks for any injuries or medical conditions".
I wonder what that means - and if it is enforceable in court. I especially wonder if "all" means injuries or medical conditions for not just the Rider but all for anyone he hits with the Vehicle? The word "insurance" does not appear in the agreement at all. This agreement is silent on whether or not the company provides liability insurance for people/property their rented vehicles injure/damage, and their sparse website provides no other information on that. These dinky things aren't really like motorscooters - like a Vespa (TM) for example. So laws related to those things may or may not apply. If you're riding on of these and are hit by an uninsured motorist, then what?
(Oh and by the way - fatties need not bother with renting the things: Weight limit for riders is 200lbs. Though maybe they can charge them as long as they don't drive them home.)
Glad these things aren't in Seattle yet. It's bad enough navigating the sidewalks with the detritus of three different bicycle rental companies clogging them up. If I actually saw some of these things parked about I'd be strongly tempted to shove it down the nearest storm drain.
As Ignorance notes, the tech is in place to deal with this. The company isn't making any money off of hoarded scooters, and you would think they would act decisively to put a stop to the practice. Someone who has picked up a Bird without notifying the owner, or kept it after he has notified the owner he is no longer using it, has stolen it. Of course, if management's main goal is to grow market share so they can get another few rounds of venture finance, their lack of concern becomes more comprehensible.
Dire Straits did not mean to give you a life plan:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=lAD6Obi7Cag
California traffic regulations that applies to powered scooters is overbearing.* If they were applied strictly, these companies probably couldn't effectively operate in California.
* Electric bicycles with as much as 500 watts of power have fewer restrictions than these electric scooters. If you read the whole article, recall the bit about safety ambassadors? California requires scooter operators to wear a helmet and possess a drivers license. These scooters are not allowed to be ridden or parked on sidewalks.
It took this dumbass 15 days to figure out what was going on. I figure it out from the introductory paragraph of the story. Here is the key paragraph where the dim bulb in his head finally understood how the system was left open to abuse:
It appears that hoarders are just scooping them up whenever convenient during the day, thereby reducing the rolling stock that Bird is trying to rent, and then making a buck off the company later that night. It’s much easier than racing through the dark to beat other chargers to the scooters at the end of the day. For a buck you can ride a nearby scooter to your back door after lunch and charge it later that night for $5. I’m not an MBA, but the math seems to work out.
Ignorance- you can leave the scooter anywhere after you are done renting it. Note the story detail where he found unoccupied trucks with scooters in the back, but was afraid of taking them out of the back himself even though the app showed them as still unclaimed. Sure, the company knows where the scooters are and who the chargers are, but to close the loophole will require the other honest collectors to overcome their social programming and pick up scooters in what are likely to be non-public places and other people's vehicles.
The article didn't really, I think, fully detail what the hoarders are doing, though he hinted at it in one part- they aren't marking the scooters as collected when they actually picked them up because the incentives seem to up the value of the charge if they delay the report via the app- in other words, where the author works out the math as renting for $1 and charging for $5 is likely wrong- it is probably more like 1 to 10 or even 20.
" they aren't marking the scooters as collected when they actually picked them up because the incentives seem to up the value of the charge if they delay the report"
that's how i read it too; they aren't decoy scooters, they're kidnapped scooters.
Sounds like MOST of the scooters are being picked up by guys in pickups, who drive around until the pick up is full, Then wait until they've had them long enough to be worth the bigger money; THEN mark them as collected, and take them back to the nest and drop them off for a big ransom.
Sounds like a money making scheme: for the guys in pickups. Please remind me to NOT buy stock in this bird brained idea.
"who has picked up a Bird without notifying the owner, or kept it after he has notified the owner he is no longer using it, has stolen it. Of course, if management's main goal is to grow market share so they can get another few rounds of venture finance, their lack of concern becomes more comprehensible."
yes, they don't seem concerned with actually making money, just concerned with being visible. Seems like they'd have a Very hard time getting the police to be concerned with their stolen property; since the property is in COMPLETE VIOLATION of numerous laws (helmets, sidewalks (riding on/parking on), drivers licensing, insurance)
As others have said, it's hard to understand why the company hasn't used some pretty simple tech solutions to solve a problem that seems to be ruining their business model. Perhaps they won't be in business long.
i see that the manufacturer rates them at:
Motor rated power:
250 W
Max instantaneous power:
500 W
So, i suppose you don't need helmets or licenses; but you Still can't just clutter on the sidewalks with them as some sort of storage area
{sorry for my excessive posting}
arly-70s PBS series "America: A Personal History of the United States:, recounted the interview of a man who immigrated here from Europe around the turn of the century. When asked what he had learned about America, the man responded "There is no free lunch", which is supposedly where the phrase originated.
Tanstasfl (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress R. E. Heinlein 1966
I'm sure that Heinlein didn't create it; he was pretty proud about changing the paint and filing the numbers off
In case you're bored:
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed lookalike's opinion on That Song's missing verse
We've now gone 16 posts without anyone objecting to gilbar using a degrading term for Italian Americans.
On the other hand, a judge was just fined and suspended for using the Italian colloquial term moolie.
Don't get me wrong, as the grandson of Italian immigrants, I'm not particularly offended. We got over it decades ago. We've gone from being WOPs to having white privlege.
Wish other perpetually offended groups could learn something from that.
i wondered if anyone read my posts (Thanx Jersey!)
I admit I did it to try to get a rise;
but isn't With Out Papers just another way of saying Undocumented Immigrant?
:)
I don't know if it was on Althouse or not, but someone I read regularly posted an entry about the bike-sharing fiasco in China that lead to massive bike graveyards filled with practically new bikes, and they asked how this was profitable? I pointed that it isn't profitable in a true accounting sense- the losses are born by shareholders/investors, and the Ponzi ends when those people wise up. I strongly suspect the same thing is going to play out with the scooter sharing operation. Why might the company not want to anger the collectors/chargers by denying them the payments if they violate the terms of service? Where do you suppose would happen to the scooters for which the compensation has been withheld- might they not get trashed?
Actually, it was used specifically to denote Italian immigrants. I responded just to make a broader point.
He should have asked an economist. There's no free money on the sidewalk.
This guy needs to read Moby Dick on the subject of loose fish and fast fish. He assumes the guys in the pickup trucks are ripping off the company, but maybe their strategy is to collect scooters as quickly as possible, and then take the time to log them when they get back to their charging stations. That may be working perfectly well for the company.
"Actually, it was used specifically to denote Italian immigrants. I responded just to make a broader point. "
well, YEAH!
growing up in the Chicago area; i would have been taking a big risk referring to Italians as that* However, it was also in chicago that i heard that joke.
It is interesting that the offense quotient has subsided
that* What would you say if an Italian were to slip and fall?
They go whomp!
(see? no That IS offensive!)
bike-sharing fiasco in China that lead to massive bike graveyards filled with practically new bikes, and they asked how this was profitable? I pointed that it isn't profitable in a true accounting sense- the losses are born by shareholders/investors, and the Ponzi ends when those people wise up. I strongly suspect the same thing is going to play out with the scooter sharing operation.
It's an old Silicon Valley approach. Get big first, get profitable later.
The trouble is, it doesn't work in the physical world. It costs Facebook next to nothing to add an extra user, and the service is more valuable the more people use it. And people are naturally reluctant to post the same status update on more than one social network, so being big crowds out potential competitors.
For scooters and bikes, you have fixed marginal costs for every extra user. (You don't *have* to buy an extra bike for every new user, but if you have too many users and too few bikes, you won't stay in business long). The service is slightly more valuable when the company is big, because there are more scooters available. But not that much more -- it's being driven by people's desire for transportation, which isn't very sensitive to the availability of scooters. And there's very little ability to crowd out competitors, because all someone has to do is download another app to use a completely indistinguishable scooter. I don't know if there's room for 20 scooter companies in a city, but there's certainly enough for two or three.
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