Originally Posted by
CliffordK
Hard to say. For any business, one would expect to have a certain amount of inventory on the shelf. The same would be true with a scooter business. Have to have enough sitting out on the sidewalks that one will be available for those who want one (or two or three), without having to hunt around town to find them.
Also, they have to be prepared for peak usage (commutes, weekends, lunchbreaks, etc).
The model likely is somewhat like scattering 1000 e-scooters around town. But, expecting 100 to be in use at any one time. Say 1 hour rentals, so for 6 hours a day, half hour rentals, those 100 scooters account for 1200 rentals... or using essentially the entire fleet.
What makes you think 100 (or any other number of) rental scooters are in operation at any time, anywhere in the U.S.? Or that they have any specific number of paying customers? Because you saw a few in operation in a Portland riverfront park?
Have you seen any statistics about paying customers or rental earnings released by or about any of these start-up rental scooter outfits? I have only seen breathless reporting on how much they are allegedly "valued at" based on money invested by speculators/"investors", but nothing about earnings, expenses, or customers, let alone expectations or predictions of earning any profit now or in the future.
