Living Life as an Empty Nester: Birdless Evenings — Weeks 3–5 of being a charger for Bird

When I started charging for Bird, I was motivated by the number of scooters in my area, the ease of finding them, and a nest being conveniently located by my house. In the past couple of weeks, I have found myself as an empty nester, and wondering what practices and policies could be put in place to ensure a better relationship with chargers, riders, and the company.

I’ve mentioned before that I live in a college town. The gig economy is a viable way for the students to make money; however, students also have limited resources to be able to properly provide services. With Bird, I have seen the scooters I have carefully placed in my car and home at night, stacked on one another and either rode (yes, with birds on birds) or pushed around without care. In fact, I have seen many broken birds at the corner of sidewalks — unusable and an eye-sore for the property. Retrieving Birds used to be sort of fun, I would put my favorite podcast on and grab some tea — now, I feel that I am on some wild goose chase, just wasting gas, time and money to find just one scooter.

Some of these scooters have been captured by frats or other houses that have realized they can increase the bounty for the Birds right in their own home. By keeping Birds captive and on private property — I can’t pick them up and the bounty keeps increasing. Who knew Bird fraud would be a thing, and who knew it would be so aggravating ?

I recently received a survey from Bird inquiring about my charging habits and any concerns. I wish it was the positive experience that I first had when I began to pick up the precious chariots. Now, it seems a hobby of the past for me.

So what could change? I don’t think this is the absolute end of my charging days. As a company that grew so quickly, I am sure there a more than a few kinks they are working out. However, what could help? — a few suggestions from a Bird Mama who is an empty nester these days:

1. Guaranteed # of charges: you have 6 chargers; you should be guaranteed at least 4 charges a night. The app could time limit it saying you have between 9–10 to grab these 4 birds, after that time, it is fair game to anyone.
2. Designated nests: Claiming a nest for only 30 minutes seems like a mad dash to get out of the house — which could lead to unsafe behaviors, etc. As a female charger, there are certain nests I avoid due to lack of lighting/less populated areas. It would be nice to know that I could reserve my nest the night before. I would be fine with larger penalties for not dropping by 7:00 if I knew I had the same nest.
3. Bonuses for charging a certain number of birds/or nights in a row: bonus could be as simple as a small percentage of earnings, or a perk like another guaranteed charge.
4. Bird gear for loyal chargers: Have you been charging with us for 6 months? How about a sweatshirt, shirt, something? I am sure the scooters aren’t cheap to make, replace, or repair. A company that cares about their chargers should lead to better care of property.

By Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash