2nd Street Lime Scooters will be newly available for reservations in the US, where users will be able to indicate that they will require a scooter in the upcoming 15 minutes. Reservations can be made using the app, so users do not have to worry about another user taking a scooter they intended to use. Users can still use the scooters in the conventional way, where they simply pick up one and go. However, reservations will be voided if a user picks up a different scooter.
The company has indicated that Lime Scooters will be more expensive through reservations, as users will be paying per-minute. The per-minute cost from riding will also be applied to wait times due to a reservation. The company decided to charge for reservation time, in order to safeguard against too many scooters being reserved at once.
E-Scooter Scheduling Launches
Lime Scooters Will Take Reservations in the US
Trend Themes
1. Reservation-based Access - Reservation-based access similar to Lime's e-scooters may inspire other transportation companies to introduce a similar system.
2. Per-minute Pricing - The per-minute pricing model utilized by Lime scooters may be implemented by other sharing economy services such as ride-hailing or bike-sharing platforms.
3. Anti-reservation Fraud Measures - The use of wait time charges by Lime aims to prevent reservation fraud, which other sharing economy services could emulate to reduce fraudulent activities on their platforms.
Industry Implications
1. Ride-hailing - The reservation and wait-time charges introduced by Lime scooters could be a disruptive innovation opportunity for ride-hailing companies to optimize vehicle availability in peak hours.
2. Bike-sharing - Per-minute pricing as applied by Lime scooters, can be implemented by bike-sharing companies as it improves the affordability of using rental bicycles for short distances.
3. Car-sharing - Anti-reservation fraud measures similar to Lime's wait-time charges can help prevent fraudulent activities in car-sharing platforms, presenting a disruptive innovation opportunity.