Getting city permits for your public fleet

There are a lot of factors to take into consideration when preparing to start a rental fleet of your own. We first suggest checking out our interactive map the legality of electric scooters based per state.

One of the biggest questions we get is where do you plan on keeping the scooter. Rentals can be from a private, fixed pick up/drop off points, or alternatively getting permission from your city to launch a dock-less/public fleets. Most of out rental fleet partners used a fixed pick up/drop off point from a privately owned business or store front. Predominately because the rental fleet is then considered private and obtaining permits from the city is not usually required.

When going with the latter option you usually must talk to your local ordinance and get permits allowing the scooters to be left on public property. While every local government is different in their standards, there are many things we can learn from previous success that other companies have had in obtaining permits from their city or township.  Here are some tips on getting started with the public permitting process. 

 

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This table shows what San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency used in granted the first permits in the United States. As you can see there were many elements that the SFMTA considered when they were deciding who to give permit. With SFMTA being the first to green light public rental fleets, this system for deciding whether or not grant permission as since been adopted by many cities following suite, with a few minor changes here and there.

 

Some major points to consider before going before your local authorities with your proposition is:

  • Providing protective equipment that local mandates require
  • How do you plan to educate your riders about e-scooter safety
  • How to ensure that the e-scooter is properly parked and blocking users who do not comply
  • How you plan to take payment for the scooters
  • How you plan to maintain and upkeep the e-scooter

 

In partnering with Levy Electric we do give the tools to help with some but not all of these bullet points. The biggest issue that many people run into is talking about parking / housing of the scooter and preventing them from being used in improper areas. One of the best practices is to have a concise and clear plan when approaching the local authorities with your pitch. Having a solution to many of the objections that may arise will only help get your fleet on the road and your customers moving free.

 

If you feel you are ready to move forward with you plan to run a fleet and want to run a dock-less/public fleet then we suggest reaching out to your city council.

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