Bird, an electric scooter rental service, does not have a contract with NC State University to operate on campus, resulting in many scooters impounded by the university since their arrival in Raleigh.
Lime, which came to NC State over a year ago, has brought bikes, e-bikes and scooters to campus.
According to Mike Kennon, assistant director of planning and operations at NCSU Transportation, the university has a contract with Lime, whereas Bird does not. Over the past year, the university received positive feedback from students using the LimeBikes, which were the first Lime product introduced on the campus.
Kennon explained that while the university has a relationship with Lime; Bird scooters are technically not allowed.
“We do not have an agreement with Bird, so Bird scooters are impounded,” Kennon said. “I think the confusion is about when we started our program with Lime, Bird scooters came to the city of Raleigh, not the university necessarily, without any agreement or permission and put a bunch of scooters on the streets that eventually found their way to campus.”
Kennon discussed the procedure for Bird scooters found on campus.
“Close to 300 Bird scooters have been impounded,” Mike said. “If we find a Bird scooter on campus, we store it, take a picture and notify Bird. We remind them that they are not licensed to operate on campus, and that we have their scooters.”
NC State does not have a contract with Bird. The company does not have customer service representatives available, which makes issues difficult to resolve.
“The reason that Bird does not have an agreement with the university is that Bird’s business model is such that they do not have any employees here in Raleigh,” Kennon said. “All they have are contract employees that collect scooters at night to charge them. We really have no customer service.”
Lime, on the other hand, has representatives available to NC State. Thomas Hardiman, director of the Office of Student Conduct, explained the procedure for damages to the company’s products. The university is prevented from collecting fees by law, but in cases of damage, students are required to pay Lime directly, according to Hardiman.
“Any time a student intentionally or recklessly damages the Lime bikes or scooters … through student conduct, we require them to pay restitution.” Hardiman said. “It is a flat fee of $600 for a bike or a scooter. We have had students try to do tricks with the scooters and actually broke them in half. We have also had students who have thrown the LimeBikes off buildings. We require them to pay restitution and provide us with documentation that they actually paid Lime the money they owe for breaking whatever it was they damaged.”
Lime protects their scooters from those who might damage them by notifying Lime of the individual who last accessed the scooter before it was damaged, according to Hardiman.
Hardiman explained that these incidents have not been a reoccurring thing.
“There has only been a handful of incidents Lime-related, and an even smaller number where something has been damage,” Hardiman said.
Kennon discussed that the university has no preference between a Lime scooter or Bird scooter, but Bird does not have any customer service to handle problems. Lime also has perks for NC State students that many people are unaware of.
“Lime has agreed to offer half off their e-products to students that use their NCSU email to register,” Kennon said. “It is only 50 cents to unlock the scooter and seven cents a minute, versus a dollar to unlock it and 15 cents a minute. A lot of students are paying full price to unlock the Birds when you can ride the Lime for half the price.”
NCSU Transportation is still working with Bird to reduce the number of Bird scooters on campus.
