Electric scooter providers JUMP, Lime, Scoot and Spin have just been granted permits to operate their respective services in San Francisco beginning October 15, 2019 *. This is part of the city’s longer-term permitting program for electric scooters.
Each scooter provider will initially be able to deploy 1,000 scooters, with the potential to deploy up to 2,500. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency says this should double the number of service areas covered.
As part of the program, the SFMTA is requiring all scooters to be lock-to and each company said they will use W-2 workers, both full-time and part-time, for operations.
“We look forward to honoring the commitments we feel are imperative to creating a strong partnership, including hiring locally, investing in the community, and ensuring our transportation services are equitably spread throughout the city,” Spin wrote in a blog post.
In total, 11 operators applied for permits. The SFMTA scored them across device standards and safety, pricing, operations, plan for safe riding and parking, experience and qualifications and more.
Skip, which was previously granted the rights to operate shared scooters in San Francisco, did not receive a permit this time around.
“As set forth in the permit application, Evaluation Scoresheet and Policy Directive, applicants were required to receive an average score of 2 or greater for each of the eight sections in the application, or would be disqualified from further evaluation,” the SFMTA wrote in its rejection letter to Skip. “Staff thoroughly reviewed all 11 applications received, including Skip Transport, Inc.’s. Skip Transport, Inc.’s permit application is denied because it received an average score below the required threshold of 2 on Section A of the application, and therefore was disqualified from further evaluation.”
In a statement to TechCrunch, Skip said, “We respect SFMTA’s process and feedback. We look forward to addressing areas of improvement with SFMTA per their review process and timeline. We’re proud to have helped make the first scooter sharing pilot in San Francisco a success and to see the program expanding in the coming year.”
Notably, Lyft was also denied a permit to operate shared electric scooters. While Lyft scored quite well overall, the SFMTA said it determined four was the right number of operators.
*An earlier version of this story said 2020. My bad.