The Scooter Keepers

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When the eScooter tsunami crashed on the beaches of Santa Monica and Venice last year it seemed like "The Scooter Keepers" were mostly freelancers, people who surfed the bike trail between Santa Monica and Venice collecting scooters for vendors like Lime, Bird, and Spin, and recharging them for $5 a scooter. Today, in addition to those early scooter labels, millennial transportation darlings Uber and Lyft have also joined the game. While the early players still use freelancers, Uber & Lyft run full-time operations with employees driving vans around to collect scooters in need of charging or other service.

Scooter Keepers / Uber 1

Uber employees Javaun Bruins, 31, from Inglewood, Calif., and Kegauna Brown, 23, from Compton, Calif., collect Uber eScooters in need of charging or repair on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019 at the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Bruins and Brown use a mobile GPS-based app to track eScooters needing attention. They collect the scooters and take them back to Uber's shop for charging, re-balancing, and repair. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)

Scooter Keepers / Uber 2

Uber employee Javaun Bruins, 31, from Inglewood, Calif., in a van filled with eScooters he and Kegauna Brown, 23, from Compton, Calif., have collected in the Venice area on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. From here they take the eScooters back to Uber's shop for charging, re-balancing, and repair. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)

Scooter Keepers / Lyft 1

Lyft employee Michael Jones, 19, from Los Angeles, Calif., takes a discharged Lyft eScooter from the Venice Beach Boardwalk to his van on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. From there he'll take the eScooter back to the Lyft warehouse near the SMC Main Campus. At the Lyft warehouse about 2,000 eScooters are charged and repaired for use around Los Angeles. Jones has been working for Lyft since they started eScooters in this area in September 2018. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)

Scooter Keepers / Lyft 2

Lyft employee Michael Jones, 19, from Los Angeles, Calif., looking around the Venice Beach Boardwalk for an eScooter in need of charging on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. His mobile app led him to this eScooter, but this one turned out to be in working order, so Jones had to hunt around for several minutes looking for the eScooter that needed charging. Once found, Jones will take the eScooter back to the Lyft warehouse near the SMC Main Campus. At the Lyft warehouse about 2,000 eScooters are charged and repaired for use around Los Angeles. Jones has been working for Lyft since they started eScooters in this area in September 2018. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)

Scooter Keepers / Lyft 5

Lyft employee Michael Jones, 19, from Los Angeles, Calif., with eScooters he has collected in the Venice Beach area on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. Once Jones has collected all the Lyft eScooters in the area, he will drive them to the Lyft warehouse near the SMC Main Campus. At the Lyft warehouse about 2,000 eScooters are charged and repaired for use around Los Angeles. Jones has been working for Lyft since they started eScooters in this area in September 2018. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)

Scooter Keepers / Lime 1

"Scooter Keeper" Alex, 61, from Santa Monica, Calif., with Lime eScooters he has collected in the Venice Beach area on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. Alex will take the eScooters home with him to charge them and then put them back out. Lime pays him $5 per scooter. Alex stopped collecting Bird eScooters when they dropped the pay from $5/scooter to $3/scooter. Alex knows that some companies like Uber and Lyft have full-time jobs collecting eScooters, but he doesn't want that kind of constraint at his age. He enjoys the freedom of collecting eScooters when he chooses. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)

Scooter Keepers / Lime 2

"Scooter Keeper" Alex, 61, from Santa Monica, Calif., with Lime eScooters he has collected in the Venice Beach area on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. Alex will take the eScooters home with him to charge them and then put them back out. Lime pays him $5 per scooter. Alex stopped collecting Bird eScooters when they dropped the pay from $5/scooter to $3/scooter. Alex knows that some companies like Uber and Lyft have full-time jobs collecting eScooters, but he doesn't want that kind of constraint at his age. He enjoys the freedom of collecting eScooters when he chooses. (Glenn Zucman/The Corsair)