Focus: Jump by Uber Australia-NZ manager Henry Greenacre launches the first 735 e-scooters across Auckland.
Uber is launching its "Jump by Uber" e-scooters in Auckland at midday today.
Some 735 Jump e-scooters will begin to be rolled out across the city, with an operational area extending from Mission Bay and Remuera to Point Chevalier (bordering on Avondale), and extending as far south as Royal Oak and One Tree Hill.
Jump's e-scooters will cost an industry-standard $1 to unlock then 38 cents per minute.
Uber says users will see a Jump option once they open its car-sharing app - which up until now has been used for wrangling the company's car-sharing service (Uber for Business users can't expense a scooter ride yet, although that option is coming).
Neuron's tank-like e-scooters cost the same $1 to unlock then 38 cents per minute as rivals - but it also offers $25 three-day passes, $33 weekly passes and $89 monthly passes. Photo / Dean Purcell
The Jump e-scooter rollout is part of Auckland Council's first official six-month e-scooter licensing period, which sees the total e-scooter cap lifted from 1875 (the limit for the two trial periods) to 3200.
Auckland Council six-month licence period to June 3, 2020 • Total e-scooter allocation: Raised from 1875 to 3200 • Beam: 880 • Neuron: 880 • Jump by Uber: 735 • Flamingo: 630 • Yet-to-be-allocated: 75
Jump is sharing Auckland streets with the locally-owned Flamingo (the only survivor from the trial period), and two Singapore-owned players Neuron (whose rollout of 880 e-scooters into Auckland on Friday) and Beam. All four were judged to have a better "safety profile" than Lime and Wave, who failed to make the cut.
As well as the standard $1 unlock, 38c a minute, Neuron is offering three-day passes for $25, weekly passes for $33 and monthly passes for $89, which allow users to have unlimited rides for up to 90 minutes per day.
Lovely Auckland weather for the Jump by Uber launch. You can use the same app as you do to book a car - it now features scooter icons - but Uber recommends upgrading to the latest version pic.twitter.com/hztprxSbak
For Uber, the council's licensing decision - announced shortly before Christmas - was a case of swings and slides. The rideshare giant is a major investor in Lime, but has full-control of Jump, which it bought in 2018.
Photo / Supplied
Uber will expand its Auckland presence again next month as it launches 655 of its Jump by Uber e-bikes in the city, which will cost $1 to unlock then 30 cents per minute.
There are already around 400 Jump by Uber e-scooters in the capital as part of Wellington's ongoing e-scooter trial.
The company copped flak in November when trucks were spotted dumping around 300 Jump e-scooters into a freight company's concrete yard, just six months after they hit the city's streets.
Uber New Zealand spokesperson Henry Greenacre said the scooters had come to the end of their life because of heavy use. They would be sent for recycling.
His company has also had an issue in the capital with thieves stripping e-scooters for parts then throwing them in the harbour.
An e-scooter found on the seabed during a Ghost Fishing expedition to clean up the Wellington Harbour earlier this month. Image / Still from Ghost Fishing video
Volunteer divers have fished 19 e-scooters from the water since Wellington City Council launched two e-scooter share schemes - Jump and Flamingo - in June last year. And Uber and Flamingo GPS beacons indicate there are at least another six on the ocean floor.
Jump scooters dumped in Wellington. Photo / RNZ
Auckland Council's expansion from 1875 to 3200 e-scooters comes as central government has yet to decide if it should make any law-change to introduce e-scooter speed-limits, or if it should make helmets mandatory, ban e-scooters from pavements, or allow them in all cycleways.
All of Neuron's e-scooters will come with adjustable safety helmets.
Since e-scooter ride-sharing kicked off with Lime's October 2018 launch into NZ, ACC has racked up more than $4.3 million in e-scooter related claims.
Auckland Council's first e-scooter licence period includes speed limits and curfews in a number of areas in a bid to reduce the accident rate and, for pedestrians, the annoyance factor.
Like Lime before it, Jump by Uber says it will have safety events where free helmets are given out, and various low-cost promotions.
E-scooters from Singapore's Beam (left) and the home-grown Flamingo, both made by Segway. Neuron has custom hardware, as does Uber, which uses Okai as a contract manufacturer. Photo / Dean Purcell
Neuron is the most front-foot of the newcomers on the helmet front, with an adjustable helmet danging off every e-scooter - but already this morning there were at least a couple abandoned on the pavement.
How does the helmet thing work? A couple of Neuron helmets seen littered on the footpath yesterday : ( pic.twitter.com/y9WPnUsyYb
