Can You Really Make Money Charging Bird Scooters? – And How Much?

What Is Bird?

They've had some hiccups, lawsuits have been paid, their have been protests, but it doesn't seem like much of anything can stand in the way of the new scooter ride-share industry, which Uber and Lyft are jumping in on as well.

At just $1 to unlock a scooter and +$0.15 per minute of use, riding a Bird around is becoming a very economic, fun, and flexible way to get around.

AND... of course this amazing new flexible form of transportation also brings along a flexible way to earn some cash on the side... or even as a main source of income for some people.

Making Money as a Scooter Charger

It's freelance work. In a nutshell, what you do is run around after 9pm picking up scooters that people have left sitting around, bring them back to your place and charge them for the next day.

Step 1: Join The Charger Community

You have 2 options here:

1. You can sign up to become a charger at https://chargers.bird.co/join where you will be prompted to enter your name, phone number, email address, zip code, and select your country from the list. Then you will download the app to complete the signup process.
2. or, If you already have the app you can open it up, bring up the menu and click on the "become a charger" option.

The app is free and available on both Google Play and the Apple App Store, where it has very good ratings overall.

Inside the app you will have to enter basic information about yourself, tax information, and confirm your bank account so that you can get paid via direct deposit.

*Both riders and chargers use the same app.

Step 2: Find, Charge and Release Birds

Finding Birds:

Now that you are officially a Charger it's time to find some Birds.

At 9pm is when Bird releases most of the scooters onto the map for charging, because this is when they are no longer available to riders. So in the beginning you are going to want to wait to this time.

However, it is possible to pickup birds that need charged throughout the day and even release them back into the 'wild' if you can do so before 5pm.

Inside the app you will be able to go to "find birds" to see a map of your location and all the Birds nearby.

You will be able to select a bird and open up GPS navigation to it with Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps, etc.

Once you have located the Bird you will scan the QR code on it to claim it for charging, which will then take it off the market so that other chargers aren't going after it.

During this capture process you will need your Bluetooth to be on so that your phone can communicate with the Bird.

What if you can't find the Bird?

Inside the app there are different action options you can choose from. These include:

• Alarm
• Mark Missing
• Capture
• Report

The Capture is what you hope to use, which would mean you found the Bird and are capturing it to be charged, which is when you will be prompted to scan the QR code.

But if you can't find the bird you first want to try the Alarm, which will sound the alarm on the scooter so that you can locate it.

The Alarm feature works via Bluetooth so you will have to be in close proximity. If this doesn't work then you may have to Mark Missing.

Link: How to capture a Bird

Charging Birds:

There are special chargers that you will need.

Bird will supply you with 3 of them for free (I've heard some accounts of people getting 4), but many people who are trying to make bank doing this look for extras, which can be found on Amazon and there is even a thread on Reddit for selling Bird chargers.

Each Bird will take 3-5 hours to charge.

Releasing Birds:

As mentioned, it is possible that you can pick up a Bird early in the day and release it before 5pm. But normally, you will be finding birds after 9pm and releasing them the next morning.

The time frame you have is 4 - 7am to drop off the scooters back into the wild.

You will be able to locate "Bird's Nests" with the app and take them there to be dropped off. These "Bird's Nests" are just locations that Bird deems good places for riders to pick them up. They could be all in all sorts of places.

To find a nest you will want to first go to "release birds" in the app...

This will then bring up a map of nearby nests. The numbers represent the available spots left and the green circle means the nests are okay to be used. So a 3 means you can drop off a maximum of 3 Birds at that nest.

Just like finding Birds, you will be able to click on where you want to go and use GPS to get there.

When placing a bird in a nest area, be sure NOT to:

• Block sidewalks
• Block private ramps
• Block fire hydrants
• Block disability access areas
• Release them on uneven ground
• Release them in a messy fashion

... So pretty much common sense stuff for the most part.

In order to officially release the birds you will have to go back into your app and select the birds to release and then take & submit a picture of the newly released birds.

Now you're done.

And here is a 1 minute video explaining the whole release process:

Link: How to Release Birds (some additional info)

Step 3: Get Paid Daily

To ensure that you get paid what you are supposed to be paid you want to make sure you meet the 7am deadline for releasing Birds and the batteries must be at least 95% full... which they will be if you just charged them the last night.

Pay rates are anywhere from $5 - $20 per scooter charge.

If you release a Bird late then you may be hit with a penalty of up to a 50% pay decrease.

You will get paid the same day if everything is done properly and this will show up in the app... and your bank account.

Understanding Different Pay Rates

You may have noticed above in the one screenshot that when you go to Find Birds they appear as different colors and different prices. This has to do with the level of difficulty.

• Green Birds - Easiest to find and have the lowest payout.
• Yellow Birds - Medium difficulty and have medium payout.
• Red Birds - These are the hard-to-find, rare breads. They pay the best if you happen to catch one.

If a Bird has been sitting around for a while without anyone picking it up to charge it then the system deems it as being a more difficult catch and increases the bounty to provide more incentive for someone to go get it, charge it, and release it back into the wild.

When people search for Birds but cannot find them they mark them as "missing" inside the app. This will drive up the price fast.

*The way this works also leads to the problem of hoarding, which I'll talk about soon.

The Market Determines The Price

Ultimately the price per scooter that you charge falls back on the chargers themselves (the people doing the charging, not the charging equipment).

If there is a lack of chargers and Bird really needs to get people to go out there and charge their scooters, they will increase the bounties as incentive. And if there are too many chargers they will decrease the bounties as low as possible.

Price will fluctuate depending on what the market will bear.

The problem, as so eloquently stated by someone on Reddit, is that "there's always some meth head looking to do it for two bucks each". This is true to some extent and unfortunately drives the prices down.

How Much Can You Realistically Make?

With videos all over Youtube of people making hundreds of dollars a night charging Birds, this may seem like a mini goldmine opportunity... but is it really?

You have some people making bank and some that have more negative opinions of the opportunity... with one man in an interview with Inc Magazine calling it "one level up from collecting cans".

But there are lot's of real stories about people collecting 30-40 Birds a night and making some good money... enough to live off of pretty nicely.

However, there is no good number I can give for a "realistic" earnings estimate because of how easily market conditions can change and how different they already are in different cities.

Simplified Example:

In City A you have 1,000 Birds and 50 chargers. Each charger can get an average of 20 Birds to charge per night, which means about $100+/night.

In City B you have 1,000 Birds and 100 chargers. Now each charger can only get an average of 10 Birds to charge per night, which means about $50+/night.

The market determines not only the going rate of charging a Bird, but also how many you will be able to charge due to competition from other chargers.

Just like Uber, Lyft, and other independent contractor work that is similar... the earning potential in one area may differ greatly from that in another area.

And Let's Not Forget About The Expenses..

• Driving around
• Wasted time
• Electricity cost
• Cost of chargers

These are all expenses that you also have to account for.

Driving Around & Wasted Time

Sometimes you will run into competition from other chargers and won't be able to get a Bird you were going for.

Sometimes there are bad signals and Birds don't exist where the app tells you they do.

This all leads to wasted time and driving around without any payoff.

Cost of Chargers

As mentioned you will get a pack of 3 free chargers. However, a lot of people will want more than this, and there are several different options you have available.

Bird recommends that you purchase chargers from the Bird Shopify store, of course, but this will cost you $60 for a 3-pack.

You can also find chargers for cheap on Amazon, as low as about $14/charger, but you have to be careful with low quality chargers. The last thing you want is a fire.

There is also a thread on Reddit for selling Bird chargers, mentioned earlier, that you can always take a look at to see if there are any good deals in your area. Most people are selling chargers for $10 - $15 each.

*There is rumor that Bird may stop giving out free chargers and require newbies to pay.

Electricity Cost

I knew it wouldn't be expensive to charge one of these little Birds up, but the cost estimates I've seen are lower than expected.

Some estimates are that it costs about $0.25 - $0.40 to charge from 0% to 100% and there are other estimates out there that are even less.

So ya, it's cheap.

Bird Charger Hacks

There is at least one "hack" that exists where you can essentially game the system and make more money when charging Birds. However, this definitely isn't something I'd recommend. It is fraud and your account will be terminated when Bird finds out.

What I'm talking about is hoarding, which is when chargers hoard Birds so that no one else can get to them. This is done for a couple reasons...

• Hoarders will hoard Birds to increase the bounty placed on them for charging. Then after the bounty has increased, say from a green $5 to a red $20, they charge them, release them, and get paid more than they should.
• Hoarders will pick up Birds throughout the day even if they are not in need of charging and hoard them at their homes to charge later that night, instead of waiting until after 9pm. This way they have a bunch of Birds and don't have to run around at night with all the competition.

There are quite a few bird hoarding stories online and if you become a charger for long you will likely run into such at some point.

The "hoarding" is the only real "hack" that I know of where a charger can game the system... but definitely isn't recommended and is a big problem.

Safety Concerns

You may be thinking: what could possibly be unsafe about charging scooters?

Well, the fact that there is a lot of competition and that it mostly happens at night comes with some risk.

In fact, according to the US Department of Justice violent crime peaks at 9pm in the US.. and then slowly dissipates.

And when you are roaming the streets with eyes on your GPS you could be led into some unsafe areas. Google Maps tells usually tells you the fastest way to get somewhere, not the safest.

Then of course you have to factor in the competition and people fighting over who gets to claim a Bird (yes, it happens). Some people charge birds as an essential means of income and can get pretty aggressive... punches have been thrown.

That said, there aren't any safety concerns that can't be easily avoided. Just play by the roles and don't go down some dimly lit alley to pick up a scooter if you don't have to.

Complaints

Ghost Signals

Some chargers have reported getting "ghost" signals, which is when the app tells you there is a bird to be picked up somewhere but there is nothing there. This is a waste of time and can be frustrating.

... but it can also be a hoarding problem where people hoard the birds and hide them...

The Hoarding Problem

One of the biggest problems that exists, and one of the biggest complaints, is that of hoarding... as I already talked about.

Bird takes fraud like this serious but unfortunately it continues to happen and a few bad apples can really spoil and opportunity for everyone, as you can see in this video:

The good news is that it is easy to report these hoarders and Bird will close their accounts so that they can no longer participate in such foolery.

Account Terminated for "No Reason"

There are quite a few chargers who have had their accounts terminated for "no reason", such as this person on Reddit:

It seems that most terminated accounts stem from people picking up Birds that have been hoarded, which then results in a flagging of their account for doing the hoarding--even though they didn't.

The good news is that Bird is aware of this problem and their support team will hear you out.

*Note: It's a good idea to take pictures or video of Birds that you suspect might be hoarded before capturing them.

Too Much Competition

Like any business, Bird doesn't want to pay chargers any more than it has to. The more chargers they have running about the more competition there is and the more people there are to work for cheap.

This is good for them but bad for chargers. 

In some areas the amount of competition can be ridiculous, especially when you have to go up against charger "cartels" that treat the charging game as a military operation.

Going After the Same Bird

It would be nice if you could "claim" a scooter on the map beforehand and have a certain amount of time to pick it up, or else it would go back up for grabs. This way there wouldn't be the problem of multiple people going after the same scooter.

Pros v Cons

Pros

• Don't have to deal with people, unlike Uber and Lyft
• Flexible work
• Easy - for the most part
• No degrees, certifications, etc. required
• Good pay potential

Cons

• Lots of competition
• No guaranteed pay (because you aren't guaranteed to get any Birds)
• Has some risk to it

Final Thoughts - Is It Worth It?

While charging for Bird can be well worth it for some people, it isn't something you should expect much with. Don't get too caught up in all the amazing success stories you will find online.

The best approach to take is to begin without much expectations and see where it takes you. 

There is an excellent article on Slate where a newbie documents his first 17 days as a charger, which is filled failed pickup attempts, frustration, decoy Birds, lots of fraud cases, and ultimately $125 over a 2 week period with about 10-15 hours of work... leading him to quit.

So it's not all amazing success stories of making big money on your own time at night. 

All the Youtube videos and articles online bragging about making tons of easy money are just increasing the competition among chargers, leading to a less individually profitable endeavor.

Now it's your turn: What do you think about charging for Bird?

I like to hear back from my readers! You can leave comments/questions below 🙂

PS: While you are here, don't forget to check out how I've been making money working for myself online. It seems like this might be something you'd be interested in.

You can also check out these 70+ ways to make money from home.