Across the UK various sharing schemes have offered their vehicle sharing services to NHS workers and other essential workers. However Lime have extended their free ride offer now to teachers and a host of other key and essential workers. This scheme was available over the recent lockdown in Milton Keynes, London and Salford and may continue past that.
Lime Aid was launched in October 2020 only for NHS and emergency service workers but now they are expanding their plan to include a larger amount of key worker categories.
This isn't the first time Lime has expanded out into a more socially focused, philanthropic area, for example it also offers the ‘Lime access’ scheme was currently offers discounted rates for those on low incomes. Lime are not the only shared-ride operator to offer it’s services for free, with Voi also running a similar theme offer free rides to emergency workers and NHS staff. Vow also takes this further by offering special discount passes for university staff and students with a scheme called ‘Voi 4 Students’. They also offer discounts to those on low incomes with ‘Voi 4 All’.
We perhaps shouldn't be so ready to view these companies as completely altruistic and philanthropic as there are always motivations lying behind that we cannot see. E-scooter ride companies profit heavily on the collection on the data so this may be a method of attempting to collection specific data on certain workers and also certain economic groups. Data collection is what many believe to be the primary economic driver of these companies however it is not completely clear and these companies are not entirely transparent with this information.
Here at URBAN ELECTRO we sell electric scooters for you to independently own so you are not reliant upon these companies to provide you with transport, you do not have to wait for a scooter to become available or be near you, and you do not need to forfeit any of your private information.