Skip to main content
In another sign that dockless scooters may soon take over Portland, prominent e-scooter company Lime posted an ad on Craiglist today looking for "juicers."
Juicers, the listing notes, are contract workers who use their own cars at night to pick up, charge and re-distribute Lime scooters around Portland.
"Charge scooters, make money while you sleep," the job posting reads, advertising $150 or more a night to interested parties.
The ad is posted even though Lime has yet to be issued a formal permit by the Portland Bureau of Transportation, spokesperson John Brady tells WW. Brady says the agency is still processing applications it received earlier this month.
"I can't comment on what Lime decides to list [on Craigslist]," Brady says, "but [PBOT] has made very clear that the only way to operate in Portland is by applying and successfully getting a permit."
The company didn't directly address the question of why it's hiring juicers when it hasn't yet been approved—but says it's eager for those permits.
"We are enthusiastically awaiting word from PBOT, and stand eager to bring Portlanders a new mobility option," says Gabriel Scheer, director of strategic development at Lime.
In a June letter from city commissioner Dan Saltzman announcing the four-month long e-scooter pilot program, Saltzman warned that any company that begins operation in Portland without prior approval will be fined and have its scooters confiscated.
Related: Get Ready for a Swarm of Rental Scooters—the Next Thing You'll Hate About New Portland
Dockless scooters have received mixed reviews in the cities where they have been deployed. One common complaint is that abandoned scooters are discarded haphazardly on sidewalks at the end of a rider's journey.
Juicers would theoretically mitigate the clutter issue while keeping scooters charged.
In San Francisco, tech blog Recode reports, there are about 200 juicers employed by Lime. The independent contractors pick up roughly 70 percent of all the city's abandoned Lime scooters.
Juicers charge the dead scooters with a charger provided by Lime, and according to Recode, get instructions from a data team about which "hot spots" to drop them off at. Though, being dockless, where exactly the scooters are placed on the sidewalk is subjective. "[Juicers] line them up on along the sidewalk," Recode reports, "out of the way of pedestrians—and will pick a spot where there enough space for both."