In regards to Lime Juicers, California is the odd ball state right now. (No offense to anyone from California!) In January 2020, the California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) which tightened the requirements around classifying contract workers compared to regular hourly/salaried common law employees. Companies like Uber, Lyft and other driver/gig companies were affected including Lime Juicers.
To understand the ramifications of this, let’s establish what the difference is between an independent contractor and an employee –
- Independent Contractors are self-employed workers who run their own business entity like a sole proprietorship or an LLC. They cover freelance type work and are independent to the “parent” business. They have a set task to complete but have the ability to make decisions on how they complete the task without direct supervision from the “parent” company.
- Employees are supervised and given set guidelines for what, how, and when they will accomplish specific tasks. The company has the right to control how tasks and procedures are completed, not the individual employee.
Generally, contractors are cheaper for the company to work with because they are not paid as employees are. With a contractor, the company simply pays a set rate for the designated work and calls it a day. With Employees, the company has to pay the employer portion of taxes, follow FSLA standards and local labor laws. Employees are also entitled to more protection and benefits like:
- The state/federal minimum wage
- PTO/Sick Time
- Health Insurance
- Retirement Plans & Matching
- Workers Compensation (injury)
- Unemployment Insurance
- FMLA and Disability Benefits
- Other Additional Benefits
Overall, these companies where in a pickle and forced to take extreme action to save money and continue operation in California. Together these companies spent more than 200 million dollars promoting Proposition 22 to reexamine the classification of employees. While Prop 22 was approved, Lime missed the cutoff for contractor classification and the new AB5 law needed to be adhered to.
In order for Lime to continue operating in California, they needed all Lime Juicers to be hired as traditional employees immediately. Instead of Lime taking on the added cost and jumping through the necessary hurdles of doing this, they worked with current Juicers and other established companies to set up Logistic Partners (LP’s) as subcontractors that would fill that needed gap.
Logistic Partners now handle the day to day operation of charging, deploying, and retrieving Lime Scooters & Bikes completely in California and some additional locations. They operate as a small business with either contract employees (traditional Juicers) or common-law employees working under them. To learn more about Logistic Partners, how to apply to become one, and what to expect as one, click here.
What do Logistic Partners mean for current or future Lime Juicers?
Juicers are still in play and working hard in most cities where Lime is established. You can still apply to become a new Juicer in most areas outside of California, as long as there is a current need for additional Juicers when you apply. To find out what locations Lime is operating in and the current average task rate, click here.
Unfortunately, there is not a set standard or organization chart that outlines how cities are operating. Some cities are operating solely though LP’s. Some have a mix of the regular Juicers and LP’s competing against each other. While some only have Juicers operating in the area.
The big divide is in the taskings. Normal Juicers don’t typically handle any bike’s or battery swaps in the new Gen 4 scooter models. They will likely continue to help with moving older generation scooter models like 2.5 and 3 from location A to location B. They will likely continue to assist with retrieving broken scooters and returning them to the warehouse/hub for the foreseeable future as well.
For cities that are not yet to LP’s or are operating a hybrid model, I would recommend signing up to be a traditional Juicer and establishing yourself in the market area. (To learn more about what a Juicer is and how to sign up, click here.) When/if the city transitions, you might be asked to step into the LP roll or you could apply to fill an opening as an LP Company. One of the biggest takeaways would be making connections with your Area Managers (for Lime) and with other local Juicers as well. Lime and new LP’s want to hire people who are reliable and have a solid track record.
If you live in California or some other cities like Portland or Washington D.C., you can attempt to establish your own LP company. (To learn more about Logistic Partners, how to apply to become one, and what to expect as one, click here.) More than likely, there is already an exclusive LP or multiple LP’s in place where you can apply to work directly for those established LP companies.
Unfortunately as of right now, there is no established or quick way to connect with LPs in different areas. The best way I’ve seen, is to reach out through the Facebook Group “Lime Scooter Juicers”. This is a international group and there are smaller location-based groups that you could try joining as well. I see posts quite frequently of LPs looking for people to work with them in California and other cities/countries.
Lime is continuing to work on expanding its operations into new cities and countries. They are developing new partnerships with other organizations to make it easier for people to use Lime scooters. Lime Scooters and other competitors are not going away anytime soon. They are continuing to look for new and improved ways to provide scooters to the public.
For example, Lime is working towards interchangeable batteries with the Gen 4 scooters and bikes in all areas of operation. Lime also plans on placing battery charging stations known as “LimeCubes” throughout cities to cut down on travel distance and time needed to replace batteries. Those batteries will still need to be swapped out and scooters will still breakdown and need retrieved. While Lime is still operating with Juicers, it is a good way to make additional income as long as you are smart about when and how you juice scooters!
© EuduringFinances, 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Resources:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/understanding-employee-vs-contractor-designation
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