Investigators drove up to electric scooters – Newspaper Kommersant No. 146 (7347) of 08/12/2022

As Kommersant found out, the Investigative Committee conducted an inspection of the Wezzu company, which provides electric scooter rental services in Moscow. She was suspected of “providing services that do not meet security requirements,” which is a sign of a crime under Art. 238 of the Criminal Code. A complaint was sent to the TFR by the metropolitan deptrans: the department revealed violations in the operation of the service, including the lack of permission to use city bike parking and faulty scooters. Wezzu representatives claim that the check has already been completed, the investigators did not find any violations: the service is an “automated rental point” operating under an agreement with the park administrations. “Deptrans is simply annoyed that we are not in their legal field,” the company says and plans its own appeals to the prosecutor’s office.

In early August, the Investigation Department of the TFR for the North-Eastern District of Moscow conducted an inspection on the grounds of a crime under Part 1 of Art. 238 of the Criminal Code, in connection with the possible “provision of services that do not meet security requirements” by the kicksharing company Wezzu. The reason, as Kommersant found out, was an appeal to the TFR of the Moscow Department of Transport. The press service of the department confirmed this, telling Kommersant that Wezzu is working with violations, while the company does not respond to the “requests” of the department.

Kick-sharing operators (electric scooter rentals) have been operating in Moscow since 2018, now there are a total of 35,000 devices in the city. Large companies include Yandex.Go, Whoosh, Urent, Karusel and Lite. The Moscow authorities support operators with subsidies (RUB 65 million this year), positioning kicksharing as a “last mile transport” and an alternative to private cars. The Wezzu application appeared in 2020, the work area is limited to the areas of the Central Park of Culture and Culture named after. Gorky, Sokolniki and Izmailovo. The lessor is VMSK LLC, according to the operator’s website. The company, according to kartoteka.ru, founded in 2016. The company’s scooters are about the same as those of other operators: Xiaomi M365, Ninebot MAX and other models.

Kommersant’s deptrans told that Wezzu has not yet concluded an offer agreement with the Traffic Management Center for the use of urban bike parking. In addition, the department says that Wezzu actually has no age restrictions: a child of any age can actually rent a scooter (other operators have an age limit of 18 years). The devices used by the company, according to the deptrans, are not checked for safety – many do not have front depreciation, serviceable brakes, headlights, a sound signal, and an automatic deceleration device. Wezzu scooters, they added in the deptrans, are not integrated into single “slow zones” (kick-sharing scooters connected to the city system automatically limit speeds at the level of 5-15 km/h in parks, on embankments, in pedestrian zones). Note that in the Wezzu application, “slow” zones are still displayed, despite the statements of the deptrans: in Sokolniki and Izmailovsky Park, electric scooters should not drive faster than 15 km/h.

The check is completed, there are no violations, Dmitry Yankevich, managing director of Wezzu, told Kommersant. The company, he explained, works under an agreement with park administrations and pays more than 2 million rubles a month to the city budget. “Our users ride only in parks, they don’t use city parking lots. We are not a kicksharing operator, but an automated rental point,” said Mr. Yankevich. In 2020, he said, Wezzu wanted to work on a deptrans offer, but then the rules became tougher, “now the conditions are written for large players”: the minimum fleet of electric scooters, for example, should be 10 thousand devices, while Wezzu has about 450. “ We did not work under the proposed conditions and remained only in the parks,” Dmitry Yankevich explained. “Deptrans does not allow small companies to work in principle in this business.” As for violations, contrary to the mayor’s office, the speed of all scooters in Wezzu is limited to 15 km/h, he said, and the rental agreement stipulates an age limit of 18 years. “Deptrans is simply annoyed that we are not in their legal field, and is trying in every possible way to regulate us, put pressure on us with checks,” Mr. Yankevich summarizes. “I assure you that these violations are committed on a much larger scale by large operators, but the authorities turn a blind eye to this.” Wezzu, he said, is going to send a request to the prosecutor’s office to check the legality of installing iron racks for kicksharing throughout the city: around them, according to Dmitry Yankevich, 50-100 scooters accumulate, which interferes with the passage and threatens traffic safety.

Polina Volkova, editor-in-chief of the Trusharing publication, believes that the city authorities have the right to demand compliance with the established rules, including by contacting law enforcement agencies. “The offer for kicksharing operators was not invented just like that, but dictated by safety precautions,” she explains. “All players follow these rules. A company that does not want to follow the requirements should not work.” “I am sure that operators who comply with the terms of the offer should not worry,” says Ksenia Erdman, director of the Association of Micromobility Operators of Russia. “The Department of Transport does not require anything that goes beyond the offer.”

Criminal cases on the fact of the operation of kicksharing services have so far been initiated only in the regions. In May 2021, the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR for St. Petersburg opened a case on the grounds of a crime under Part 1 of Art. 238 of the Criminal Code, after hitting a pedestrian, no further progress was reported. At the end of June of the same year, the Investigation Department for the Kirovsky District of Rostov-on-Don of the Investigative Committee of the ICR for the Rostov Region opened a case under the same Article 238, after a Rostov citizen knocked down a child on an electric scooter in the city center. For the first half of 2022, Kommersant told Kommersant, the accident rate involving means of individual mobility (electric scooters, monowheels, segways) increased by more than 2.5 times. Six people died in these accidents, 382 were injured. In 40% of accidents, scooters belonged to rental companies.

Ivan Buranov