Kommersant: SK checked the Wezzu scooter rental service in Moscow at the request of the mayor’s office

In early August, the Investigative Committee checked one of the services for renting electric scooters at the request of the Moscow Department of Transport. We are talking about the kicksharing company Wezzu, which was suspected of providing services that do not meet security requirements, about this informs newspaper “Kommersant”.

According to the newspaper, Wezzu worked with violations and did not respond to the “requests” of the department to eliminate them. Among the violations are the lack of an offer agreement with the Center for Traffic Management (TsODD) for the use of urban bike parking, the absence of age restrictions (only those who have already reached the age of 18 can use scooters of other operators), as well as front depreciation, serviceable brakes, headlights, and a sound signal , automatic speed reset devices. In addition, Wezzu scooters, according to the agency, are not connected to the city system and are not integrated into single “slow zones” – parks, pedestrian zones, embankments, in which the speed is automatically limited to 5-15 km / h. At the same time, “slow” zones are still displayed in the Wezzu application itself: in Sokolniki and Izmailovsky Park, the speed of electric scooters should not exceed 15 km/h.

Electric scooter rental operators have been operating in Moscow since 2018, with a total of more than 35,000 devices currently in use. Among the big companies Yandex.Go, Whoosh, Urent, Carousel and Lite. The Moscow authorities support services with subsidies, positioning kicksharing as an alternative to private cars. This year, subsidies amounted to 65 million rubles. Launched in 2020, the Wezzu app offers scooters from the same companies used by larger players. The area of ​​operation of this operator is limited to the areas of the TsPKiO them. Gorky, Sokolniki and Izmailovo.

Wezzu Managing Director Dmitry Yankevich told the publication that the audit had been completed and no violations had been identified. He stressed that all scooters are rented in parks, the speed of devices is limited to 15 km/h, and the age limit is specified in the rental agreement. He also added that in 2020 the service wanted to work on the offer of the Department of Transport, but later the conditions became tougher: in particular, the minimum fleet of electric scooters should be 10,000 devices, while Wezzu has only about 450. “We are not a kicksharing operator, but automated rental point,” he clarified and added that the company pays more than 2 million rubles to the Moscow budget every month.

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