Technical Supply Chain Manager

City ditches Lime bikes and scooters. Don't celebrate yet. August 26, 2026 Grand Rapids is trading one fleet of two-wheeled urban chaos for another - but city officials say the new rides will be safer, cheaper and easier to park. If you've spent any time driving, walking or otherwise attempting to exist peacefully on the streets of Grand Rapids, you probably have an opinion about shared scooters and bikes. Maybe you've watched a pack of teenagers rocket down a sidewalk toward an intersection with the confidence of a NASCAR driver and the stopping ability of a shopping cart. Maybe your car has had an unfortunate encounter with a scooter rider's interpretation of "traffic lane." Or maybe you actually use the things - to get to work, class, a restaurant, an appointment or, purely hypothetically, from one bar to the next. Whatever your position, the micromobility era isn't going anywhere. But Lime is. The Grand Rapids City Commission voted Wednesday to select Veo as the city's new sole shared micromobility vendor. The three-year agreement runs from Sept. 1, 2026, through Aug. 31, 2029, and comes at no direct cost to the city. The city put Lime and Veo to the test. Mobile GR launched its search for a new vendor in March with a request for proposals. Both Lime and Veo submitted bids. A review panel scored the proposals, interviewed the companies and - because apparently someone has to do it - tested the vehicles. Veo came out on top at every stage. A Mobile GR Commission member served on the RFP panel, and the full Mobile GR Commission discussed and supported the selection of Veo on Aug. 12. Now comes the less glamorous part: getting the contract finalized and actually getting the new fleet onto Grand Rapids streets. The bikes are supposed to be smarter about where they go. Perhaps the most interesting part of the Veo deal is the technology intended to address one of the biggest complaints about shared micromobility: people riding where they're not supposed to. Within the first year of the contract, at least half of Veo's fleet will have radar technology capable of scanning about 20 feet ahead of the vehicle. If the system detects an obstacle, it can slow the device, issue a warning sound or stop it. In theory, that could mean fewer scooters silently appearing behind pedestrians on sidewalks. In practice, of course, there remains the wild card known as the person operating the scooter. Veo also offers technology intended to help prevent underage and impaired riding. And yes, the city says rides will be cheaper. The standard per-minute rate is dropping from 36 cents to 33 cents, while the $1 unlock fee remains unchanged. Those rates are locked in for the entire three-year contract. The city is also highlighting Veo's new Veo Access program, which will cost qualifying riders $5 per month and include: * 30 free riding minutes every day. * 50% off additional riding time. * Additional reductions for trips beginning or ending in designated equity areas. * A commuter membership. * A transit rebate. * Payment options for people who don't use traditional banking services. For someone who actually relies on micromobility for transportation rather than using it as a novelty after two beers, those changes could matter considerably. "Transportation costs should not be the reason someone cannot get to work or to an appointment," said Max Gilles, strategic initiatives manager for Mobile GR. Prepare yourself for seated scooters. Grand Rapids won't simply be getting a new version of the same Lime fleet. Veo plans to offer a mix of seated scooters, e-bikes, standing scooters and a small number of self-balancing trikes. Most of the fleet will be seated. That's a potentially significant change for riders who find standing scooters uncomfortable or difficult to use. Veo also offers free adaptive attachments for manual wheelchairs. So, yes, the city's newest transportation experiment may involve considerably more people sitting down while operating what looks suspiciously like a very large electric toy. The eternal scooter question: Where the hell do I park this thing? Grand Rapids is also hoping Veo can make one of the most visible micromobility problems less visible: abandoned vehicles blocking sidewalks. Veo will use NFC "Tap-to-End-Trip" pads installed on designated parking-zone signposts. Riders will tap their phones or devices to the pads to finish their trips, in addition to the usual GPS geofencing. The company also has technology designed to verify that a vehicle is parked upright and isn't blocking a sidewalk. Because nothing says "future of urban transportation" quite like technology dedicated to making sure somebody didn't leave an electric scooter lying across a sidewalk. Grand Rapids apparently really likes these things. Despite the complaints - some justified, some delivered by people who would also like cyclists to get off their proverbial lawns - micromobility has developed a substantial following in Grand Rapids. Since 2020, more than 400,000 unique riders have taken more than 1.8 million micromobility trips in the city. That works out to an average of more than four trips per unique rider, although obviously the actual distribution is much more complicated. The numbers are enough for the city to conclude that shared bikes and scooters aren't merely a passing fad. They're now part of Grand Rapids' transportation network. "We are excited to welcome Veo to Grand Rapids," said Jessica Smith, Mobile GR director. "Their proposal stood out because it improves safety, lowers costs and offers more types of devices." Veo's Jeff Hoover, the company's director of government partnerships, said the company is looking forward to providing seated and standing scooters as part of the new fleet. So, goodbye Lime. Hello Veo. The transition will happen quickly. The contract begins Sept. 1, and Mobile GR will work with the city's purchasing department to finalize the agreement and prepare for the rollout. More information about the transition, including details for existing and new riders, is expected in the coming weeks. And for the rest of Grmag? Well, keep an eye out. The scooters may be getting radar, geofencing, parking verification and affordability programs. And for the rest of Grmag? Well, keep an eye out. The scooters may be getting radar, geofencing, parking verification and affordability programs. But in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, teenagers on e-bikes and scooters will still be crossing the intersection of Fulton and Monroe diagonally - and on the outskirts, curmudgeons like me will still be yelling, "Get off my lawn!"

How Veo is making micromobility a citywide staple in Denver. Located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Denver has become a premier market for shared micromobility in the US. In 2025, total trips exceeded six million across the city, covering a distance of nearly 8.7 million miles. The landscape recently underwent a major shift. In May, Denver switched from a multi-operator contract which licensed Lime and Bird to a single-operator market with Veo, creating one of the largest exclusive micromobility fleets in the US with 9,000 shared vehicles provided by a single company. So far, the transition seems to have been a successful one: Veo has freshly reported over 1.3 million trips in its first two months of Denver operations, outperforming the same period in 2025 by 12% - more than 142,000 trips. Denver's record-breaking fleet transition. Following a highly competitive tender process against incumbent competitors, Denver appointed Veo as its exclusive operator with a launch date of May 1st 2026. The previous operators were given a 15-day sunset period to wind down their operations while Veo scaled up, with the aim of facilitating a smooth transition, especially for low-income riders. The logistics were formidable. Veo had to build the largest single-operator fleet in the country, scaling from zero to 9,000 vehicles without service disruptions or degradation citywide. "There has never been a market where a new operator comes in and scales up that quickly, so that was a really interesting challenge," Alex Keating, VP of Policy and Partnerships, tells Zag Daily. Armed with a three-year license agreement, Veo has deployed roughly 8,800 vehicles, sitting 200 short of the city's strict fleet cap. The contract is a lucrative one for Denver. Veo pays a per-vehicle deployment fee that increases city revenue as the fleet expands, while greater fleet density is expected to drive higher revenue for Veo. To ensure Denver's micromobility demand didn't go unmet during the transition or after, Veo hired more than 150 new W-2 local employees dedicated to maintaining, storing and charging the vehicles at Veo's local warehouse. "We invested in that prior to launch to make sure we were ready to hit the ground running," says Keating. "The vehicles were on-site, assembled and ready to go in waves to ensure we could hit that ambitious deployment target." Veo's approach to maintaining and growing its ridership boils down to three core pillars: vehicle diversification, affordable pricing and citywide availability, all with the intention of bringing micromobility to a broader group of users. Vehicle diversification. According to Keating, a primary driver behind growing ridership has been the intentional diversification of the vehicle fleet. Before Veo's launch, the majority of the vehicles operated by the previous scheme were standard standing e-scooters. Veo flipped that ratio to invite a broader demographic to ride, including elderly residents and those with limited mobility. "Standing scooters appeal very strongly to a certain demographic but not to a lot of other folks," says Keating. "Today, 70% of the vehicles deployed are seated vehicles - a mix of seated scooters, cargo e-bikes and tandem e-bikes - and only 30% are standing scooters." In May and June, Veo recorded approximately 75% of total trips to be taken on its seated scooters and e-bikes. To increase access further, Veo recently deployed its newest vehicle - its three-wheeled 'Rover' trike - in downtown Denver, which saw over 7,000 rides in its first three weeks of deployment. "Denver already has one of the nation's largest mixed vehicle fleets," Keating says. "And now with the trike, Zag Group is able to give people even more options. Zag Group built the trike after hearing from older adults and people with disabilities who wanted a more balanced, accessible ride. "There's a lot of momentum and we are excited to see where the trike goes from here." Affordable rides for income-qualified users. The second pillar of Veo's strategy is a programme designed to increase access for income-qualified Denver residents. More than 8,500 'Veo Access' riders - those enrolled onto the city's income-based affordability programme - completed more than 567,000 rides, or 42% of all trips in May and June. Under the previous system, eligible riders received free unlocks paired with three 30-minute free trips. Veo replaced this with Veo Access: a programme that provides 60 minutes of free daily ride time that can be redeemed on any number of journeys. "Those 60 minutes are flexible," explains Keating. "You use them as you would like, so you can have 60 one-minute trips, one 60-minute trip, or anything in between. On average, that provides more actual riding time for the average user than a rigid three-trip formulation." Riders could transfer their existing profiles from previous operators or qualify by demonstrating an income below 200% of the federal poverty line. "If you earn up to twice what is considered the poverty rate in the US, you qualify," says Keating. Meeting underserved demand. The final pillar is distribution, ensuring that vehicles are physically accessible where people live and work. "You can't just drop pricing really low and hope people are going to ride," says Keating. "Low-income users can't ride if the vehicles are not in the areas where they live." That's why Veo has focused on deploying vehicles throughout the city. This expanded footprint is a deliberate choice. Keating points out that because most historic ridership data comes from high-activity downtown corridors, a lack of data in outer neighbourhoods is often mistaken for a lack of demand. By taking a citywide approach rather than focusing strictly on downtown, Veo is gathering fresh data from these underserved areas. Moving forward, the operator will use this data to dynamically rebalance its fleet to match high-utilisation zones outside the city centre. "We want to provide the service to anyone who will ride and that has already played out with broad geographical coverage in Denver," Keating said. With a mixed fleet of vehicles, pricing that targets low-income riders and geographical availability, the company's pledge for Denver is that it will turn micromobility from a downtown novelty into an essential citywide staple. As ridership continues to grow, the early signs suggest more Denver residents are beginning to embrace shared scooters and bikes more than ever before. ADVERTISING