Voi poaches from Bird

e-scooters

Swedish E-scooter firm Voi has recruited the UK head of rival firm Bird oversee the company’s launch of services in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. 

Richard Corbett joins from Bird UK, a subsidiary of rival US Bird. 

Voi said Corbett had been “responsible for leading efforts with the UK government to legalise e-scooters” and had masterminded the launch of e-scooter trials in Olympic Park, east London.  

Voi predicts that 50,000 e-scooter rides a day could be being made in London by the end of this year. This assumes that each scooter will be used by between seven and 11 people a day. The service could launch this month.

As well as being in talks with Transport for London and London boroughs, Voi says it is discussing plans with the councils covering Manchester, Salford, Bath, Darlington, Hartlepool, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, and Edinburgh.

The Government announced earlier this month that it would amend secondary legislation to allow trials of e-scooters to begin across the UK from June.