Juicer Marketplace Overview

The Juicer marketplace is the gig-charging layer of Levy Swap. Independent contractors (called Juicers, or Chargers depending on the city) pick up low-battery vehicles, charge them at home, and drop them back inside operator-defined zones for a per-vehicle bounty.

This is the Lime/Bird/Spin model — proven at scale, ~$3 to $7 per vehicle versus $8 to $15 per vehicle for full-time-tech swaps when fully loaded. No SMB shared-mobility SaaS has shipped a turnkey marketplace until now.

What Juicers Do

1. Open the Juicer app and see a map of nearby bounties — vehicles with low battery, color-coded by payout tier.
2. Tap Claim on one. A 60-minute countdown starts; the vehicle is hidden from every other Juicer.
3. Drive to the vehicle, take a pickup photo (vehicle ID visible), tap I've got it. App validates GPS.
4. Transport home. Plug into a standard wall charger.
5. Periodically check in via the app ("still charging") — missed check-ins expire the claim.
6. When the vehicle hits ≥95% SoC, the Drop button activates.
7. Drop the vehicle inside one of the operator's drop zones. Take a drop photo.
8. Payout queues; clears in 24–48 hours via Stripe Connect.

What Operators Get

• Lower cost per swap — variable cost, per-task, no full-time-tech overhead
• Better SoC at peak — bounty engine generates higher payouts for vehicles projected to fall below 20% during the next peak-demand window
• A roster you control — suspend or ban Juicers from the dashboard; hold or claw back payouts; dispute drops
• Fraud controls baked in — see Juicer Fraud Detection

How Bounties Are Priced

Each bounty has a base payout, a surge multiplier, and (in Phase 4) bundle bonuses for Juicers who grab multiple vehicles in a tight radius.

The operator sets the base, the platform fee is configurable per subaccount, and the bounty engine recalculates every five minutes. See Predictive Bounty Pricing for the Phase 4 model.

Atomic Claim with Row Locking

Two Juicers can never grab the same vehicle. The claim API calls a database function (claim_bounty) that:

1. Opens a transaction
2. Takes a FOR UPDATE lock on both the bounty row and the Juicer row
3. Verifies the Juicer is active + KYC verified + under the per-Juicer concurrent-claim cap
4. Verifies the bounty is open, hasn't expired, has fresh telemetry, isn't in an active ride, isn't on a maintenance pack
5. Verifies the Juicer is within their claim_radius_m
6. Writes the claim, sets status = 'claimed', inserts a juicer_sessions row
7. Commits

Either the whole thing succeeds or none of it does. The second Juicer to arrive at the same row finds it claimed and gets a clean "already claimed" error.

Throttle Disabled During Claim

When a Juicer claims a bounty, the platform fires a best-effort IoT command that disables the vehicle's throttle. The vehicle still rolls (you can wheel it into a car), but it won't motor under its own power until the drop completes.

This makes vehicle theft via the gig system uneconomical — the bike is no fun to ride, the Juicer is KYC-verified, the pickup photo + GPS make identity attributable, and the drop polygon check makes "drop wherever I want" impossible.

Launch Gates

The platform side is fully built. Operations cannot launch a Juicer pilot until all of these are signed off:

• State allow-list — TX, FL, GA, NC, AZ first. California (AB5), Massachusetts, and NYC have gig-worker laws that materially constrain the model and require state-specific legal review.
• Insurance endorsement — Levy's master policy (Christensen Group) does not cover Juicer activity by default. A new endorsement runs $30–60k/year and is required before Phase 3 launch in a market.
• Operator addendum — the subaccount signs an addendum acknowledging the marketplace model and indemnifying Levy for state-specific misclassification claims.
• Hazmat acknowledgement — every Juicer signs a one-page safe-charging acknowledgement at onboarding (don't charge damaged packs, don't open packs, use the provided charger, ventilation, fire extinguisher recommendation).
• At least one swap station seeded in the pilot city — Juicers without a station fallback have to charge entirely at home, which works but adds friction for high-volume Juicers.

What's In and Out of Scope

In scope:

• KYC and onboarding via Stripe Identity
• Bounty discovery, claim, pickup, charging check-in, drop, payout
• Operator-side admin: roster, suspend / ban, payout ledger, disputes
• Fraud detection across six independent vectors
• Per-subaccount Stripe Connect routing (reuses existing payment infrastructure)

Not in scope (v1):

• Levy is not a delivery platform — we're not building Uber for packs.
• Juicers pick up the vehicle, not just the pack. The pack travels with the vehicle.
• No public swap stations (Gogoro-style) — operator-only access.
• No B2C — the Juicer agreement is with Levy and the subaccount, not consumer-facing.

Crons That Keep the Marketplace Running

Four wired crons keep the marketplace humming once it's enabled:

Where to Go Next

• Want to know how a Juicer signs up? See Juicer Onboarding.
• Want the claim and drop flow in detail? See Bounty Claim and Drop.
• Want to understand the fraud controls? See Juicer Fraud Detection.
• Want to know when Juicers get paid? See Juicer Payouts.