The ACT Government will not renew Beam Mobility’s e-scooter permit after an investigation raised concerns about the operator’s compliance with the permit conditions.
It means that all of Beam’s e-scooters in Canberra will need to be deactivated by midnight on Sunday 8 September 2024. All of their e-scooters will need to be removed from public areas by 4pm Friday 13 September.
The decision to revoke the company’s permit comes after Beam admitted to installing more scooters in certain areas than it was licensed for, resulting in the company paying lower fees than required.
“Last month, staff at Transport Canberra and City Services received information alleging Beam was acting outside of their permit conditions to operate by manipulating data,” said Ben McHugh, Deputy Director-General, Transport Canberra and City Services.
“Beam was authorised to operate 950 e-scooters across Canberra, including specific numbers (caps) for different regions within our city. These caps are in place to promote safety for other path users as well as reduce the potential for scooters to be seen as a nuisance. The caps were also designed to ensure competitive neutrality with our other e-scooter provider and ensure accessibility to this technology was spread across Canberra.
“To ensure compliance with the caps, we monitor e-scooter deployment numbers through a platform called Ride Report which is used across Australia and in other countries including New Zealand.
“Our investigation has included correspondence with Beam, field audit inspections and liaison with City Software Solutions who is the company that runs Ride Report. We also liaised with other jurisdictions in Australia and New Zealand in forming our decision.
“We believe Beam has failed to meet the expectations of the Canberra community under their permit to operate and therefore we will not be renewing their permit to operate.”
Mr McHugh said the ACT Government is still committed to supporting e-scooters as a means of encouraging more active forms of travel and as part of a ‘last mile’ solution. Shared e-scooters are still available across our city.
“While this matter is very disappointing, there is clearly a market for e-scooters as part of Canberra’s transport mix. We want to continue to support more sustainable modes of transport which reduce car use. We will be undertaking an expression of interest to secure providers for the longer term. More information will be provided once the approach to market process has been finalised.”
It comes just days after Brisbane City Council cancelled its contract with Beam after a tip from a whistleblower suggested it had “significantly” under-reported the size of its fleet. Reports indicate Beam exceeded safety caps by nearly a third over the 12 months to July, with an average of 500 undeclared scooters in operation daily.
The Auckland council also cancelled their contract with Beam earlier this month.
