Beam scooters will be removed from public areas in Canberra by 13 September. Photo: David Murtagh.
The ACT Government will remove all shared Beam Mobility e-scooters from Canberra after its investigation into concerns around the operator’s compliance with permit conditions.
All the Singapore company’s purple e-scooters in Canberra will need to be deactivated by midnight on Sunday, 8 September, and taken away from public areas by 4 pm, Friday, 13 September.
“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,” Ben McHugh, Deputy Director-General, Transport Canberra and City Services, said.
“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 … 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.”
Beam Mobility’s purple stand-up motorised scooters have also been banned in Brisbane, Townsville, Auckland and Wellington. They have been in operation in the ACT since 2020. Rival company Neuron Mobility’s orange e-scooters will continue to be available for use in Canberra.
Orange Neuron scooters will still be available for use. Photo: Supplied.
Last week, Beam CEO Alan Jiang said in a statement that his company were aware of instances where it had exceeded the vehicle allocation and apologised for doing so.
He said an independent auditor would be appointed to conduct a full review of Beam’s operations. A preliminary report, that will be made public, is expected by the end of September 2024.
Mr McHugh said limits on the number of scooters were designed to ensure competitive neutrality with Neuron and 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,” he said.
“Our investigation has included correspondence with Beam, field audit inspections and liaison with City Software Solutions, which is the company that runs Ride Report. We also liaised with other jurisdictions in Australia and New Zealand in forming our decision.”
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.
“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.”
Original Article published by Oliver Jacques on Riotact.
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