Wellington bans e-scooter operator over contract breach

Wellington City Council has cancelled micromobility operator Beam’s e-scooter licence following an investigation into allegations it had breached contractual conditions.

The New Zealand capital suspended Beam’s licence to operate on 30 August and removed e-scooters from the city’s streets on 1 September following allegations from a whistleblower that its fleet cap had been exceeded.

Wellington City Council’s Chief Planning Officer, Liam Hodgetts, said that after suspending the licence, staff had time to consider the information provided by Beam, reporting platform Ride Report, and the whistleblower, and have concluded that a “material breach of the licence has occurred”.

“It is now clear to us that there have been breaches of Beam’s licence to trade in public and the operator code of practice.

“Of particular concern is the admitted breach of the e-scooter cap, and failure to communicate openly with the council regarding these breaches. We have also found Beam’s responses to be inadequate and as a result there has been a loss of trust and confidence.”

The council received an audit report from Ride Report which confirmed that between 26 July 2023 and 21 June 2024 Beam’s e-scooter cap had been exceeded by an average daily maximum of 100 e-scooters (with the highest during this time being 185 e-scooters).

The report was consistent with the council’s own findings.

E-scooter cap

“This is not a decision that we have taken lightly,” Hodgetts added.

“However, Wellington City elected members set a cap on the number of e-scooters that could be deployed at any time specifically to ensure a balance between having enough devices to meet demand while reducing the risk to pedestrians of footpath clutter.

“This has clearly been breached and as such we deem termination of the licence to be the most appropriate course of action.”

The company’s licence to operate was officially revoked at midnight on 13 September.

A spokesperson from Beam told Cities Today the company has appointed a law firm to conduct an external investigation and could not comment while this was underway.

Last month Auckland City Council cancelled Beam’s contract to operate after finding it had exceeded its allocated number of e-scooters by almost 40 percent.

“Limits on e-scooter numbers are in place for the safety of other road and footpath users and to minimise nuisance in and around our city,” said Mervyn Chetty, Auckland City Council’s Manager of Licensing and Environmental Health.

“It appears that Beam found a way to sidestep these requirements, which is very disappointing and has resulted in a loss of trust and confidence in the operator.”

Over the past two weeks, the Australian cities of Brisbane and Canberra have also pulled the Singapore firm’s e-scooters from their streets, citing similar issues.

Image: Andy Spain