Auckland Council has cancelled Beam Mobility’s licence to operate rental e-scooters after the company allegedly exceeded its permitted fleet size by 40% in some areas.
The Singapore-based operator has been ordered to deactivate its distinctive purple scooters by midnight and to have all its devices removed from streets by 5pm Friday.
It follows allegations made against the company in overseas media reports.
An investigation in Auckland found that Beam had been deploying e-scooters “in numbers well above the permitted limit in its licence and providing misleading data to conceal this from monitoring reports”, a council spokesperson said today.
They added that the council would refer the matter to police for “further investigation”.
Beam’s licence permits only allow the company to deploy a maximum of 1400 scooters across Auckland, including 450 in the CBD and inner city, and 500 in suburban areas.
Auckland Council licensing and environmental health manager Mervyn Chetty said the findings “represent a serious breach of Beam’s licence conditions”.
“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,” he said in a media release.
“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.”
Chetty said Beam failed to provide a “satisfactory response” to the council’s concerns.
“As such we have made the decision to cancel their licence, effective immediately.”
Council says it was given misleading data
The council was provided with “evidence of anomalies” by a “concerned private individual” on August 2, suggesting a difference between the reported number of Beam e-scooters and its actual number operating in Auckland.
“The evidence suggests that these anomalies were intentional, with Beam providing misleading data to Ride Report to appear compliant with cap limits,” the council said.
“Analysis indicates that between July 26, 2023, and August 15, 2024, Beam consistently exceeded their device allowance by almost 40% of its tier one and tier two allocations.”
Chetty said: “We have not taken the decision to cancel Beam’s licence lightly, however, once we had reason to believe there were clear breaches of the licence conditions, we were able to quickly verify the scale and seriousness of the changes to the data.”
Beam issues apology
A Beam spokesperson today told 1News the decision to revoke the licence was a “disappointing outcome for both Beam, our team and our local customers”.
“We have apologised to Auckland Council for any breaches in the cap that resulted from Beam Mobility’s program to optimise the number of operational ‘usable or accessible vehicles’ available to the public,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are working to take steps to remedy the issues with the limited number of affected councils and want to reaffirm our commitment to working with local governments through this process.”
Chief executive Alan Jiang yesterday confirmed Beam had been aware there were “instances where we have exceeded the vehicle allocation” as a result.
“For any breaches in the caps, we have apologised and intend to take steps to remedy. We have since committed to a full and thorough revision of our processes to ensure this does not happen again,” he said.
“We will work closely with our council partners on an appropriate response.”
Beam is now conducting an internal review and updating its operational requirements to ensure future compliance with vehicle allocation.
An independent auditor will also be appointed to carry out a full review of Beam’s operations and an internal review to assess the scale of any non-compliance issues.
A preliminary report is expected to be delivered by the end of September.
Jiang said the company is also prepared to negotiate a settlement with any councils affected by the non-compliance.
Chetty said Aucklanders can expect to see a drop in the number of e-scooters available on the streets while the council explores other options to mitigate the shortfall.
All current micromobility licences are due to expire on November 3, and the council is currently considering applications for the next round of licences which can start operating from November 4.
