Transport Canberra and City Services will not renew Beam Mobility's (Beam) e-scooter permit following an investigation into concerns around the operator's compliance with permit conditions. This means all Beam's e-scooters in Canberra will need to be deactivated by midnight on Sunday 8 September 2024. All their e-scooters will need to be removed from public areas by 4pm Friday 13 September 2024.
"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.
