Auckland Council has cancelled micromobility operator Beam’s e-scooter licence in Auckland, following an investigation into concerns raised around the operator’s compliance with licence conditions.
Information provided to the council has indicated that Beam has been deploying e-scooters in numbers well above the permitted limit in its licence and providing misleading data to conceal this from monitoring reports.
Auckland Council’s Manager of Licensing and Environmental Health, Mervyn Chetty, says this represents 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.
“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.
“Beam has not provided a satisfactory response to our concerns, as such we have made the decision to cancel their licence, effective immediately. We have asked that all vehicles be deactivated by 11.59pm tonight, Tuesday 27 August, and all devices removed from Auckland’s streets by 5pm Friday 30 August.”
Beam’s licence permits them to deploy up to 1400 e-scooters across Auckland, including 450 in both Tier 1 (CBD) and Tier 2 (inner city), and 500 in Tier 3 (suburban). To ensure compliance with these limits, the council monitors e-scooter deployment numbers through mobility management platform Ride Report.
The council was provided with evidence of anomalies between the reported and actual number of Beam e-scooters operating in Auckland and other cities across Australasia by a concerned private individual on 2 August. The evidence suggests that these anomalies were intentional, with Beam providing misleading data to Ride Report to appear compliant with cap limits.
The council has since undertaken its own investigation including requesting further analysis by Ride Report, with resulting data received on 18 August consistent with the allegations and the council’s own findings.
Ride Report’s analysis indicates that between 26 July 2023 and 15 August 2024, Beam consistently exceeded their device allowance by almost 40 per cent of its Tier 1 and Tier 2 allocations.
“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,” says Mr Chetty.
Following the removal of Beam’s devices, Aucklanders can expect to see an initial drop in the number of rental e-scooters available on the streets. The council is currently exploring options to mitigate the shortfall.
All current micromobility licences are due to expire on 3 November 2024, and the council is currently considering applications for the next round of licences which can start operating from 4 November 2024.
The council will now be referring this matter to the Police for further investigation.
FAQs
What is Ride Report and how does it collect data?
Ride Report is used by public organisations across Australasia as a way to monitor the rental e-scooter market. Vehicle and Trip data is collected on each individual device and is sent to the operator. Data is then provided by the operator to Ride Report approximately every 5 minutes. This near- ‘real-time’ data is then displayed on a dashboard for Auckland Council.
How was Beam able to conceal extra scooters from Ride Report’s data?
It appears that data provided to Ride Report from Beam regularly showed a high number of vehicles operating in an “unknown” state, which is intended to indicate connectivity loss, GPS issues, missing vehicles, or other operational variances. Vehicles operating in this state are not reflected in Ride Report’s real-time map and are not counted towards vehicle counts and caps.
Due to the changes of the data by Beam before it was sent to Ride Report, the dashboard showed compliance with the permitted numbers.
How did the council not notice the extra scooters on the street?
While the council carries out its own on-street monitoring, e-scooters are constantly being relocated and the council cannot physically see the total number operating in one area in any one time. In addition, the council has had no reason not to trust the data provided by Beam, or to expect non-compliance by an operator with licence conditions.
Exactly how many devices were Beam operating in Auckland in total?
Further investigation would be required to determine an exact figure, however preliminary analysis from Ride Report suggests that at its peak there were potentially as many as 530 additional vehicles at any one time showing in the unknown state.
Are there concerns that other providers are operating in the same way?
No, analysis by Ride Report has not found similar activity from other providers.
