Beam’s Wellington licence suspended

The Wellington City Council says it has suspended micromobility company Beam’s licence to operate in the capital city following allegations Beam has run a larger fleet of e-scooters on city streets than permitted.

Information provided to Wellington City Council, and other city councils across Australia and New Zealand, allege Beam had deployed e-scooters in numbers well above the permitted limits and provided misleading data to conceal this from monitoring reports. 

The Auckland Council cancelled its licence with Beam on August 27.

Wellington City Council staff are continuing to work through information from Beam, reporting platform Ride Report, and the whistleblower, says Wellington City Council chief planning officer Liam Hodgetts.

On Wednesday August 28, the council says it received an audit report from Ride Report which confirmed that between July 26, 2023, and June 21, 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), which is a breach of their licence, the council alleges.

Hodgetts says the information about the e-scooters is concerning and the Wellington City Council has taken the decision to temporarily suspend Beam’s licence to trade in public, effectively stopping Beam from operating in Wellington City until the council’s investigation is completed and a final decision made.

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

“As such we cannot continue to have Beam operate while we continue our analysis of what has happened.

“Unlike Auckland we have some Wellington City-specific claims that need to be considered which will take a bit longer to work through,” says  Hodgetts.

“We are aiming to resolve our investigations as quickly as possible to provide certainty for all concerned.”

Beam’s licence was suspended from midnight Friday August 30, 2024, and the council says Beam’s scooters and e-bikes had to be removed from the city by 5pm on Sunday September 1, 2024.

The Wellington City Council says it won’t be commenting further until the investigation is completed.