“Beam takes its obligations regarding fleet management seriously and is determined to work with its council partners on these issues.”
The council began investigating allegations of “phantom scooters” after a whistleblower came forward weeks ago.
Beam and Neuron were Brisbane’s primary providers of e-scooters before Neuron lost its contract to Lime this year.Credit: Courtney Kruk
Until Monday, the council had two separate e-scooter contracts with Lime and Beam. It was now looking for an operator to replace Beam.
“Beam devices will progressively be removed and Ccouncil will now seek to replace Beam with a new e-mobility operator as soon as practical,” the council said in a statement.
Lime would distribute additional devices to help fill any shortfall in Brisbane’s shared e-mobility network, council active transport committee chair Ryan Murphy said.
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“I want to reassure the public there are no operational or safety issues with the scheme,” Murphy said.
“While these matters are disappointing, we remain confident e-mobility has a strong place in the transport future of our city.”
More than 15 million shared e-mobility trips have been taken in Brisbane since November 2018.
Last week, Auckland City Council referred Beam Mobility to New Zealand police alleging the company was concealing “intentional anomalies” in the number of operating scooters.
Auckland City Council said its investigation would reveal Beam was running larger fleets than safety caps allowed.
Beam operates in 31 Australia cities and towns including capitals Perth and Darwin, and regional areas including Cairns, Esperance and Bendigo.
In April, Brisbane City Council negotiated a deal with San Francisco-based Lime to provide 1700 e-scooters and 400 e-bikes to replace Singaporean company Neuron’s orange-coloured fleet.