Brisbane has become the first Australian city to kick out an e-scooter operator, after the council cancelled the licence for Beam to operate over allegations it regularly breached its caps.
The Brisbane city council said it would now seek a replacement e-scooter operator for the city, after an investigation found Beam had “systematically exceeded” its cap on numbers by about 500 a day. The company has denied “assertions” made by council.
The council’s transport chair, councillor Ryan Murphy, confirmed on Monday that the city had “terminated its contract with Beam”.
“Beam devices will progressively be removed and council will now seek to replace Beam with a new e-mobility operator as soon as practical,” Murphy said in a statement.
“I want to reassure the public there are no operational or safety issues with the scheme and while these matters are disappointing we remain confident e-mobility has a strong place in the transport future of our city.”
The cancellation came amid debate across the country regarding rental e-scooters.
Last week the Sunshine Coast council voted unanimously to remove approximately 400 e-scooters in its region after an 18-month trial, citing modest uptake and community concerns about safety and amenity. That scheme was run by the shareable e-scooter company Neuron.
Earlier in the month, Melbourne city councillors voted six to four to end the city’s contracts with Lime and Neuron, with the mayor arguing they presented an unacceptable safety risk.
That prompted three mayors in neighbouring councils in the city’s north to pledge to work together to create a shared e-scooter zone, backing the shareable transport option as a cheap alternative transport mode that would help reduce road congestion and cut air and climate pollution.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, also weighed into the scooter wars, not ruling out intervening to force Melbourne city council to reverse its e-scooter ban, saying instead though that she hoped the council will “come to their own commonsense decision”.
The Brisbane council’s decision came after reports in The Australian newspaper that Beam was under investigation for exceeding its contracted caps on the number of licensed e-vehicles allowed in cities across Australia and New Zealand, and after Auckland and Wellington city councils both suspended their contracts with the Singapore-based company.
Brisbane city council said it would refer Beam to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) after finding the company failed to report all hireable devices on 222,975 occasions between 21 July 2023 and 22 July 2024, costing council an estimated $330,000 in lost revenue.
Murphy said Beam’s Brisbane competitor, Lime, would “distribute additional devices to help fill any shortfall in Brisbane’s shared e-mobility network”.
A Beam Mobility spokesperson said the company was “disappointed” by the decision to cancel its licence.
“The decision is surprising given our positive interactions with the council on this matter to date,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“We disagree with the reported assertions and claims made by BCC on this matter and believe council’s findings are highly premature.
“We will now be reviewing our options.”
Beam has appointed external advisers to manage an independent audit process, the spokesperson said, “to examine the issues that have been raised regarding Beam’s fleet management system”.
