Wellington City Council is investigating allegations of "unethical behaviour" by Beam Mobility — two days after the company's licence was cancelled by Auckland Council for a serious compliance breach.
The Singapore-based operator was ordered to deactivate and remove its scooters from Auckland streets by 5pm on Friday after an investigation found Beam had been deploying them in numbers "well above" the limit and providing "misleading data" to conceal this from monitoring, an Auckland Council spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The licence permitted a maximum of 1400 scooters across the city, including 450 in the CBD and inner city and 500 in suburban areas. It was found Beam "consistently exceeded their device allowance by almost 40%".
"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," said Auckland Council licensing and environmental health manager Mervyn Chetty in a media release.
"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 a licence to operate 500 e-scooters and 150 e-bikes in Wellington.
The company pays a $615 licence fee and 11c per trip taken to the council, a Wellington City Council spokesperson said.
It confirmed an investigation was underway but would not comment further.
A Beam Mobility spokesperson said the company would not be commenting on individual council investigations.
"We are working to take steps to remedy the issues with the limited number of affected councils and want to reaffirm our commitment to working with local governments through this process."
Chief executive Alan Jiang confirmed on Monday Beam had been aware there were "instances where we have exceeded the vehicle allocation" as a result.
"For any breaches in the caps, we have apologised and intend to take steps to remedy. We have since committed to a full and thorough revision of our processes to ensure this does not happen again," he said.
"We will work closely with our council partners on an appropriate response."
Beam is now conducting an internal review and updating its operational requirements to ensure future compliance with vehicle allocation.
An independent auditor will also be appointed to carry out a full review of Beam's operations and an internal review to assess the scale of any non-compliance issues.
A preliminary report is expected to be delivered by the end of September.
Jiang said the company is also prepared to negotiate a settlement with any councils affected by the non-compliance.
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