Brisbane City Council awards contract to new e-scooter company
E-scooters are here to stay after Brisbane City Council selected two companies to operate a total of 1000 scooters on Brisbane's streets.
Deputy mayor Krista Adams will announce on Tuesday afternoon that Lime, the first company to bring e-scooters to Brisbane, has won one of the contracts and will operate 400 scooters.
The second company is Neuron Mobility, a scooter company founded in south-east Asia and operating in Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, which will have a fleet of 600 scooters.
The council went to a tender process earlier this year after conducting a months-long trial with Lime scooters.
Although the trial was marred by multiple reports of serious injuries after a firmware glitch saw the front wheels of scooters locking up and sending riders flying over the handlebars, the company said they had fixed the problem and the trial continued.
The two successful companies must pay a flat $5000 fee and $570 per scooter they operate in Brisbane to the council.
About nine companies submitted tenders for the council contract.
Earlier this year after a similar trial in Adelaide, Lime was kicked out of the city after the council awarded the contract to Beam and Ride.
Beam in particular had lobbied Brisbane City Council strongly to be allowed to operate scooters during the Lime trial but was not successful.
More to come