Incumbent Lime will remain on Auckland streets for another two years. They'll be joined by New Zealand-owned Flamingo. Photo / Chris Keall
Incumbent Lime will remain on Auckland streets for another two years. They'll be joined by New Zealand-owned Flamingo. Photo / Chris Keall
New Zealand-owned e-scooter provider Flamingo will be back on Auckland streets after winning one of two operating licences from the council.
Incumbent Lime will also be sticking around after getting the other licence.
Both operators will be licensed for a two-year period from November 4, 2024.
The council decidedon fewer operators, but the current e-scooter allocation of 3000 in Auckland will remain the same.
Lime and Flamingo will each be allowed 900 devices split across tiers one (city centre) and two (city fringe). In tier three (suburban), Lime will have 700 devices and Flamingo will have 500.
“Both Lime and Flamingo have a history of operating in Auckland and around New Zealand. Their applications represented the best offering for Aucklanders, with both committing to a range of initiatives to support public transport connections, improved parking and safer riding,” said Auckland Council manager of licensing and environmental health Mervyn Chetty.
“We look forward to continuing our relationship with Lime and welcoming back Flamingo, which currently operates in a number of New Zealand cities and has been licensed in Auckland previously.”
Auckland Council said it received seven licence applications.
Three other contenders earlier told the Herald they had tendered for the Auckland contract: Singapore companies Neuron (which earlier held an Auckland licence for its jumbo orange scooters) and Ario (which had a four-month short-term contract for its three-wheeled, self-parking models), and HelloRide, backed by Chinese giant Alibaba and Queenstown property developer and tourism operator Min Yang.
Beam would not confirm or deny if it had applied for a renewed licence. But the fact the council had referred its alleged fraud to police mitigated against the success of any tender.
Flamingo co-founders Jacksen Love and Nick Hyland.
The local heroes
The Wellington-based Flamingo, founded by 20-something entrepreneurs Jacksen Love (ex-BDO) and Nick Hyland (a web developer), was awarded a licence for 735 e-scooters in Auckland in the early delays of the city’s micromoblity revolution.
But Flamingo lost its spot for the 2020-22 licensing round as the council went with an all-multi-national line-up, and was unsuccessful in an attempted comeback bid for 2022-24.
Auckland Council didn’t have any criticism of Flamingo. Others were just rated more highly.
Flamingo has survived just fine since, with Love and Hyland remaining its single largest shareholders. Today, it has licensed operations with councils in five areas: Wellington, Porirua, Palmerston North, Dunedin and Waimakariri.
The firm has been “consistently profitable” and has not had to taken on outside investors, Love told the Herald last month.
E-bikes out
Auckland Council will no longer license rental e-bikes. Previous e-bike licences saw a low number of trips, with operators having removed all rental e-bike devices from the streets.
The council said operators have committed to work with it and Auckland Transport to develop a strategy to successfully bring rental e-bikes back to Tāmaki Makaurau.
