Auckland Council and Auckland Transport have met today to discuss the suspension of Lime’s e-scooter licence to operate.

Auckland Council Chief Operating Officer Dean Kimpton says the council and AT have reviewed information that Lime has provided against last week's written expectations of Lime.

"The information provided included incident records and two detailed letters from independent consultant Exponent relating to root cause of the sudden braking issue, the remedies proposed and implemented and their effectiveness.

"Having reviewed this information we have made the decision today to lift that suspension, once Lime agrees in writing to comply with licence conditions," he says.

Letter to Lime - 1 March 2019

The additional conditions are:

To immediately escalate (at the latest within 24 hours) to Auckland Council and Auckland Transport any further serious or significant safety incidences leading to injury involving Lime scooters.

Escalate within 48 hours significant issues or serious safety incidences in any markets (including international).

Auckland Council and Auckland Transport require on-going regular updates (at the least fortnightly) from Exponent on the progress of their investigations until Exponent’s work is concluded.

Each Lime scooter must be mechanically inspected by appropriately qualified personnel at least once every week and inspection reports to be available to Auckland Council and Auckland Transport on request. If a scooter is unable to be inspected each week, then it is to be locked and removed from service.

Auckland Council and Auckland Transport require Lime (by Wednesday 6 March 2019 at the latest) to improve its Ambassador programme and to more actively educate rider behaviour (through on site education or your digital app). The minimum ambassador presence required is ten people working 7 days per week at specified times.

"We note that NZTA and MBIE, as partners with their own jurisdiction in transport safety and product safety, have also received the same information from Lime that Auckland Council has," says Mr Kimpton.

"I have also spoken directly with Lime regarding our disappointment that these safety issues came to our attention through the media, that wasn’t good enough.

"As part of the code of practice and licence conditions, we expect operators to inform us of issues and incidents. We don’t know what we don’t know and we expect to be told when these issues do occur.

"Lastly, we reiterate to the public the need to comply with Lime’s terms and conditions of use; be aware of pedestrians when riding e-scooters at all times, take care when riding on the road," he says.