A London e-bike company has accused its rivals of a dirty tricks campaign to force its bikes off the road.
The fight to dominate the London market was already fierce. On Monday it spilt into outright hostility as Bolt accused rivals of moving its bikes under cover of darkness to get them impounded.
Bolt said their bikes were continually being moved out of their designated parking bays, putting them at the mercy of council officers who can impound them. This puts the bikes out of action and incurs an £84.45 fine plus daily storage fees.
Bolt shared a dossier of evidence with The Times, claiming that it showed “repeated instances” of bikes being parked correctly only to be moved in the borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
In total they have 600 bikes in the borough, where their rivals Lime, Forest and Voi also operate.
The dossier includes alleged “before and after” images.
In one photograph taken by a Bolt user who was ending their rental journey, the bike can be seen within the designated bay. In a second photo, taken by the council officers who impounded the bike, it can be seen in a different, non-permitted spot:
The designated bay where the bike sat before has been filled with rival bikes.
In Walton Place, Knightsbridge, photos show a Bolt bike parked within the bay. In the second photo, a council officer had found it on the pavement where it was obstructing the way for pedestrians:
‘It’s not fair on residents who park properly’
John Buckley, a Bolt executive, said: “We’ve recorded repeated instances in Kensington & Chelsea where Bolt e-bikes that were parked correctly inside designated bays are later found outside them. In several cases, our bikes appear to have been moved shortly after a trip ended, and are then surrounded by large numbers of bikes from other operators.”
Buckley added: “We believe this is driven by significant overdeployment by other operators sharing the same parking infrastructure. When bays become filled beyond capacity, bikes are displaced and moved, creating enforcement issues for compliant operators.
“That’s not fair on residents who’ve parked properly, and it’s not fair on operators who are sticking to the rules. Parking caps only work if everyone respects them.”
Last year Kensington & Chelsea took in more than 1,000 rental e-bikes from the operators Lime, Bolt, Forest and Voi. All were judged to be “dangerously parked” and incurred more than £81,000 in charges to providers.
Buckley urged the council to provide “closer oversight” and for other operators to not “flood” shared bays in a way that disadvantages others.
Cutting corners
Another pair of images from the Bolt document
In many instances the bikes are thought to have been moved late at night after staff employed by rival operators came to clean up the bays or put out more bikes. Bolt says it tells its handlers never to move or touch the bikes of rival operators.
An industry source said this behaviour was quite common. “Each company has their own tech software telling them which bays they should be deploying to,” they said. “Part of the reason why they might move a Bolt or another provider is to deploy their own bike because they know that’s a very in-demand bay and their bike may be used multiple times.”
They added that staff tidying bays or unloading bikes are sometimes paid per job, incentivising them to complete tasks as quickly as possible. If a bay is full, moving rival bikes may be more tempting than finding another bay.
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Forest said its policy is that staff “must never” move bikes belonging to other operators. The company said it had also had instances where photographs submitted by customers did not match images taken by council enforcement officers.
“We have raised this discrepancy with the relevant boroughs on multiple occasions, as it is important that enforcement processes are accurate and evidence-based,” Alex Berwin, head of policy at Forest, said.
A Voi representative said: “Voi staff are clearly instructed not to move other operators’ vehicles. Our focus is on being a responsible operator that delivers a service which works for riders and non-riders alike.
“We have seen repeated examples of properly parked Voi vehicles being shifted into unsuitable locations over the past three years, which we have reported to Transport for London, boroughs and other operators directly.
“The key driver of this issue is that certain operators are putting more vehicles on the street than permitted.”
There are 246 rental e-bike parking bays in Kensington & Chelsea, which tend to hold upwards of ten each. The total fleet size in the borough is unclear but is well into the thousands.
Last week The Times revealed there were 1,440 Lime bikes available to rent in Kensington & Chelsea, more than twice the 600 allowed under the terms of their agreement.
Lime said it did “not instruct its on-street teams to overdeploy in parking bays, nor to move the bikes of other operators. Any instance of this occurring should be reported to Lime with the time and location so that we can investigate accordingly.
“Bays can become overcrowded and filled beyond capacity – but this is driven by riders and due to Lime’s popularity, especially in busy, high traffic areas. We have an on-street team of over 400 working across London whose job is to ensure our bikes are always available where they’re needed most, while keeping busy areas clear and accessible”.
Johnny Thalassites, lead member for environment and planning for Kensington & Chelsea council, said: “Our priority is ensuring our pavements are safe and accessible for everyone, and we make no apologies for our enforcement policy. If an e-bike is causing an obstruction or parked dangerously, we will remove it, regardless of which operator it belongs to or how it ended up there.
“While allegations of ‘turf wars’ and sabotage are matters for the operators to resolve among themselves, they highlight the chaotic nature of the current market where some operators are flooding our borough with more bikes than our agreed parking bays can accommodate.”
