Please write your concerns to [email protected].
The user numbers are down on what they were under Voi and the council is trying to engage with users to understand what is not working.
Voi refused to hand over mapping of parking spots which is why they are reduced. TIER and the council are creating more parking spots, in discussion with local ward members. But they need to know where they are needed (and that it won’t cause issues for pedestrians).
If you have a suggested location for a parking spot, or an issue with how the service or scooters/bikes work, please write to [email protected] so the council is aware and can address it.
ETA contract with TIER is for 2 years with option for 2 further yrs extension. DfT are now accepting requests from Councils to extend Escooter trials to 2026.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-local-areas-and-rental-operators/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-local-areas-and-rental-operators
Thanks, I did this last year actually. For those interested here was my letter and their response.
***Good morning,
I am writing to express my disappointment at the recent change from VOI to Tier as supplier of e-scooters and bikes across Bath. I am so pleased to see the council recognise the role these vehicles have for journeys across the city. As a car owner based in Batheaston, over the past couple of years I have very frequently opted for scooters over driving into town, given the convenience and environmental considerations. It would be a greener, cleaner air city if everyone was using them instead of cars!
This is why I am writing to outline how disappointed I am that the new vendor, Tier, is in almost every possible way inferior to Voi.
I have now had around 5 rides with Tier and nearly all have had a significant issue:
1) Fewer parking spots - for a solution designed for short journeys across the city, we now have considerably fewer parking spots. The outcome of this is door to door journey times are much longer when factoring in extra walking time. Previously I found the Scooters generally had a shorter journey than driving, but now driving is often the better option time-wise.
2) Parking spots full - related to the above, the reduction in parking spots means that most the spots are 'full'. This is made even more frustrating as you can't view if your destination parking spot is full before unlocking the bike/scooter, so you might pay for a journey you can't actually complete. In the city this may result in an inconvenience of hunting around for 10 minutes for a nearby space (all while being charged!!) but going out to the suburbs you can (and do!) find yourself in a situation where you physically cannot end the ride, so have no option but to ride a long way back into town, all while being charged. You are effectively stranded and being forced to pay. It's a huge flaw and one which is putting me off using these at all. The end of ride process also takes considerably longer than voi.
3) Faulty and dangerous vehicles - of 5 rides so far, 3 had a fault making them difficult, impossible or dangerous to ride. On one of the scooters I hired, the acceleration switch stuck on every time you pressed it, which was very dangerous. Others you simply couldn't start or the brakes were limp.
Overall, I really hope the council considers other vendors for supply of this service. The use and uptake of these scooters and bikes will be determined by how convenient and safe they are deemed to be. It would be a shame if many people, like me, now chose to return to driving into the city because the new provider is neither of these things.
Kind regards, ***
*Dear,
Thank you for writing to us with your suggestions and feedback for the TIER e-bike and e-scooter scheme.
We are sorry you have experienced issues when utilising the TIER scooters, I can update you that your complaints have been logged and we are liaising with TIER to rectify these issues. We are working closing with TIER to provide more parking across the city in more convenient spaces for our residents – if you have any suggestions for specific areas please do tell us and we are log these and relay them.
Additionally, TIER are aware of faults with the scooters themselves and are working to remedy this situation as they hire additional staff within their operations team.
While there have been initial problems with the service, we believe as our working relationship develops with TIER these problems will decrease and the scooters will function more effectively and efficiently than with our previous service provider.
We appreciate the time spent to email the micromobility project team at Bath and North East Somerset Council. For future reference our usual response time is four working days, but if your query is an urgent one regarding badly parked or abandoned e-scooters or e-bikes please contact TIER direct using their chat bot at the following web address: https://intercom-help.eu/tier-mobility/en/articles/1531-how-to-report-an-abandoned-or-wrongly-parked-vehicle or by calling their customer service number on +44 808 304 4069.
If you would like to check the FAQ's please visit: https://www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/what-we-do/transport/future-transport-zone/public-e-scooters-trial/
Regards,
Alex McDougall
Micromobility Project Team
Active Travel, Sustainable Communities
Bath & North East Somerset Council*
Cannot understand how Voi would have agreed parking spots with the council, yet council failed to keep its own copy of this information. OR if Voi were given some degree of autonomy to select parking spots, how was it not written in contract that this and other relevant info to delivering the service would be supplied to the council.
Especially knowing that this contract would be somewhat regularly renewed, and useful information would be required to aid the incoming vendor in the event of a transition.
Why we are expected to tolerate this degree of faff surrounding short-haul transport solutions, when the whole thing could be solved by legislating to allow private scooters on the road and providing a few more lock-up posts around our cities, is beyond me.
It’s useful to remember that the initial contract with Voi was short term, in line with what DfT were then offering in terms of temporary legislation to permit these trials to occur.
DfT have made 4 adjustments to the trial terms since inception in 2020, which have had to be accommodated by extensions in contract with Voi, and then a new tender which TIER won last year. DfT have made yet another extension announcement since then (to May 2026), which the councils and WECA correctly predicted and provisioned for as the current contract allows for a period of up to 4 yrs.
The contract is written and held by WECA, and covers Bath, Bristol and South Gloucestershire. For a new mode of transport on our streets and with area expansions far outside what was first delivered, with conflicting public opinions on pretty much everything from parking locations to whether it should operate at all, this has and continues to be a massive learning curve for DfT, WECA and the 3 councils.
DfT have many times indicated they were going to make private escooters legal, but as yet, have not. The local operation is doing its best to keep everyone happy and provide a new mode of transport to support mobility until private escooters are legal.
If you want more parking locations, the way to get them is be specific about where, and write to the micromobility inbox.
All good and fair points! I am mostly just disappointed that we have a cheap, eco friendly, convenient, quiet way of getting around and they aren't moving heaven and earth to make them road legal, is all. Stick a number plate on them, insurance, whatever it takes. I just don't see how it can be this difficult. Though I appreciate your point that there is no mass consensus on whether they are a good thing or not, at the end of the day, many car-brains hate bicycles too so opposition to scooter adoption is hardly anything new.
No problem.
It helps when information out to the public is clear, and the WECA mayor has insinuated or straight up publicly stated that he has negotiated or committed to start/end Escooter contracts in a way which councils and WECA are very much not allowed to do.
I'm yet to hear anything good about them! I used Voi now and again but haven't bothered with Tier due to everything I keep hearing about them, particularly the parking situation. I hardly see anyone using them whereas the Vois used to be everywhere. I can't see them lasting
The worst about it for me is the slow/no-go areas. It’s so inconsistent and inaccurate. Sometimes it will just cut out on you when you are in the road because it thinks you are in the park, when actually you’re riding alongside it. Barely ever had the same issue with voi.
We've been pretty vocal about Tier being shit over in r/bristol
I've tried to use them twice, first time I couldn't unlock a scooter for love nor money. Second time it just kinda stopped in the middle of nowhere.
They're absolutely horrific. Voi had it's problems but Tier is basically unusable for me.
I used to use the 4-5 times a week. I tried Tier several times and they were so frustrating. Had a few that when you take your finger off accelerate it wont go again until you come to a full stop. Making it so dangerous in traffic. I gave up after this and now do not use them at all. The parking is also so annoying. I used to have spots near my work and home. I hardly ever see them to pick up nr home and cant stop nr work anyway. I complained to the council and tier.
It's like someone who doesn't know the city decided where to put all the spots.
There are half as many as there should be, and the ones they do have are often poorly located.
The faults are indeed often dangerous, I had two rides on scooters or bikes which genuinely should not have been on the road, flagged the issue to Tier and they were not taken off the map (I.e. people could still hire them!)
I think it's a mess either way. I get the practical side of it for sure, but I can't stand idiots riding them around- sorry. My dog got hit when he was alive and that wasn't a present bill either. Things are dangerous and stupid - take the bus.
I was an avid Voi user. I had one of their long term rentals which I used daily. It gave me a lot of freedom as I don’t have a car and was cheaper than a monthly bus ticket. Tier don’t have an equivalent service and when I realised how poor they are in comparison to Voi I bit the bullet and bought my own e-scooter. I haven’t been stopped by the police yet as I don’t ride it like a prat but I know it’s a risk. I’d rather take that chance than use a Tier though! It’s such a shame we ended up going backwards with Tier. They are useless.
I would consider it, but the biggest draw of a rental system is that you don't have to risk locking your scooter up, or have to lug it around with you once you reach your destination.
This is true, it’s not ideal and I’d go back to a rental system if I could. I’ve not found it to be as bad as I once feared though. I bought a very hefty lock for it. I’ve seen many people around the city locking up bikes 5-10x its value with a lot less. The scooter it’s self has an alarm, is password protected and trackable via Apples Find My system so I’m fairly confident when I leave it alone for extended periods of time. It’s the best solution I could come up with to a problem that shouldn’t exist.
Long term rental is available under TIER: https://www.tier.app/en/long-term-rental
If you have applied and are having trouble getting this service please write to the council Micromobility inbox as this is included in the contact. [email protected]
I hate all these ridiculous e-scooter rental schemes with a passion and I really wish they would disappear for good. Not a constructive post I know but felt the need to vent.
Haha. I understand that people using them irresponsibly is a huge issue (I'm a driver and pedestrian too!) and that they can be an eyesore when parked poorly, but I think they are a great addition to our transport network...when they work!!!
yeah agree Voi was significantly better. That said I personally prefer using the bikes over scooters so its been ok but still have a lot of those same issues but with the bikes.
I wished they'd make private ownership of scooters legal...
It's a con they'd allow nearly 2 years in 22 regions of thousands of rental electric, 1 in 15 use an electric scooter for transport in the west of England... Yeah this 'Trail'... I'm struggling to see what more information they need in this trial period.
I've also found issues with Tier:
1. Little redistribution of scooters from centre to outskirts - I live in Upper Weston and never usually had issues with Voi scooters being available as they'd been brought from the city centre and redistributed. That's doesn't seem to be the case.
2. Poor battery replacement - a lot of undercharged scooters
3. Rows of scooters on the street but none appearing on the app - either they're dead or being "reserved"
4. In consistent no-go areas.
5. They seem to be pushing the bikes more than scooters
6. Journey isn't paused while you're trying to end and take the picture, or worse, when you have to pan the camera around your surroundings. It's like a taxi driver keeping the meter running until youve got your wallet out.
On a positive, there's no motor braking going downhill so you can really pick up some speed as compared to the old Voi scooters.
Yes, every trip I had with Tier had some issue. I just stopped using them, even though scooters park right outside my door.
Always difficult to find a parking spot. Spots are not where you want them. bikes have different parking spots to scooters so Id have to park a bike 3 blocks away if I rode one home.
Was massively overcharged as couldn’t get a ride to end. (I did manage to get that charge reimbursed)
I live near the edge of the ride area so only useful if going in the direction of town.
Please write your concerns to [email protected]. The user numbers are down on what they were under Voi and the council is trying to engage with users to understand what is not working. Voi refused to hand over mapping of parking spots which is why they are reduced. TIER and the council are creating more parking spots, in discussion with local ward members. But they need to know where they are needed (and that it won’t cause issues for pedestrians). If you have a suggested location for a parking spot, or an issue with how the service or scooters/bikes work, please write to [email protected] so the council is aware and can address it. ETA contract with TIER is for 2 years with option for 2 further yrs extension. DfT are now accepting requests from Councils to extend Escooter trials to 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-local-areas-and-rental-operators/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-local-areas-and-rental-operators
Thank you!!
>Thank you!! You're welcome!
Thanks, I did this last year actually. For those interested here was my letter and their response. ***Good morning, I am writing to express my disappointment at the recent change from VOI to Tier as supplier of e-scooters and bikes across Bath. I am so pleased to see the council recognise the role these vehicles have for journeys across the city. As a car owner based in Batheaston, over the past couple of years I have very frequently opted for scooters over driving into town, given the convenience and environmental considerations. It would be a greener, cleaner air city if everyone was using them instead of cars! This is why I am writing to outline how disappointed I am that the new vendor, Tier, is in almost every possible way inferior to Voi. I have now had around 5 rides with Tier and nearly all have had a significant issue: 1) Fewer parking spots - for a solution designed for short journeys across the city, we now have considerably fewer parking spots. The outcome of this is door to door journey times are much longer when factoring in extra walking time. Previously I found the Scooters generally had a shorter journey than driving, but now driving is often the better option time-wise. 2) Parking spots full - related to the above, the reduction in parking spots means that most the spots are 'full'. This is made even more frustrating as you can't view if your destination parking spot is full before unlocking the bike/scooter, so you might pay for a journey you can't actually complete. In the city this may result in an inconvenience of hunting around for 10 minutes for a nearby space (all while being charged!!) but going out to the suburbs you can (and do!) find yourself in a situation where you physically cannot end the ride, so have no option but to ride a long way back into town, all while being charged. You are effectively stranded and being forced to pay. It's a huge flaw and one which is putting me off using these at all. The end of ride process also takes considerably longer than voi. 3) Faulty and dangerous vehicles - of 5 rides so far, 3 had a fault making them difficult, impossible or dangerous to ride. On one of the scooters I hired, the acceleration switch stuck on every time you pressed it, which was very dangerous. Others you simply couldn't start or the brakes were limp. Overall, I really hope the council considers other vendors for supply of this service. The use and uptake of these scooters and bikes will be determined by how convenient and safe they are deemed to be. It would be a shame if many people, like me, now chose to return to driving into the city because the new provider is neither of these things. Kind regards, *** *Dear, Thank you for writing to us with your suggestions and feedback for the TIER e-bike and e-scooter scheme. We are sorry you have experienced issues when utilising the TIER scooters, I can update you that your complaints have been logged and we are liaising with TIER to rectify these issues. We are working closing with TIER to provide more parking across the city in more convenient spaces for our residents – if you have any suggestions for specific areas please do tell us and we are log these and relay them. Additionally, TIER are aware of faults with the scooters themselves and are working to remedy this situation as they hire additional staff within their operations team. While there have been initial problems with the service, we believe as our working relationship develops with TIER these problems will decrease and the scooters will function more effectively and efficiently than with our previous service provider. We appreciate the time spent to email the micromobility project team at Bath and North East Somerset Council. For future reference our usual response time is four working days, but if your query is an urgent one regarding badly parked or abandoned e-scooters or e-bikes please contact TIER direct using their chat bot at the following web address: https://intercom-help.eu/tier-mobility/en/articles/1531-how-to-report-an-abandoned-or-wrongly-parked-vehicle or by calling their customer service number on +44 808 304 4069. If you would like to check the FAQ's please visit: https://www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/what-we-do/transport/future-transport-zone/public-e-scooters-trial/ Regards, Alex McDougall Micromobility Project Team Active Travel, Sustainable Communities Bath & North East Somerset Council*
Cannot understand how Voi would have agreed parking spots with the council, yet council failed to keep its own copy of this information. OR if Voi were given some degree of autonomy to select parking spots, how was it not written in contract that this and other relevant info to delivering the service would be supplied to the council. Especially knowing that this contract would be somewhat regularly renewed, and useful information would be required to aid the incoming vendor in the event of a transition. Why we are expected to tolerate this degree of faff surrounding short-haul transport solutions, when the whole thing could be solved by legislating to allow private scooters on the road and providing a few more lock-up posts around our cities, is beyond me.
It’s useful to remember that the initial contract with Voi was short term, in line with what DfT were then offering in terms of temporary legislation to permit these trials to occur. DfT have made 4 adjustments to the trial terms since inception in 2020, which have had to be accommodated by extensions in contract with Voi, and then a new tender which TIER won last year. DfT have made yet another extension announcement since then (to May 2026), which the councils and WECA correctly predicted and provisioned for as the current contract allows for a period of up to 4 yrs. The contract is written and held by WECA, and covers Bath, Bristol and South Gloucestershire. For a new mode of transport on our streets and with area expansions far outside what was first delivered, with conflicting public opinions on pretty much everything from parking locations to whether it should operate at all, this has and continues to be a massive learning curve for DfT, WECA and the 3 councils. DfT have many times indicated they were going to make private escooters legal, but as yet, have not. The local operation is doing its best to keep everyone happy and provide a new mode of transport to support mobility until private escooters are legal. If you want more parking locations, the way to get them is be specific about where, and write to the micromobility inbox.
All good and fair points! I am mostly just disappointed that we have a cheap, eco friendly, convenient, quiet way of getting around and they aren't moving heaven and earth to make them road legal, is all. Stick a number plate on them, insurance, whatever it takes. I just don't see how it can be this difficult. Though I appreciate your point that there is no mass consensus on whether they are a good thing or not, at the end of the day, many car-brains hate bicycles too so opposition to scooter adoption is hardly anything new.
No problem. It helps when information out to the public is clear, and the WECA mayor has insinuated or straight up publicly stated that he has negotiated or committed to start/end Escooter contracts in a way which councils and WECA are very much not allowed to do.
The service is so bad all the customers are in Tiers. They changed the provider and I just don’t know Voi.
As a fan of a bad pun, I applaud you. These were top Tier.
I'm yet to hear anything good about them! I used Voi now and again but haven't bothered with Tier due to everything I keep hearing about them, particularly the parking situation. I hardly see anyone using them whereas the Vois used to be everywhere. I can't see them lasting
I agree about idiots, but can't see how it is different to people riding a bike.
The worst about it for me is the slow/no-go areas. It’s so inconsistent and inaccurate. Sometimes it will just cut out on you when you are in the road because it thinks you are in the park, when actually you’re riding alongside it. Barely ever had the same issue with voi.
We've been pretty vocal about Tier being shit over in r/bristol I've tried to use them twice, first time I couldn't unlock a scooter for love nor money. Second time it just kinda stopped in the middle of nowhere. They're absolutely horrific. Voi had it's problems but Tier is basically unusable for me.
I used to use the 4-5 times a week. I tried Tier several times and they were so frustrating. Had a few that when you take your finger off accelerate it wont go again until you come to a full stop. Making it so dangerous in traffic. I gave up after this and now do not use them at all. The parking is also so annoying. I used to have spots near my work and home. I hardly ever see them to pick up nr home and cant stop nr work anyway. I complained to the council and tier.
It's like someone who doesn't know the city decided where to put all the spots. There are half as many as there should be, and the ones they do have are often poorly located. The faults are indeed often dangerous, I had two rides on scooters or bikes which genuinely should not have been on the road, flagged the issue to Tier and they were not taken off the map (I.e. people could still hire them!)
I used to use Voi a lot. It was ok but tier is terrible. I've only used them a few times and everytime they are just garbage
I think it's a mess either way. I get the practical side of it for sure, but I can't stand idiots riding them around- sorry. My dog got hit when he was alive and that wasn't a present bill either. Things are dangerous and stupid - take the bus.
Buses don't take you point to point.
I was an avid Voi user. I had one of their long term rentals which I used daily. It gave me a lot of freedom as I don’t have a car and was cheaper than a monthly bus ticket. Tier don’t have an equivalent service and when I realised how poor they are in comparison to Voi I bit the bullet and bought my own e-scooter. I haven’t been stopped by the police yet as I don’t ride it like a prat but I know it’s a risk. I’d rather take that chance than use a Tier though! It’s such a shame we ended up going backwards with Tier. They are useless.
I would consider it, but the biggest draw of a rental system is that you don't have to risk locking your scooter up, or have to lug it around with you once you reach your destination.
This is true, it’s not ideal and I’d go back to a rental system if I could. I’ve not found it to be as bad as I once feared though. I bought a very hefty lock for it. I’ve seen many people around the city locking up bikes 5-10x its value with a lot less. The scooter it’s self has an alarm, is password protected and trackable via Apples Find My system so I’m fairly confident when I leave it alone for extended periods of time. It’s the best solution I could come up with to a problem that shouldn’t exist.
Long term rental is available under TIER: https://www.tier.app/en/long-term-rental If you have applied and are having trouble getting this service please write to the council Micromobility inbox as this is included in the contact. [email protected]
I hate all these ridiculous e-scooter rental schemes with a passion and I really wish they would disappear for good. Not a constructive post I know but felt the need to vent.
Haha. I understand that people using them irresponsibly is a huge issue (I'm a driver and pedestrian too!) and that they can be an eyesore when parked poorly, but I think they are a great addition to our transport network...when they work!!!
yeah agree Voi was significantly better. That said I personally prefer using the bikes over scooters so its been ok but still have a lot of those same issues but with the bikes.
I wished they'd make private ownership of scooters legal... It's a con they'd allow nearly 2 years in 22 regions of thousands of rental electric, 1 in 15 use an electric scooter for transport in the west of England... Yeah this 'Trail'... I'm struggling to see what more information they need in this trial period.
I've also found issues with Tier: 1. Little redistribution of scooters from centre to outskirts - I live in Upper Weston and never usually had issues with Voi scooters being available as they'd been brought from the city centre and redistributed. That's doesn't seem to be the case. 2. Poor battery replacement - a lot of undercharged scooters 3. Rows of scooters on the street but none appearing on the app - either they're dead or being "reserved" 4. In consistent no-go areas. 5. They seem to be pushing the bikes more than scooters 6. Journey isn't paused while you're trying to end and take the picture, or worse, when you have to pan the camera around your surroundings. It's like a taxi driver keeping the meter running until youve got your wallet out. On a positive, there's no motor braking going downhill so you can really pick up some speed as compared to the old Voi scooters.
How many other railway stations in the country don't have a car park? This should have been factored in when the station in OFP was built
Yes, every trip I had with Tier had some issue. I just stopped using them, even though scooters park right outside my door. Always difficult to find a parking spot. Spots are not where you want them. bikes have different parking spots to scooters so Id have to park a bike 3 blocks away if I rode one home. Was massively overcharged as couldn’t get a ride to end. (I did manage to get that charge reimbursed) I live near the edge of the ride area so only useful if going in the direction of town.