Users of Bristol and Bath’s e-scooter and e-bike hire scheme have been left fuming because new operator Dott hiked the price of riding by more than a third – days after the chief executive told riders in Bristol how cheap it is. The French mobility firm Dott raised the standard price per minute of riding an e-scooter or e-bike in the West of England from 16p a minute to 22p a minute – a rise of 37.5 per cent – and also scrapped most of the cheap passes, and raised the price of the others.
The price per minute rise means that someone hiring a scooter or e-bike as a one-off, and riding it for 15 minutes, will now pay a total of £4.30 for one trip, whereas last week they would have paid £3.40. Just last week, the chief executive of Dott, Henri Moissinac told Bristol Live people in the city should use the bikes and e-scooters more because they could ride for just £1, and the scheme was very affordable.
But now, the cheapest set price ride with a pass is £1.50, and the cost of that pass has jumped from £7.99 to £9.99 for 30 days. Dott had already been criticised for axing the long-term user scheme, which enabled people to hire and keep an e-scooter for a month at a time, and the company also scrapped a discount for key workers and NHS staff.
Last week, when Mr Moissinac met with leaders at the West of England Combined Authority and Bristol Live for the first time since Dott merged with previous hire firm Tier, the cost of riding an e-scooter or e-bike in the Bristol and Bath area was £1 to unlock it, and 16p a minute thereafter. That has gone up now to £1 and 22p a minute.
Many people used monthly passes, which offered cheaper rides for an initial outlay. Some of the deals offered by Dott included free unlocks – and the price of that has now risen to £5.99. Two other pass deals which offered rides for a choice of £1 or £2 have been scrapped, and replaced by the Dott Pro pass.
This claims to offer ‘unlimited rides’ for £1.50 each for 30 days, now for £9.99. But the ‘unlimited’ only applies to the number of times the pass can be used, not the length of a ride. Riders of the bikes and scooters will pay £1.50 each time they ride up to 20 minutes at a time, after which they will pay the standard 22p a minute from then on.
A spokesperson for Dott described the price rise a ‘pricing adjustment’. “We’re always exploring new pricing options to ensure the service is both affordable and sustainable,” he said.
“In this pricing adjustment, we want to promote the Dott Pro pass, which makes the service more affordable for regular users. With this pass, each ride will cost you less than a single bus ticket.
“This simple, fixed pricing makes it easy for users to know how much they will be charged before their trip, removing any unexpected surprises from pay-per-minute fees. And by charging per trip rather than per minute, riders are encouraged to travel safely, instead of rushing their journey to save costs. Our pricing offer is now: Dott Pro: £9.99/month for unlimited rides at a fixed price = £1.5/ride, Pay as you go: £1 to unlock + £0.22 per minute.”
Riders can also get a ‘two rides pass’ – the equivalent of a return ticket – which gives two rides of up to 20 minutes each over any 24 hour period for £3.99.
Last week, Mr Moissinac told Bristol Live how affordable he thought Dott’s previous offers were in Bristol and Bath.
He said last week, about the change from Voi and Tier to Dott: “I think the service is a lot more affordable. So today, you can ride with passes you can ride for £1 a ride. I just got an espresso and the espresso was £2.80, so I can almost do three rides on Dott for the cost of one espresso, not even sitting down.
“This type of affordability, that’s not something that existed in the past. It’s an easier to use experience, and affordable. The pillars for success in our view, is it needs to be bikes and scooters, it needs to be reliable, it needs to be affordable and it needs to be available. Today versus a month ago, or two years ago, the service is much better,” he added.
But the price rises have angered many users. Paul Tutton posted on X/ Twitter : “I absolutely knew they would do this, sneaky as hell, especially unannounced. One less Dott user here.”
Derek Duvall tweeted: “As if we struggle enough with poor public transport, now another financial barrier to using an active travel mode. Real own goal in my opinion.”