E-scooter hire in the UK: where you can rent one, who runs it and what it costs

E-scooter hire in the UK: the 21 trial areas and who runs them

You can hire an e-scooter only inside one of the 21 trial areas below; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have none. Within an area, the app shows the operator’s own zone, and the scooter slows down or stops outside it.

“Not listed” means the operator’s or council’s page for that area mentions only e-scooters. The government also lists Coventry for the West Midlands, but Transport for West Midlands says e-scooters are for now only in Birmingham and at the University of Warwick.

Newcastle came off the list in July 2026, and Colchester left the Essex trial in November 2025. Older articles still name Tier, Bird, Ginger or Neuron; none runs a UK trial area now, and Tier has merged into Dott.

E-scooter hire near me: which towns are on the live map?

ScootRadar shows live Beryl, Bolt and Dott e-scooters in 10 of the 21 areas: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Brighton, Cornwall, Leeds, Liverpool, Milton Keynes (Dott only), Norwich, Nottingham, Plymouth, and Bristol, Bath and Yate. It doesn’t show Voi or Lime, so London isn’t on the map, nor are Birmingham, Cambridge, Oxford or Salford; use the operator’s app there.

On 12 October 2026 the map showed about 2,200 vehicles around Bristol, 1,800 around Liverpool and 780 around Nottingham. Tap one to open the operator’s app, where you unlock and pay; positions can be a few minutes old.

What do you need to rent an e-scooter?

You sign up once, in the operator’s app, and you need:

• A driving licence with category Q, full or provisional. Every UK moped (AM), motorcycle (A) or car (B) licence includes it, and a provisional one needs no L plates.
• To be 18 or over. The law allows 16, but every operator we checked rents e-scooters only from 18.
• Your licence, scanned in the app before the first ride. Some schemes add a face check: in Cornwall, Beryl uses facial recognition and won’t accept paper licences.
• A short lesson. Operators must train new riders, usually with a lesson or quiz in the app.

Visitors can hire too: the law accepts a full EU or EEA licence, or another country’s full car, moped or motorcycle licence if you entered the UK in the last 12 months, but never a foreign provisional licence or learner permit. Each app decides which licences it takes, so sign up before you travel and bring the card itself.

For signing up, unlocking and ending a ride step by step, see how to rent an e-scooter.

E-scooter hire in London: boroughs, rules and Phase 3

Rental e-scooters are the only legal way to ride an e-scooter in public in London, and only in 11 boroughs: Camden, the City of London, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Tower Hamlets (with limited parking at Canary Wharf and some TfL stations), Wandsworth and Westminster. Lime and Voi run the trial for Transport for London (TfL) and London Councils.

• 12.5 mph top speed.
• Bays only: start and end every ride in a marked bay; TfL counted more than 1,600 by September 2025.
• Lesson and lights: an in-app lesson before your first ride, and lights on for the whole ride.
• Cycle tracks: you may use TfL’s cycle tracks in the boroughs taking part.
• Price: Voi charges no unlock fee and 27p a minute, around the clock; Lime shows its London price only in its app. Both have discount schemes.

TfL’s own page still describes the trial’s second phase, but trade press reported in late September 2026 that a third had begun with Lime and Voi, for an initial two years “subject to Department for Transport (DfT) timescales”, and with new technology to spot riding two up or on the pavement.

The second phase logged 6.4 million trips from September 2023 to September 2026, and by September 2025, 379 riders had been banned for poor riding or anti-social behaviour. Use the Lime or Voi app, or TfL’s Santander Cycles if you’d rather pedal.

How much does e-scooter hire cost?

These are the pay-as-you-go rates operators published on 12 October 2026, on their pages or in their data feeds, cheapest first. The app shows the final price.

If you ride often, bundles and passes cost less: Beryl’s day pass in Leeds is £8 for 100 minutes, Lime’s West Midlands bundles start at £2.99 for 30 minutes, and Voi’s minute bundles and 30-day Voi Pass work across the UK, priced in the app. In Liverpool, Bolt’s monthly pass is half price for residents on Universal Credit and some other benefits, and 20% off for students and NHS staff.

E-scooter parking bays, and what parking outside them costs

In most areas a ride can end only in a bay or parking spot shown in the app. Bolt in Liverpool and Voi in Northampton, Kettering and Corby are the exceptions: there you leave the scooter on the street.

Ending a ride outside the zone is the costly mistake: Beryl charges up to £25, plus £80 if the scooter isn’t back within 24 hours. Check the zone and the bays in the app before you set off.

Where can I ride a hire e-scooter?

On roads, except motorways, and in cycle lanes, inside the trial area. A helmet is recommended but not required by law. Police fines and the full rules are in our guide to e-scooter law in the UK; these catch riders out most:

• Pavements: never, not even for a few metres: a £50 fixed penalty.
• Passengers: one rider only; in the West of England, Dott bans riders caught riding two up.
• Phone and drink: using a phone in your hand costs £200 and 6 points, and the drink-drive limit for cars applies. In Liverpool, Bolt’s app can ask for a reaction test first.
• Speed: 15.5 mph at most; 12.5 mph in London, Brighton and Cornwall, and 7.5 mph in each Cornish town’s pedestrianised Go Slow Zone.
• Hours: many areas run around the clock, but Brighton has a curfew from midnight to 5am, and in Aylesbury and High Wycombe Voi listed 5am to 11pm on Mondays.

How long will the e-scooter trials last?

The trials began in July 2020 and were meant to end in November 2021. Extended five times, they now run until May 2028 (31 May in London, says TfL), so a council page that still says May 2026 is out of date. Nothing is settled for after that: the government has promised to consult on e-scooter rules but has put no bill before Parliament (see our guide to UK e-scooter law).

Areas come and go. By December 2021 riders had taken 14.5 million trips in trials launched across 32 areas of England; today there are 21. York’s riders took over half a million journeys, yet Tier pulled out on 31 May 2024 because the scheme wasn’t profitable.