Moped rental company Go Sharing will stop operating in a large number of Dutch towns and cities because they are not profitable, the company has confirmed.

‘In the current economic climate, where there is a lot of uncertainty in the market, investors are reluctant to invest in vehicle sharing companies,’ the company said in a statement.

‘Therefore, we have decided to focus on making our system profitable first. In doing so, we will take a step back and will temporarily withdraw from a number of cities.’

According to news website Nu.nl, the company will withdraw from 45 Dutch towns and cities, but will remain active in 13, including Haarlem, Delft, The Hague and Rotterdam.

A number of moped rental organisations currently operate in the Netherlands, but are often under fire for poor parking and taking up too much public space. Utrecht earlier decided to ban them altogether.

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Moped users also face an increasing number of restrictions and will have to use helmets from next year.