Transport for London is spending £18m on upgrading the capital’s power grids to charge the first generation of battery-powered black cabs.
From 1 January 2018, all new black cabs will have to be battery-powered electric models by law as part of TfL’s effort to reduce toxic pollution from diesel engines.
The cash will pay for network reinforcements to enable British Gas owner Centrica and other energy companies to install 300 rapid electric car charging stations by 2020.
The charging point can top up a car’s battery within minutes, rather than the hours it takes for the city’s thousands of conventional electric vehicles.
An initial 75 fast chargers are due to be operational by the end of the year. While some of the sites will be exclusively for black cabs, the network will also be open to the increasing number of owners of Teslas, Nissan Leafs and electric BMWs in London.
Ben Plowden, TfL’s director of surface strategy and planning, said: “An extensive, rapid charging network is fundamental in helping drivers make the shift from fossil fuels to electric.”
The cost of installing the chargers will fall on the companies that won a TfL tender: Centrica, Bluepoint London, Chargemaster, Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board and Fastned from the Netherlands.
Pricing has not been announced, but the main existing network in the capital, Source London, would cost a Leaf driver £10.80 to fully top up with a rapid charger, plus a £4 monthly fee. TfL said the cost to drivers would be capped for the first two years.
The Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association expects the first electric black cabs on London’s roads in September.
Cabbies with an existing taxi older than 10 years will be able to claim a payment from TfL of up to £5,000 later this year towards the cost of the new zero-emission taxis, which are being built at a factory in Coventry.
http://bit.ly/2oLspdI
----------------------------------------------
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Hundreds of taxi and bus drivers protested outside Romania's government offices on Wednesday to demand that Uber and other online ride service be outlawed.
Drivers parked some 200 taxis and buses outside the office buildings in the capital, disrupting transport in the already crowded city, and blew vuvuzela horns.
The protest, which had been planned to last all day, ended early after the government agreed to pass an ordinance within days better regulating taxi services.
Minister for Public Consultation and Social Dialogue Gabriel Petrea met with some of the protesters and the two sides signed a protocol where the government pledged to pass the ordinance within 30 days.
There were no details immediately available how Uber would be affected.
The Confederation of Licensed Transport Operators says it wants "online technology platforms that provide unauthorized taxi services to be outlawed," to protect licensed carriers.
Uber says it is a ride-sharing service with transparent costs and its drivers pay taxes. It says some 250,000 clients have used its services in the Romanian capital and other major cities in the past two years.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-4446776/Hundreds-taxis-buses-park-outside-govt-protest-Uber.html
------------------------------------------
Mumbai/Bengaluru: A fall in incomes of taxi drivers who work with cab aggregators Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd) and Uber (Uber Technologies Inc.) have prompted some of India’s top banks to pull back on car loans to them and tweak underwriting norms.
In some cities, banks had stopped lending to Uber and Ola drivers as early as a year ago.
“We stopped giving car loans to drivers in Bengaluru last year. However, we remain invested in this segment of loans,” said Rajnish Kumar, managing director at State Bank of India, one of the largest disbursers of car loans.
“We continue to disburse loans in Hyderabad and Chennai after tweaking the underwriting standards,” added Kumar without revealing details of what SBI was doing to protect its loans.
SBI has advanced around Rs120 crore to drivers of these ride-hailing companies.
Tata Motors Finance Ltd, which has funded around 2,000 Ola and Uber vehicles, has also tightened its credit norms, said its managing director Shyam Mani. “Till March, Uber was covering up for losses beyond a certain level for these drivers. Since then, they have stopped this practice,” said Mani.
Now that this safety net is no longer there, firms are scrutinizing profiles of the drivers, the number of years of experience and their ability to pay back loans more closely, even as the rate of interest has not changed.
----------------------------------------
BERLIN — Gett confirmed on Wednesday that it has acquired rival taxi company Juno.
The deal is worth $200 million (£156 million), according to TechCrunch.
Juno is an Israel-based transportation app but its service is only available in New York City.
Acquiring Juno should help Gett, which is backed backed by $300 million (£233 million) from Volkswagen, to compete with larger companies like Uber and Lyft, specifically in New York City.
A source with links to the company that wishes to remain anonymous told Business Insider on Wednesday that Gett will initially pay $100 million (£77.9 million) for Juno and that it will involve mostly stock. A subsequent $100 million will be paid if certain targets are met, the source said.
"It's $100 million immediately and further funding up to another $100 million if they [Juno] achieve growth targets in other cities," said the source.
Founded in Israel in 2010, Gett employs over 1,000 people in Tel Aviv, the US, the UK, and Russia. All of the R&D, however, takes place in Israel. The company has raised over $500 million (£390 million), according to Crunchbase.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/gett-is-buying-juno-but-not-for-anywhere-near-250-million-2017-4
-----------------------------------
MELTHAM. WEST YORKS
A taxi driver has been jailed for six months for molesting a female passenger after driving her to Meltham.
Sentencing Shahzad Yousaf at Leeds Crown Court, Recorder Ben Nolan QC said there had to be an immediate jail term so the message could go out.
“Women must know that they can trust the driver of a taxi they get into late at night,” he said.
Yousaf, 44, of Moorbottom Road, Thornton Lodge, was found guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court of sexual assault on the teenager on January 3 last year.
He was ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years and barred from working as a taxi driver or private hire driver for five years.
The girl, who was 18 at the time, said he had driven her to Meltham after she had been on a night out with a friend in Huddersfield and then quoted her a fare of £9.50.
She told the jury she queried that saying she normally paid only £8 and Yousaf told her: “It would be cheaper if you give me a kiss.”
She said she refused and felt uneasy. She gave him the fare and as she went to get out he put his arms around her upper body and started kissing the side of her neck and cheek until she shrugged him off.
She told a friend she had “never felt so scared in her life” but was also angry about what had happened and subsequently reported it to the police.
She said in a victim impact statement: “I’m a lot more careful and aware of what I’m doing. I do not get a taxi on my own if I can avoid it unless I really have to.”
Yousaf denied he tried to kiss the girl and claimed she had tried to kiss him, an account which was rejected by the jury.
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/taxi-driver-who-offered-reduce-12947923
-------------------------------------
GOA
An e-petition demanding that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar facilitate the entry of Ola and Uber cab services in Goa, one of the top tourism destinations in the country, has gone viral.
Tired of Goa's taxi mafia, an NRI of Goan origin Mahesh Sardesai has started the petition which has been signed by 3,839 supporters in a matter of a few hours.
The Canada-based techie in his petition has petitioned Parrikar, to allow Ola and Uber services in Goa to boost the coastal state's tourism economy, which Sardesai says is being choked by high-priced taxi services, scruffy taxi drivers, boost employment and ease traffic congestion.
"Tourism is the backbone of Goa's economy and tourists across the world and India are used to services like Ola and Uber, it's time to allow them to operate in Goa. Goan taxi drivers never use the taxi meters required by law and charge exorbitant rates for their services," Sardesai said in his petition uploaded on change.org.
A section of of Goa's 7,000 odd tourist taxis and the drivers who man them, have often been accused of over-charging, intimidating and operating in an unregulated environment.
Several attempts by the state government to install and implement a fare-meter system have failed, even as members of taxi lobby have also attacked tour coach buses ferrying foreign tourists, accusing tour operators of depriving them of business.
Some years back, a flare-up between a Russian travel operator and a local taxi owner resulted in the murder of the latter, sparking hostilities between locals and Russian tourists, who account for a large chunk of the half million foreign tourists who visit the state every year.
Ola taxi services were introduced in Goa in 2014, but were soon stopped by the state transport department following protests by local taxi operators.
Sardesai now wants Parrikar and elected representatives not to succumb to pressure from the taxi operator lobby this time round.
"We request that our elected representatives provide improved alternative which encourages innovation and competition instead of our broken taxi system and not to give in to the voice of taxi thugs looting tourists and Goans," the petition states.
The petition has found support from denizens of Goa as well as NRIs, tourists and even from the student community in Goa.
"I am a student of BITS (Birla Institute of Technology and Science) Goa. We end up paying unreasonable prices even while travelling short distances. And because they have a monopoly we are left with no option. The competition will only benefit the common citizen," says Khyati Jain.
"Time to end the private taxi monopoly plaguing Goa! It's just ridiculous that the government is still putting up with this system in Goa and leaving people with no choice at all," says Delano Furtado, a Mumbai-based lawyer.
Goa is a major beach tourism destination in the country and attracts over four million tourists every year.
-----------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment