Uber rival Ola announces London launch November 26, 2019 Ride-hailing app Ola has fired the starting gun in the race to recruit Uber drivers and customers, announcing it will soon launch in London. The Indian ride-hailing app today announced it had begun on-boarding drivers in London and would launch in the coming weeks. Read more: TfL bans Uber from London after a ‘pattern of [...]
De La Rue shares plunge as it scraps dividend and warns of ‘significant doubt’ over future November 26, 2019 De La Rue has bailed on plans for a dividend this year and warned there is “significant doubt” on its ability to continue to operate, sending shares plummeting. “We have concluded there is a material uncertainty that casts significant doubt on the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern,” it said today as it [...]
Uber rival Bolt set to secure $100m in new funding November 26, 2019 Uber competitor Bolt is on the verge of securing more than $100m (£78m) in new funding. The Estonian ride-hailing app is working with Goldman Sachs on the new round of funding, just four months after raising £50m from new and existing backers. Read more: TfL bans Uber from London after a ‘pattern of failures’ Bolt, [...]
Revealed: Gatwick airport to lose 600,000 passengers because of Thomas Cook collapse November 26, 2019 Gatwick airport is set to lose more than half-a-million passengers this financial year because of the collapse of Thomas Cook. The UK’s second-biggest airport held a significant number of the airline’s take-off and landing slots before it folded in September and sparked the repatriation of 150,000 Brits who were left stranded abroad. Read more: General [...]
Tesla CEO Elon Musk to testify at his ‘paedo guy’ defamation trial November 26, 2019 Elon Musk will testify in his own defence at a defamation case brought against him for calling a British cave diver a “paedo guy”. Vernon Unsworth was involved in the rescue of a trapped Thai boys football team in 2018, which led to an unlikely row between the cave diver and the Tesla founder. Read [...]
Gatwick enjoys strong summer of retail profit despite modest passenger growth November 26, 2019 Gatwick enjoyed rising profit in the first half of the financial year on the back of strong retail trading at the airport, despite modest passenger growth. In terms of traffic, the UK’s second-biggest airport felt the impact of a tricky economic climate for the aviation industry, with 26.6m passengers passing through the gates, just a [...]
Electric dreams: How long until electric cars go mainstream in the UK? November 26, 2019 Visitors to the picturesque Whitby Bay beach in north Yorkshire were in for a shock earlier this month, when they encountered two giant footprints etched into the sand. The left was half the length of a football pitch, at 50 metres – the right was just 3.5 metres long. The reason? A publicity stunt by [...]
DEBATE: Is Uber’s loss of its London licence evidence that we need more gig economy regulation? November 26, 2019 Is Uber’s loss of its London licence evidence that we need more gig economy regulation? John McCallion, chief executive officer of GroundScope, says YES. Transport for London has quite rightly decided not to grant Uber a licence to operate in London — just as many other cities around the world have done. Every city needs [...]
Business leaders don’t think our roads and railways are up to scratch for post-Brexit growth November 26, 2019 Britain’s roads and railways are in desperate need of an upgrade, otherwise many companies will struggle to get the post-Brexit bounce they need, according to business group the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). A survey of 1,200 business leaders has found that only 35 per cent of businesses feel that the UK road network is [...]
Why did Uber lose its London licence and what happens now? November 25, 2019 Transport for London’s (TfL) decision to not renew Uber’s licence may come as a shock to its 3.5m users in the capital, but what does it actually mean in the short-term? TfL cited various reasons to effectively ban Uber from the capital, but can Uber appeal it and if so, what are its chances of [...]