The Court of Appeal has upheld Transport for London’s appeal against a January ruling which stopped it from turning some London streets into no-car areas. Now the court has given Mayor Sadiq Khan the green light to continue imposing Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) on the City. The full judgment is expected in the coming days.…

BP Pulse, the oil company, electric vehicles arm, has opened a dedicated fleet charging hub at London’s Park Lane. The hub has 10 rapid 50kW chargers, and a further 12 chargers are due to be added in the coming months. The Park Lane site is the first of hundreds of similar hubs planned across London…

Addison Lee is to acquire black taxi provider ComCab, creating the capital’s largest private hire and taxi company with a combined fleet of more than 7,000 vehicles. The Addison Lee private hire fleet and ComCab hackney fleet will continue under their own brands. The acquisition will see Addison Lee purchase the London operations of Computer…

Uber has added a second city to its Local Cab scheme, with Oxford joining Plymouth as part of the pilot scheme. Anyone opening the Uber app in Oxford will see the ‘Local cab’ option which will connect passengers to the taxi firm 001 Taxis Oxford. Uber Local Cab allows passengers to book a trip with…

A Cambridge-based taxi operator who drove NHS staff to and from work for free, has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Camcab owner Rowhi Nemer, 63, offered the services of his company free of charge to frontline NHS and Air Ambulance staff in the first Coronavirus lockdown last March. Nemer said he…

Gridserve, which last year opened the first all-electric forecourt in the UK, has acquired pioneering charge point provider Ecotricity. The move is likely to signal major new investment in Ecotricity’s Electric Highway motorway services network, whose ageing and unreliable electric car chargers saw the company the lowest ranked in a recent RAC survey of charging…

A new project to bring affordable electric vehicle charging to smaller communities has been launched in Kent. Charging specialist, Connected Kerb, is working with Kent County Council to deliver a project that the company believes will provide a blueprint for local authorities across the UK. In the project’s first phase, Connected Kerb is installing 40…

Ride-hailing app Free Now is looking to recruit 10,000 new drivers to meet a bounce in demand after the easing of lockdown restrictions last month. The company reported an 38% week-on-week increase in UK journey requests nationwide following the reopening of indoor hospitality venues on May 17. In London, West End locations saw the largest…

Trade Union Unite has strongly criticised the Scottish Government for “short-changing” taxi drivers and operators in its latest round of Covid-19 support grants. Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has today announced an additional £62 million of support for 37,000 taxi and private hire operators in Scotland. This amounts to either £1,000 for those operating single…

Take Me Group’s Birmingham subsidiary TC Cars has announced a merger with local rival Heritage Cars, with both businesses planning to operate under the Take Me umbrella. The move, which creates a combined fleet in excess of 600 cars, is the latest step by the ambitious taxi company consolidator to build a national chain and…

BMW Group has launched two monthly subscription packages for BMW and Mini EV drivers who make frequent use of public charging facilities. The new BMW Charging and MINI Charging services mean customers can charge their cars at more than 11,000 charging points across the UK, as well as 173,000 charge points across Europe, all accessed…

The cost of recharging your electric car at commercial charge points is set to rise after HMRC announced it would impose the standard rate of VAT (20%) on the facilities. Previously HMRC applied ‘de minimis’ provisions, which allowed a reduced rate of VAT of 5% to be charged. Charging networks providers reacted with disappointment to…

Partition screen supplier Driver Bubble is to fit new safety screens behind the front seats of Addison Lee’s executive fleet of Mercedes E-class vehicles, adding to the safety screens already fitted to its standard Ford Galaxy and VW Sharan MPV fleet. This partnership with Driver Bubble is designed to give Addison Lee’s drivers and passengers…

In a landmark agreement, Uber has recognised the GMB Union to represent up to 70,000 drivers, the first time the ride-share giant has done so globally. The move follows the UK Supreme Court ruling that Uber’s UK drivers should be classified as workers, with rights to the minimum wage, holiday pay and pensions, a decision…

A group of companies and local authorities have announced they will open Europe’s most powerful electric vehicle charging hub in Oxford later this year. The hub, with around 10MW of power on site, will initially feature 38 fast and ultra-rapid chargers (more than anywhere else in the UK) and has capacity to add more in…

Uber has today announced a pilot of its new product, ‘Local cab’, which will enable passengers to book a trip with a local taxi company via the Uber app in Plymouth. The move is the first such initiative following the Competition & Markets Agency’s approval of Uber’s takeover of dispatch systems provider Autocab. Anyone opening…

Ride-hailing operator Ola has announced two senior board appointments. Sir Mike Rake has joined the Ola UK Board as non-executive Chairman, while former Transport for London expert Leon Daniels (pictured) is now an independent non-executive director. The two will draw on their experience across the private and public sectors to provide stronger oversight, corporate governance,…

Veezu has strengthened two of its five major UK hubs by acquiring local competitors in Shropshire and South Wales, and the company is targeting further takeovers in 2021. Go Carz, Shropshire’s largest private hire and taxi firm, has taken over Telford’s Diamond Cars, adding 270 vehicles and creating a 650-strong fleet of licensed vehicles in…