Ambitious taxi group Take Me has added another company to its growing portfolio with the addition of North Yorkshire operator Station Taxis. The company operates around the Ryedale area and has a head office in Malton. Station taxis boss Lisa Ridsdale, who is staying…

Bolt has raised the fresh funds from Silicon Valley VC giant Sequoia Capital and retirement investor Fidelity Ride hailing company Bolt has raised a further £524 million in funds to help it expand into new sectors such as electric scooter rentals and grocery deliveries.…

Taxi drivers in Leeds have staged a protest outside the Town Hall over local council policies they claim are too strict, and which the drivers say could cost them their livelihoods for relatively minor misdemeanours. The drivers are protesting the Leeds City Council’s Suitability…

Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s Clean Air Zone plans are facing an angry backlash from taxi and private hire drivers, with more than 100 drivers staging a two-hour go-slow protest around Bolton on Monday afternoon (pictured). The Manchester CAZ, which covers 10 boroughs in the…

South Staffordshire council has handed over its taxi and private hire licensing to Wolverhampton council, which it believes is better equipped for the process and changes within the industry. Wolverhampton council will take over licensing in the region for a minimum of three years,…

Private hire drivers’ unions have expressed disappointment at the Scottish government’s Private Hire and Taxi Support Fund, claiming drivers will be pushed into further debt. The Scottish government has set aside £28 million, which will see individual drivers being awarded £750, as well as…

Portsmouth council is to open bus lanes in the city to all private hire drivers in a three-month trial. The move has been welcomed by drivers, who previously were excluded from the lanes, while hackney carriages were allowed to use them. Around 1,000 private…

Bolt has is preparing to launch operations in Hull. The ride-hailing operator has taken out advertising on Facebook, asking licenced private hire drivers to sign up in the Yorkshire city. Bolt is offering drivers 0% commission for the first month of its operations rather…

Addison Lee has branded London’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure “insufficient, inefficient and inconsistent” after its first 100 EV drivers struggled to operate in their first few weeks of operation. In a survey of Addison Lee EV drivers, 93% said they had not found rapid…

Gridserve has announced it will build more than 20 new EV charging hubs across the UK motorway network in the first half of 2022. In addition, it plans to open ‘Electric Forecourts’ at Gatwick and Norwich international airports. These will follow the blueprint of…

Nottingham-based DG Cars has made a major strategic acquisition with the takeover of Arrow Cars East Midlands. The move gives DG the contract to operate the official taxi service from East Midlands Airport operation, and includes the former Arrow Cars operation in Hucknall. The…

What a night we had at the Celtic Manor! The Professional Driver QSi Awards returned with a bang with a night of celebration for the private hire, taxi and chauffeur industry

We invited Professional Driver readers to judge our Cars of the Year in August – now we’ve revealed the winners. Find out our six category champs and our overall 2021 Car of the Year by clicking here.

Find out who triumphed in our 2021 Professional Driver QSi Awards, held at a glittering black tie dinner at the Celtic Manor Resort on November 25. Click here for a full report.

Uber is planning to use driver data from its app to identify poor driving and help improve standards behind the wheel. Using a combination of reports from passengers and analysis of data, drivers found to have been driving unsafely are to be sent in-app…

Five Bedford private hire companies have announced large fare increases as a result of the ongoing shortage of drivers and rising fuel prices. The five firms – 24-7 Cars, A1 Cars, Key Cars, Direct Cars, and Anglia Cars – said in a statement that…

Uber has extended its Local Cab service into two further UK towns. Mansfield and Stockton-on-Tees are the latest laces where passengers can book a trip with a local taxi company via the Uber app. Anyone opening the Uber app in Mansfield will be presented…

Addison Lee drivers will be able to access off-street electric car charging points close to their homes under a new partnership with parking app JustPark. Drivers will be able to find charge points via the FleetCharge by JustPark and Octopus Energy scheme, which provides…