Uber set to use bikes instead of cars to combat congestion

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It's been revealed that Uber are set to use bikes and scooters to replace private hire vehicles for shorter journeys so as to ease congestion and pollution.

The scheme, which ihas already started in the US could be making its way over to the UK.

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of minicab company Uber, who lost over 3.5 billion dollars last year, has stated that to take somebody a relatively short distance in a car is inefficient, and whilst in the short term, it isn't financially expedient for Uber, long-term, everybody wins.

The Red bikes are already in use in New York, Washington DC and Denver, with move across the Atlantic to the UK in the pipeline.

Unsurprisingly, it is believed that Uber drivers may bare some of the financial burden surrounding Ubers latest move, although Khosrowshahi has stated that after explaining the logic behind the move, drivers have been enthusiastic towards the plan, especially when inforned that drivers will be undertaking longer rides.

No date has been set as to when the UK may see these bikes, if at all.

August 27, 2018 at 08:59AM https://ift.tt/2ufVjKI THESE POSTS ARE NOT OUR ENDORSEMENT

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Uber Drivers Knowingly Accepting Fraudulent Journeys For Share Of Cash, Says Security Expert.

Turning virtual cash into real money without being caught is a big problem for successful cyber-criminals.

They often have to get creative when "cashing out" or laundering the money they have stolen, according to a security expert.

Ziv Mador, head of security research at Trustwave SpiderLabs said that credit card thieves, for example, have limited time to profit, because at some point the victim will put a stop on their card.

Tens of thousands of stolen card numbers are traded daily on the Dark Web's underground market that Mr Zador and his colleagues have monitored, collating details taken from compromised websites or databases.

"They can try to sell the card, which is not a big money earner because they only get a few dollars for each one," he said.

Instead, he added, they are more likely to use them to buy more valuable assets like iPhones or Macbooks, which are popular because they tend to hold their value when resold, or turn into cash using fraudulent journeys with crooked Uber drivers.

"They do not buy 100 or so iPhones at once," he said. "They use a lot of different cards at different times."

Mr Mador said the crooks use randomisation tools to thwart anti-fraud systems that would spot if all the purchases, even those made with different cards, are being done on the same computer.

Another "cashing out" technique uses gift cards from big retailers outlets . 

This technique involves buying the gift card with the stolen credit card and then offering it for sale at a big discount.

Then there are the more creative scams that seek to use Uber and other ride-hailing firms to launder cash.

Mr Mador, and others, have seen adverts seeking Uber drivers who can take part in the scam.

"They are looking for Uber drivers to take the fraudulent payments, from people who register with the Uber app using stolen credit card details and do fake rides," said Mr Mador.

The driver's account is used to launder the cash generated when stolen credit cards are used to pay for the fictitious journeys. Drivers then get a cut of the money as a payment.

It's worrying that the company (Uber) doesn't pick up on what's happening and when card holders complain, Uber support help dissipates, telling victims their Terms and Conditions relinquish Uber from any responsibility over the fraud. They advise victims to take it up with the drivers.

It's this Uber market that forms the backbone of the cyber-crime world, said Dr Mike McGuire, a criminologist from the University of Surrey, who has studied this shadowy community.

Source : BBC news 

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TAXI DRIVER LEFT SHAKEN AFTER BEING CHASED WITH A KNIFE

A Jersey taxi driver has been left shaken, unable to sleep and says he can no longer work late night shifts after being threatened with a knife on Friday.

The 58-year-old taxi driver, who wants to remain anonymous, told the ITV News he was chased with a knife in Gorey Village by a passenger who refused to pay his taxi fare.

He said: “I lost a whole night’s earnings, but I could have lost my life

"Taxi drivers are on the front line just as much as police."

He added that this is the worst incident he has witnessed in his 35-year career.

The incident happened at just before midnight on Friday.

A 21-year-old was arrested for grave and criminal assault and has since been release on bail.

The police investigation continues

Source : ITV News 

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China's Didi Suspends Hitch Ride-Sharing App After Passenger Raped And Killed By Driver

    

    

China’s largest ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing is suspending its Hitch services nationwide, the company said in a statement on Sunday, a day after police said a ride-sharing passenger in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou was raped and killed by a driver.

Didi Chuxing said it was sorry that the carpool service would be suspended from Aug. 27 due to “disappointing mistakes” while the company reevaluates the product’s business model.

The suspected murder of a 20-year-old woman, who Wenzhou police identified only with the surname Zhao, is the latest in a series of violent crimes that have fueled safety concerns about the service.

Zhao got into a Hitch carpool vehicle at 1 p.m. (0500 GMT) on Friday, and sent a message to a friend at around 2 p.m. seeking help before losing contact, according to a local police statement.

A 27-year-old driver named Zhong was detained at about 4 a.m. on Saturday and confessed to raping and killing the passenger, the local police statement said, adding that the victim’s body had been recovered and an investigation was continuing.

Did said on Sunday that the suspect had no prior criminal record, had provided authentic documentation and passed a facial recognition test before starting work.

But the company said on Saturday there was a prior complaint made against the driver on Thursday by a passenger who alleged the driver took them to a remote place and then followed the passenger after she got out of the car.

“The incident shows the many deficiencies with our customer service processes, especially the failure to act swiftly on the previous passenger’s complaint and the cumbersome and rigid process of information sharing with the police,” the company said in the statement on Sunday.

The Hitch carpool service has run over 1 billion trips in the past three years, the company said. Didi is the biggest ride-sharing firm globally by number of trips.

STATE MEDIA CRITICISM

China’s state-backed media criticized Didi’s safety record on Sunday, while celebrities took to social media and pledged to delete the application.

“You’ve had so many incidents,” an unnamed family member of Zhao was quoted as saying in the Qianjiang Evening news, an official Zhejiang province publication.

“What are you going to do about your safety and service problems?”

Wang Chuanjun, a famous Chinese actor, on Sunday shared a screenshot of his phone as he prepared to delete the application. His post was shared over 58 thousand times on China’s Twitter-like Weibo and the hashtag “Wang Chuanjun uninstalls Didi” had been viewed nearly 9 million times by the evening.

China’s official Xinhua News agency criticized Didi for not doing more to prevent such incidents and said the company should face legal punishment if it failed to put customer’s safety first.

Didi has increased its safety measures for Hitch after the murder of a flight attendant during a Hitch ride in May sparked outrage. These included limiting Hitch drivers to only picking up passengers of the same sex during early morning and late evening hours.

Source : Reuters 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT : 

In the last month Taxi leaks reached over 421,000 people on FaceBook alone, and was read over 180,000 times by Twitter subscribers. 

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New Year New York: See Manhattan in 2019 from £494pp - incl. 4nts Times Square hotel & flights

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TfL’s Congestion Charge proposals and their impact on the industry

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TfL launched a consultation at the beginning of July, aiming to find ways to improve the air quality in the capital. Here, we look at these new measures and analyse the potential future developments, together with their impact on the taxi and private hire industries.

Currently, Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) drivers are required to have a pre-existing booking when entering the congestion charge zone. However, the emergence of Uber and other app-based providers has resulted in PHVs remaining in the zone whilst awaiting a booking.The Private Hire Exemption Under Review

One of TfL’s proposals is to remove the congestion charge exemption for Private Hire Vehicles (PHVs), including Uber and minicabs. These changes would be implemented from April 2019, and would not apply to wheelchair accessible PHVs. TfL said that the number of vehicles entering the zone each day has decreased by around 30% since the congestion charge was introduced in 2003. However, in the meantime, the number of PHVs entering the zone has increased from 4,000 a day to more than 18,000… This isn’t surprising, given that since the arrival of Uber, the number of registered London minicab drivers has risen by 66%. Over the past two years, congestion has increased by 10%. According to an analysis carried out for TfL, removing the exemption for PHVs “could reduce the number of individual PHVs entering central London by up to 45%. Removing these vehicles, which often repeatedly circulate within the zone, could reduce congestion and improve journey times for bus passengers while reducing emissions.”Notables changes applying to PHVs

Remove the existing exemption for PHVs – for standard vehicles, the charge is currently £10.50 with Auto Pay. On top of this, the vehicles could also have to pay an additional £12.50 for the ULEZ daily charge. Increase to the amount payable for the Penalty Charge – which will now set you back £160 (previously £30), or £80 (prev. £60) if paid within 14 days. Changing the NHS Reimbursement Scheme to allow reimbursement for CC Auto Pay payments.NHS Spared but What About Schools?

Fortunately, journeys involving NHS contracts should continue to be exempt, so under strain health trusts will avoid further costs. However, a robust system for demonstrating the purpose of a PHV performing a fare of this nature will need to be put in place to avoid it being subject to exploitation. On a similar note, no exception appears to have been granted to companies fulfilling school contracts. Education budgets that have been affected severely by austerity measures could be further hit.Would this measure actually cut congestion?

According to Addison Lee’s CEO Andy Boland, the removal of the congestion charge exemption would represent, “A very significant cost to the industry of as much as £250 per driver, per month.” He fears that the measure could “seriously jeopardise wages” and “undermine TfL’s efforts to raise quality and safety standards.” He also accuses TfL of using the measure as a means of revenue generation. Finally, for London’s second largest private hire operator, TfL’s proposal will not solve the congestion and environmental issues. What’s more, it could represent a safety risk, with drivers working longer hours in a single day, “as they try to pick up more fares to recoup the cost of the congestion charge.” “The best way to control congestion and emissions is to restrict minicab licences to drivers who meet and maintain standards set by the best operators in the market rather than the current free-for-all.” added Boland. Although his suggested alternative could be interpreted as being motivated by a desire to remove unwanted competition from the market, rather than a genuine desire to tackle congestion.Could Black Cabs be targeted as well?

The regulator could face a legal battle from the private hire industry associations, as removing the exemption for Private Hire and not Hackney Carriage drivers could be seen as discrimination against one form of ground transport against another. It can be argued, though, that as TfL’s proposal doesn’t apply to wheelchair accessible vehicles – Black Cabs should remain exempt, as they are all suitable for disabled users. The Licensed Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA) has already launched an online petition to gather support against the proposals. LPHCA Chairman Steve Wright commented: “It is a very poor decision to consider Congestion Charging a mode of Transport that helps to reduce congestion, especially as London’s Licensed PHVs are probably the cleanest and greenest big fleets in the Capital.”Risk to the Taxi Trade

The taxi trade could suffer – if the charge was extended. Black cabs drivers, on Twitter, have recently been discussing how they believe to be benefiting from a 0% rate on the congestion charge, as opposed to an exemption.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that TfL might, in the future, seek to encourage a faster take-up of electric cabs within the trade by introducing a financial penalty, such as imposing the congestion charge on cabbies that continue to operate diesel taxis. TfL already seems to be incentivising the use of electric taxis, by having developed signs for bus lanes only allowing “etaxis”. The black cab trade would no doubt fight this measure wholeheartedly and would instead argue that removing the congestion charge exemption for PHV’s should be followed by efforts to tackle the issues of over-licensing and poor quality control in the PH industry, in order to:

Address the problem of low standard operators.Remove unsafe, uninsured vehicles and drivers from the roads.Ensure a minimum level of local knowledge and language.

In summary, whether lifting the PHVs’ congestion exemption will have a significant and positive impact to congestion and air quality in the capital is open to debate. The private hire industry argues that the vast majority of PHVs are clean vehicles. They point out that potential safety issues associated with drivers working longer hours are a source of concern.

Also, the proposal could detrimentally impact private hire firms trying to operate a reputable fleet whilst maintaining a good quality of service. The increased costs to such operators would either need to be passed on to customers or potentially they could be forced to compromise on standards to recoup the loss.

August 26, 2018 at 10:38AM https://ift.tt/2ufVjKI Plan Insurance THESE POSTS ARE NOT OUR ENDORSEMENT

Live the 5* lifestyle in 2019 in Marbella from £242pp - incl. flights, 4nts hotel & breakfast

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Ride-hailing giants Didi under fire as second woman is raped and murdered by one of their drivers in four months

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The safety of ride-hailing giants Didi Chuxing's passengers is under fire again as a second killing has taken place involving one of their drivers. According to reports in the South China Morning Post, police found the body of a 20-year-old female on Saturday in China's eastern Zhejiang province. A driver for the Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi has been arrested after he confessed to the rape and murder of the 20-year-old. Investigations are still ongoing to gain a complete picture of the circumstances leading up to the murder. According to 9news, the victim was in a Didi carpool ride on Friday when she messaged a friend raising concerns about her safety. Police said her friend then lost contact with her. The 27-year-old driver of the vehicle, who has been named as a Mr Zhong, was found the following morning by police in Yueqing city. Didi Chuxing, who by number of trips alone, are globally the biggest ride-sharing firm said in a statement: "We are deeply sorry. We fell short of your expectations. We can't and won't shirk from our responsibilities". This is not the first tragic incident involving Didi. Back in May another woman was raped and murdered by one of their drivers who had been reported previously by another passenger who said he had repeatedly requested she sit in the front next to him and then followed her once she had got out his vehicle. Didi failed to follow up the complaint against the driver who then went on to kill his victim a day later. The company is currently in the process of expanding to countries such as Australia, Mexico and Brazil, where they will go head-to-head with Uber.

August 26, 2018 at 12:02AM https://ift.tt/2ufVjKI Michael Murphy THESE POSTS ARE NOT OUR ENDORSEMENT

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