Girl, 14, groomed by Ealing minicab driver after he drove her home to parents' address

A minicab driver from Ealing attempted to meet up with a 14-year-old girl he had picked up as a passenger after grooming her.

Spyros Ntounis engaged in inappropriate conversation with the teenage girl after collecting her from an address in Barnes.

The 35-year-old then peppered her with WhatsApp messages before the concerned child alerted her parents.

He was charged with attempting to meet a girl under 16 following sexual grooming, and found guilty on Monday (February 19) following a three-day trial at Kingston Crown Court.

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Albert Bridge And Rotherhithe Tunnel Restrictions .... Putting To Bed The Rumours... By Jim Thomas.

Recent email updates from TfL have been unclear (there's a surprise). People who have signed up for the TfL service, were given the news that any vehicle over the width of two meters (six foot six inches or 78 inches in old money) were not allowed to use the Rotherhithe Tunnel and if you do, you could be given a £50 fine of prosecution. 

The TX4 with a width of 80.2 inches, and the new LEVC TX standing at 80.16 inches, puts both vehicles outside the width restriction.

The update does not specify if Taxis (TX4/MetroCab/Vito/TXe) are banned or are exempt!

After tweets were made by drivers last night that Taxis could no longer use the Tunnel, we have been reliably informed by the TfLTPH account that Taxis can use the Tunnel. 

W informed the account that the TX4 is in fact 80.2 inches wide and the new TXe was 80.16 wide, but so far Taxi Leaks has had no further reply!

This has not been made clear on the email update or TfL website, so (for now) we have to take the word of their Twitter account manager... that all Taxis can use the tunnel with no exceptions in regards to licensed Taxi vehicle make. 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT : ALBERT BRIDGE !

It was also mentioned yesterday on Twitter, that the new TXe from LEVC was too heavy for the weight limit for vehicles using Albert Bridge. 

We can now confirm this is not the case as the bridge was strengthened in 2011 and the weight limit raised to 3 ton. This has also been confirmed on the TfLTPH Twitter account. 

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Addison Lee Tells Mayor Congestion Charge For PHVs But Not Black Cabs Is "Anti-Competitive"

The boss of Addison Lee has written to Sadiq Khan in a call to maintain the congestion charge exemption for private hire vehicles, saying removing it will damage drivers and competition.

Transport for London (TfL) has been mulling ditching private hire vehicles' exemption from the congestion charge, and last week set out new ideas for ways to improve regulation for the industry including forcing firms to share their data. 

Addison Lee said hitting private hire vehicles with the congestion charge would represent a cost to the industry of as much as £250 per driver per month. The company was also critical of a situation where the exemption is removed for private hire vehicles but not black cabs, saying that would be "anti-competitive".

Andy Boland, the firm's chief executive, said:

Private hire vehicles play a vital role in helping to move millions of people safely around the capital each day - they are particularly important to certain groups such as vulnerable adults, as TfL noted in its policy statement on private hire only this month – and I can therefore see no possible reason why private hire vehicles should be treated any differently from taxis with respect to the congestion charge.

Boland said levying the charge on private hire vehicles was "a blunt instrument" that would knock investment, distort competition and hurt drivers "to the detriment of passengers and the travelling public". 

The firm said levying the charge on private hire vehicles works against TfL's own policy goals and will do nothing for the environment.

“Given the competitive nature of the market, fares would be unlikely to rise to reflect any imposition of the congestion charge. There would therefore be no change in demand, and no improvement to the environment,” Boland said. 

To improve London’s air quality, it would be far more effective to focus on the laudable ultra-low emission zone and on installing more charging points for electric vehicles.

Addison Lee said the industry was highly competitive, and innovative with businesses investing in cleaner vehicles. However, the company said it operates against "a backdrop of a marketplace in which some participants have pursued a policy of growing market share by offering fares substantially below cost". 

It said those which have subsidised fares will most likely absorb the costs to hoover up greater market share and keep fares "artificially low", and to stay competitive in such a scenario, the likes of Addison Lee will have to pass the cost onto drivers. That will then hit their drivers' earnings. 

A mayoral spokesperson said: 

The mayor and TfL are keeping user charging schemes, including the congestion charge under review to ensure they are as effective as they can be.

As part of this TfL are currently undertaking further analysis on the impact of removing the exemption from the congestion charge for private hire vehicles.

London Assembly Liberal Democrat member Caroline Pidgeon said: “The growth in private hire vehicles has contributed to the growth in congestion in many parts of London and a range of policies are needed to address that.

“One area where immediate action must be taken is much firmer action against private hire vehicles which misuse their congestion charge exemption

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Addison Lee boss slams TfL and City Hall over proposal to levy congestion charge on mini cab firms

Ending the mini cab trade’s long-standing exemption from paying the congestion charge risks cutting driver pay and harming competition, according to the head of one of London’s biggest cab operators. 

Transport for London is currently assessing the economic impact of lifting the exemption which has been in place since the congestion charge came into operation in 2003.

If implemented, the move could help slow the growth in the number of mini cabs operating in the capital, commonly cited as a key factor in central London’s worsening congestion.

It could also help generate millions of pounds of additional revenue for TfL which is experiencing a serious funding crisis in the wake of government cuts and Mayor Sadiq Khan’s decision to freeze fares.

Boland estimates that levying the £11.50-a-day charge would cost the industry as much as £250 per driver per month and says this level of additional overhead could not be absorbed while maintaining investment in cleaner vehicles. 

He warns that any move which saw drivers continue to operate older, less clean vehicles would undermine City Hall and TfL’s own ambitions of tackling air pollution.

In a public letter to TfL and the Mayor, Boland warns: “Given the competitive nature of the market, fares would be unlikely to rise to reflect any imposition of the Congestion Charge. There would therefore be no change in demand, and no improvement to the environment.”

Instead of ending the congestion charge exemption, the CEO says “it would be far more effective to focus on the laudable Ultra-Low Emission Zone and on installing more charging points for electric vehicles.”

The executive’s public criticism is significant because Addison Lee has previously defended TfL’s tightening of regulations affecting the mini cab industry and backed a significant increase in the fees paid by operators.

Source: MatorWatch 

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Addison Lee boss slams TfL and City Hall over proposal to levy congestion charge on mini cab firms

Geely: London black cabs maker sees shares surge after buying $9bn stake in Dai

Geely's shares jumped on Monday after its chairman Li Shufu revealed he had built a $9bn (£6.4bn) stake in Daimler - giving him major leverage as he attempts to persuade the German carmaker to cooperate on tech.

The 9.7 per cent holding makes Li Daimler’s biggest shareholder and puts the owner of Mercedes-Benz in a quandary as it already has a partnership with China’s BAIC Motor Corporation, with the two unveiling a plant investment of almost $2bn on the weekend.

Li is expected to meet Daimler executives in Stuttgart on Monday and hopes to meet top German officials in Berlin. Germany has said there is no need to take action on the stake owned by Li.

Geely’s stock surged 8 per cent, buoyed by hopes of access to Daimler’s technology which would help it compete in a fast-shifting market being disrupted by electric cars and autonomous driving.

Its parent Zhejiang Geely Holding said on Saturday there were no plans to raise the stake “for the time being”.

Geely has been expanding rapidly. The parent firm owns Volvo Cars, LEVC, the maker of London’s black cabs, and last year took a majority stake in sports car maker Lotus, a 49.9 percent stake in Malaysian carmaker Proton, a $3.3bn stake in Volvo Trucks and control of flying car start-up Terrafugia.

Among the 36 analysts that cover Geely, the average rating on the shares is “buy” with 27 recommending “strong buy” or “buy”.

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Licensed Private Hire, Ride Share And Now Taxi Buses....Everyone Wants A Piece Of Our Action.

When is a bus not a bus? When it only seats eight people and changes its route on demand.

Journey planner app Citymapper is extending its reach on London's roads with the launch of a service somewhere between a bus and a taxi. It's been dubbed Smart Ride.

However, this wasn't the company's intent. Citymapper wanted to launch a "responsive", "smart" bus, but Transport for London (TfL) regulations limit its buses to "dumb", unchanging routes and restrict its on-demand services to a van — with Omid Ashtari, president and head of business at Citymapper, suggesting those rules hinder innovation.

"We don't see enough encouraging frameworks that allow private entrants to actually play in this field," he says. "I don't want to single out TfL here — it's a global phenomenon. There's a clear distinction between what cabs can do and what buses can do… currently the cab frameworks are the easiest way."

Ticket to Smart Ride

Citymapper says the regulations it faces have led to the mutant Smart Ride, a bus service using a van that operates like a ride-hailing app limited to a specific catchment area. So rather than go stand at a bus stop and wait for one to trundle by, travellers book a seat in a Smart Ride vehicle at a specific time along a route shown in the Citymapper app. "Think of it as a bus, because it has stops and can be shared, but think of it as a cab, because you can book it as close as possible to you on the network," Ashtari says.

The not-a-bus is an eight-seater Mercedes-Benz Viano, with rear seats arranged facing each other to encourage social interaction, Ashtari says — suggesting a surprising lack of understanding of how silently Londoners commute. 

While there's space for guide dogs, the vans are not otherwise accessible for disabled people and drivers aren't trained to offer such assistance. "We're working on ways to make this accessible too, but it isn't available off the bat," says Ashtari, noting the larger buses Citymapper wanted to use are designed for accessibility.

So far, the coverage area is limited to one small slice of the capital's centre, from Waterloo to Clerkenwell, conveniently taking in Citymapper's headquarters. (Ashtari says his staff want to try the not-a-bus, but are "a little bit lazy".) The route will change depending on requirements, but stick to a specific network of roads, in response to "demand fluctuation throughout the day", Ashtari says. "We have a lot of dynamic information about the city's pulse… the network could evolve through the day or week."

For the first week, the rides are free. Ashtari would not reveal the final price, but said it would cost — in fitting with the entire idea — something between a bus ticket and a cab fare. A single ride on a public bus would cost £1.50; a cab from the company's office to the centre of Clerkenwell would cost about £10.

See full article on Apple News- WIRED UK https://apple.news/A4bbpE_d8RZqfDcUip-IEog

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