Uber still under the scrutiny of the authorities and courts: Offices in China were searched, while in Brussels a driver was sentenced and the vehicle seized.
China: https://www.techinasia.com/uber-chengdu-office-raided-police-days-similar-raid-guangzhou/
Gettaxi becomes Gett: The taxi app and Uber rival rebrands and will also start in delivery services.
Quote of the day
“I pay on average 17 pence per mile for a Mercedes taxi, but only three pence for a Nissan Leaf.”
David Young, CEO of ‘203020 Taxis’ in Dundee, explains how he saves up to €12,000 per year in fuel costs with his e-taxis.
Automobile news
E-taxi news: Amsterdam is becoming a major e-taxi city, an ancient legal restriction has been abolished in Edinburgh, and Chinese e-taxis will even be using rechargeable batteries in the future. The only bad news comes from Norway: The generous funding for electric vehicles has been cut – due to their great success …
Amsterdam: http://www.autosieger.de/Amsterdam-entwickelt-sich-zur-Elektrotaxi-Metropole-article31271.html
Edinburgh: http://www.airqualitynews.com/2015/05/05/edinburgh-gives-green-light-to-electric-taxis/
News from Germany
Credit card payments begin in Berlin: The transition period ended last week and from now on all Berlin taxis must accept credit cards. An initial field report from Berliner Morgenpost shows that things have not gone quite so well with the transition.
Minimum wage with AOK dumping prices? Even union officials were silenced by this contradictory statement. And rightly so, if they are representing the interests of AOK at the same time.
http://www.main-netz.de/nachrichten/politik/politik/art4204,3606845
Taxi companies in Essen bypass the minimum wage: The local union is sounding the alarm. Taxi drivers receive €1,200 for 260 hours of work.
http://www.derwesten.de/staedte/essen/wie-taxi-chefs-den-mindestlohn-umfahren-id10633193.html
News from Austria
Under suspicion of people smuggling: The refusal of taxi drivers in Salzburg to make trips to Germany is gradually becoming a political issue.
Our last words
Video-Tipp: John Han, a 13-year taxi driver in San Francisco, produced an 85 minute documentary on Uber, Lyft, and San Francisco taxis. He asked us to distribute this film freely „as we deem appropriate“. Of course we deem appropriate!
About this update: Our bilingual ‘update’ summarises the international news of the last days and hours. As some of the links are in foreign languages, we recommend using a website translator.
