TAXI FOCUS


majority of her time to Careem. She got her driv- er’s licence at 18 while studying in California and converted it into a Saudi licence two weeks before the ban lifted. She now drives herbrownVolkswa- gen Touareg, which she bought three years ago for her driver to drive. Her family has been sup- portive, and her sister even signed up with her at Careem. Muzna Ahmad, a young mother with her toddler in tow, was pleasantly surprised when Ms. Farhat drove up to pick her up. “This is great,” she said. “My in-laws live 45minutes away and I have tomake that tripwith Careemalmost every day. I feelmuchmore comfortable being in the carwith another woman.” Women make up about 60 per cent of Careem’s clientele in Saudi Arabia,while also accounting for a bulk ofUber’s clients, the two com- panies said. But both don’t seewomen driving their own cars as a risk to their business models, anticipating that more women in the work- force will increase the overall demand for their services. Still, some locals haven’t fully accepted women in the driver’s seat, often citingmoral corruption and gender segregation. Somemen also have openly vowed to harass women drivers, sparking the Saudi gov- ernment to issue a new anti-harassment law that took effect in June. This month, two men in Mecca were arrested on charges of setting a woman’s car on fire. Ms. Farhat said she hasn’t faced any problems in her hometown of Jeddah, one of Saudi Arabia’smore liberal cities. “Society is ready for it,” she said of professional female drivers. Since she started driving for Careem on the first day of the ban’s removal, Ms. Farhat has completed around 30 trips and has encoun- tered a variety of customers. From families to groups of women and single male riders, she describes their reactions as a mix of surprise, excitement and strong support. On her first day out, one of her female customers couldn’t contain her excitement and got out of the car to hug her. “So far, I’ve only had positive experiences,” she said with a smile.


Ammal Farhat is the first female driver in Saudi Arabia for Careem


by introducing 180 FCEVs in Brussels, London and Paris. Their regular use on a daily basis will create hydrogen demand from each vehicle roughly four times that of a normal privately owned car. “This will help to ensure high utilisation of the early networks of HRS which are already operating in each city.” As a result, the economics of oper- ating the stations will be improved and the uptake of FCEVs will speed up. Project partners hope most of the vehicles will be deployed by the end of 2018. Data will be collected on the vehicles as they make their rounds, and will also provide an analysis of the business cases and technical performance of the deployments. Stored in vehicles in a tank just like petrol or diesel, hydrogen is utilised in an electrochemical energy conversion process with oxy- gen in fuel cells to generate electricity. This powers the electric motor to propel the FCEV. Hydrogen-powered cars also have a long range, over 480 km, with some in the market travelling up to 800 km or more on a single tank. They also charge faster than traditional battery-powered vehi- cles – the refuelling time is typically three minutes. Converting hydrogen gas into electricity produces only water and heat as a by- product. If the hydrogen is generated by renewable sources, FCEVs could provide zero-emission transportation opportunities. The ongoing ZEFER project was set up to demonstrate viable busi- ness cases for captive fleets of FCEVs in operations that can realise value from hydrogen vehicles.


from South Africa


TWELVE TAXI DRIVERS SHOT DEAD AFTER ATTENDING FUNERAL IN SOUTH AFRICA


from EU


WILL HYDROGEN-POWERED CARS BECOME MAINSTREAM IN EUROPE?


An EU initiative will deploy hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles in three European capitals as taxis, private hire vehicles and police cars. The move will accelerate their commercialisation and help realise emissions-free transport. The role of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in the transition to a clean, low-carbon energy system is increasingly recognised world- wide. Yet, theirmass roll-out is still years away. This is not surprising because high costs, efficiency issues and the limited number of hydrogen refuelling stations (HRSs) affect the business case for their production and use on a large scale. According to phys.org, the EU-funded Zero Emission Fleet vehicles For European Roll-out (ZEFER) project is addressing this challenge


AUGUST 2018


Gunmen in South Africa have killed 11 taxi drivers in a brutal ambush, police say. The Independent re- ports that the victims were in a minibus travelling to Johan- nesburg when the massacre happened on a recent Saturday night. They were returning from a colleague’s funeral in the western coastal region of Kwa-Zulu Natal, the BBC reports. Four men managed to survive and remained critically injured in hospital, one has since died. All 15 were members of the Gauteng taxi association. The attack occurred between the towns of Colenso andWeenen. Although the motive remains unclear, tensions between different taxi groups vying for the same routes have regularly spilled into bloodshed in the country’s major cities. Police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker said investigations were ongoing. “The vehi- cle was ambushed,” he said. “There were 11 fatalities and four were seriously injured. There has been a lot of taxi violence in the area but we are still investigating who the perpetrators were.”


Police arrows show where the multiple bullets hit the minibus


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