CAPITAL NEWS
LONDON CABS SET UP IPHONE APP TO LET YOU KNOW WHERE THEY ARE
It’s a problem almost every Londoner has faced - not being able to find a black cab. However, a solution has arrived.
Cabbies have launched their first iPhone application which lets you hail a taxi electronically from a mobile phone. The LDNtaxi app, which runs on Apple’s iPhone, automatically calculates your posi- tion when you hail a cab and input your destination.
It then looks for black cabs nearby and alerts drivers to a customer. Whichever accepts the fare first sees the pas- senger’s location and a picture of them. The customer is alerted and the picture ensures the cabbie
picks up the right fare. “We wanted to bring black cabs up to date,” Warren Cres- dee, who has been a cabbie for 35 years, told the Evening Stan- dard. “We think this will make things easier and safer for both pas- sengers and drivers, and also help us get rid of our down time. “The response has been amazing. Drivers have been really impressed with the potential for this, and we hope thousands will sign up.” Three hundred drivers have already signed up to the service. Each has an iPhone in their cab and uploads a picture of themselves, which is shown to customers when they book. At the moment the app
if free, although Mr Cresdee said the firm may start charging in the future.
The app also shows how many black cabs are within two miles of the user, letting them see how likely it is a cab will be available. However, the black cab app will face stiff competition. Addison Lee recently an- nounced its iPhone app has taken more than £20 million in bookings in the past 12 months, and now makes up more than ten per cent of all bookings.
The minicab industry has also entered the market, with Kabbee and
Cabubble.co.uk both launching, aim- ing to make it easier to find a car.
POLICE OFFER £20,000 TO HELP FIND LONDON PHV DRIVER’S MURDERER
A reward of up to £20,000 is being offered by police for information on the murder of a minicab driver last year.
Michael Okonko- Nwosu, 49, from Plumstead, was found slumped beside his cab in Cookhill Road, Abbey Wood, at 4.55am on June 19. 2010. The father of two was taken to hospital with head injuries and died later that day. His widow, Catherine Okonko-Nwosu, 33, told the Bexley Times: “All I want is for justice to be served. It has been very difficult liv- ing with this.”
When Mr Okonko- Nwosu was found, the car doors were open but valuable items, including the satellite
navigation system, were still in the car. Det Chief Insp Dave Manning, who is lead- ing the investigation for the Homicide and Serious Crime Com- mand, said: “Almost a year on from Michael’s death we are no closer to establishing a motive for his murder. However, what we do know is that Michael was a law-abiding, hard-working family man who died whilst going about his every- day business. “We know that he was in the Sewell Road area shortly after 4.30am on the day he died. We are still very keen to speak to any- body who was in Sewell Road or Cookhill Road any time between 4am and
Michael Okonko- Nwosu
5am.”
He added that police would like to question a man captured on CCTV running along a parade of shops in Eynsham Drive, Abbey Wood, between 4.42am and 4.44am. Anyone with informa- tion should call 020 87214054 or Crime- stoppers anonymous- ly on 0800 555 111.
LONDON CABBIES FILL UP WITH RECYCLED CHIP FAT
Kabbee is seeking quality minicab fleets and black cab drivers in all UK cities as part of its nationwide roll out.
Please email, stating your city,
fleets@kabbee.com or
drivers@kabbee.com if you are interested to hear more
PAGE 38
Entrepreneur Jason Askey-Wood from south London spent several weeks march- ing up and down the taxi rank outside Waterloo station with a fistful of flyers. His mis- sion was to convert as many drivers as possi- ble to biodiesel. He told the Sunday Times: “Most were very sceptical, but a few were interested.” Two years later, almost 1,000 black cabs pull up every week at Askey-Wood’s filling station near Borough, southeast London. The pump is the hub of a capital-wide oper- ation that sees his company, Uptown Oil, collect thousands of litres of waste chip fat from pubs and restau- rants and turn it into green fuel.
Biodiesel is better for the environment be- cause it produces 80 per cent less carbon dioxide than normal
petrol, 100 per cent less sulphur dioxide - a harmful pollutant - and up to 60 per cent less soot. It can be used to power cars, heat buildings and keep the lights on. Askey-Wood went into business with two friends, Nigel Jewison and John Upton, and the three of them start- ed supplying cooking oil to kitchens.
Environmental rules demand that waste oil is disposed of proper- ly, so the team offered to pick it up. Uptown Oil now recycles fat from 5,000 venues. A fleet of ten trucks brings the liquid to Uptown Oil’s depot, where it is sorted according to quality. It is filtered to get rid of any objects and left to settle for a few days. The oil is skimmed off when it separates from water and is fed into a machine resembling a
giant home-brew beer kit. Inside this, the oil is mixed with meth- anol and a catalyst, sodium methylate. The reaction produces biodiesel, methyl ester and glycerol. When the latter two are removed, they leave an amber- coloured fuel ready to be pumped into a car. However, George Osborne, the chancel- lor, plans to remove the 20p-a-litre tax break on biodiesel next April and bring in a convoluted system of certificates. Askey-Wood said small firms would be forced to raise the price of biodiesel to the level of normal petrol. Colin Hector, a driver from south London who uses Uptown Oil, said: “It saves me between £20 and £30 a week, so I fill up when- ever I can. You don’t even think about the environmental impact.”
PHTM JULY 2011
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