WORLDWIDE from Ireland
FREE NOW SAYS ALL DRIVERS HAVE BEEN PAID TODAY AFTER DELAYS
Free Now has con- firmed that all the taxi drivers to whom they owed money have now been paid. The taxi app which has over 14,000 drivers in the Re- public, had missed four payments, leav- ing many taxi drivers seriously concerned about the situation. Free Now insisted that the source of the delays was due to a “technical problem” at a third-party supplier of payment ser- vices to the company. It said the issue was being resolved and a contingency plan was being put in place internally to handle payments, in case the payments supplier failed again. The delays meant that drivers had not been paid for two weeks for any credit or debit card fares booked through the app. Card payments are usually passed on to the drivers once a week, less the app’s 15 per cent commission. Free Now is owned by BMW and Daimler. Local reports in Ger- many suggest taxi apps have been hit by the recent collapse of financial technology provider Wirecard, which went bust in the summer owing nearly €2 billion. However, in a statement sent to
TheJournal.ie on 18 August, a Free Now spokesperson said: “We are pleased that two pay- ments have been made to drivers today. This includes the delayed payment from last week (via our original payment provider) and the payment for this week (via a different pay- ment provider), which was paid a day early.” The spokesperson said the payment includes a 20% top-up bonus we implemented over the weekend “as a goodwill ges- ture to drivers”. “We have been in close communication with affected drivers over the past few days and have worked hard to resolve this issue. Again, we thank drivers for their patience and under- standing over the past few days.”
LIMERICK TAXI DRIVER WINS £450,000 IN EUROMILLIONS PLUS DRAW
A taxi driver from Limerick hit the jackpot in a recent Friday night EuroMillions Plus draw, bagging a cool €500,000 (£450,000). Describing his ‘life-changing’ prize, 43-year-old Eddie Costelloe from Moyross credited his late mum Helen for convincing him to follow his dream of one day winning the lottery. The married father-of-two told The Mirror: “On my mother’s
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deathbed, I said to her, ‘Mam, I’m going to win the lotto one of these days’, and she said, ‘Son, you will’, and I’ve been chasing this for a long time. “Seven years it took me, and I got it. I’m after getting half a million.” Oddly enough, the anniversary of Eddie’s mother’s death - 4 July, 2013 - has brought him luck in the past, having used these numbers to win €15,000 from two previous lotto draws. This time round, the cabbie decided to go for the EuroMillions Quick Pick after a long day working for delivery firm Nightline. Little did he realise that in a matter of hours his life would be changed forever. Eddie continued: “It’s unbelievable; it’s unreal, it hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said. The cash couldn’t have come at a better time, as Eddie’s work as a taxi driver had dried up due to the coronavirus pandemic. That said, Eddie and his wife Antoinette, who is a care worker with CareBright, will continue to work to support their two kids - Cian, five and Megan, nine. “It’s not going to (stop) me from working, because it’s not in me to sit around, I’ll always work,” he explained. “I’m a taxi driver and as you know the industry has been hit hard, but I reverted back to delivering parcels for Nightline, and that’s my job now, so going forward, I’m going to keep (deliver- ing) my parcels. So what does that mean for their big payout? Aside from con- tributing to their kids’ futures, Eddie and Antoinette are trading their motors in for newer models. They’ll also be paying off their home, as well as a swanky holiday house in Lanzarote. But the couple remain modest too, even shelling out a generous sum to their local Circle K store where Eddie had picked up the winning lotto ticket.
from India
DOCTOR ARRESTED OVER 50 MURDERS OF TRUCK AND TAXI DRIVERS IN DELHI
A doctor, who was allegedly a mastermind in over 50 murder cases of truck and taxi drivers across neighbouring states, has been arrested in Baprola, India. According to police, the doctor may have been involved in more than 100 murders but there is no confirmation on the exact figure as the cases have been investigated by the various state police concerned. The accused, Devender Sharma, 62, a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery degree holder, was apprehended by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch team six months after jumping parole for
SEPTEMBER 2020
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