UBER and Bolt are contemplating passing the high fuel costs to customers as the ride-hailing firms seek to help their divers.
Uber’s UK arm said last week that it remained focused on offering drivers “the benefits and protections they deserve”.
RAC Foundation data showed that the pump prices of unleaded petrol in the UK shot up from around 126p March last year to 163.59p on Monday (28). The steep rise in the input costs has squeezed the earnings of the drivers, who have to buy their own fuel.
A flat 5p cut in fuel duty announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak last week has brought the prices only marginally.
Both Uber and Bolt are expected to announce their plans to help the drivers later this week. If Bolt increases its price now, it will be a second hike by the company since January when its price went up 10 per cent.
The near record-high fuel costs have been forcing drivers to avoid long-distance drives which would erode their margins further.
“I’m not going to pick up anybody who is farther away because I’m paying for that extra fuel. So there is a knock-on effect for the customer,” Habib Ur-Rehman, a private-hire driver in Manchester, told The Times.
The erosion of their margins means the drivers have to work extra hours to go back home with a decent amount of money in their pockets.
Raja Khan, a driver for courier company Stuart, said his fuel expenses for two days have gone up from £40 last year to £60 now and this compelled him to work for 13 hours a day to make £100.
The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain suggested that the drivers are unfairly shouldering the burden of high fuel costs.
“It’s crazy that precarious workers are having to shoulder the cost of this crisis. There needs to be an uplift in their fees that mirrors the uplift in the cost of doing their jobs,” Union president Alex Marshall told the newspaper.
London permission for Uber
In an unrelated development, Uber said it has received permission to operate in London under a new 30-month licence, ending a years-long battle with the city transport regulator over safety concerns.
"Uber has been granted a London private hire vehicle operator's licence for two and a half years," a spokesperson for Transport for London (TfL) said in a statement on Saturday (26).
In 2019, Uber lost its licence to carry paying passengers in London for the second time, and a year later the ride-hailing firm was granted an 18-month London licence after a legal battle to restore its operations. The US company first lost its licence in 2017.
Uber had previously claimed that it has assuaged safety concerns by improving insurance document verification systems and rolling out real-time identification.
The firm also struck a deal with Britain's GMB union last year, allowing it to represent up to 70,000 drivers.
Uber UK said it is making efforts to become a fully electric platform by 2025.
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India's GDP growth projected to fall to 6.4 per cent in FY25
Jan 08, 2025
INDIA's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is projected to decline to 6.4 per cent in the financial year 2024-25, marking its lowest rate in four years, according to government data released on Tuesday. The slowdown is attributed to weaker performance in the manufacturing and services sectors.
The growth rate of 6.4 per cent, estimated by the national statistics office (NSO), is the lowest since the contraction of 5.8 per cent recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21. GDP growth was 9.7 per cent in 2021-22, 7 per cent in 2022-23, and 8.2 per cent in 2023-24.
The NSO's first advance estimates are slightly below the Reserve Bank of India's December 2024 projection of 6.6 per cent and the finance ministry's earlier expectation of 6.5-7 per cent. These estimates will guide the preparation of the Union Budget, which India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present on February 1.
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The size of the economy is projected to reach £3.1 trillion in FY25 based on current exchange rates.
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In addition to Reeves, Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, will also attend the event, along with Baroness Gustafsson, the new minister for investment and former chief executive of Darktrace, and Varun Chandra, the prime minister’s special adviser on business and investment.
According to the report, Reeves aims to project optimism and highlight the UK’s economic potential during the event. She will meet with UK business leaders at the forum to address concerns over last year's increase in employer national insurance.
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Nadella, who is leading Microsoft’s push to deepen its footprint in India, thanked PM Modi for his leadership. He said the company was committed to making India “AI-first” and ensuring that its initiatives benefit every citizen.
“Excited to build on our commitment to making India AI-first and work together on our continued expansion in the country to ensure every Indian benefits from this AI platform shift,” Nadella stated.
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It also includes plans to train 10 million people in AI by 2030, building on the 2.4m individuals Microsoft upskilled last year.
This outlay is in addition to Microsoft’s previously announced £64 bn global investment in AI-enabled data centres, set for fiscal 2025.
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INDIA's foreign exchange reserves have dropped for the fourth consecutive week, reaching an eight-month low of £516.26 billion as of December 27, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released on Friday.
The reserves fell by £3.31 bn during the reported week, following a cumulative decline of £11.05 bn over the preceding three weeks.
Changes in the foreign currency assets component of the reserves are influenced by the central bank's interventions in the forex market and fluctuations in the value of foreign assets held.
The RBI has been intervening in the forex market to manage volatility in the rupee. The domestic currency weakened to an all-time low of 85.8075 against the dollar last week, marking a 0.3 per cent decline over the period.
Concerns about slowing economic growth in India and a widening trade deficit have added pressure on the rupee.
These factors, combined with the dollar’s broad strength amid a hawkish US Federal Reserve stance and expectations around US president-elect Donald Trump's policies, have contributed to the decline.
The RBI is believed to have sold dollars through state-run banks to limit rupee weakness and prevent a sharp depreciation.
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The cross-party Business and Trade Committee will also question Temu, the global online marketplace owned by Chinese e-commerce firm PDD Holdings, as part of an inquiry into employment rights opened in October.
The committee, chaired by former Labour minister Liam Byrne, is examining the government's flagship employment rights bill in the context of protections for British workers. But it is also looking at how to ensure adequate protection against importing poor labour standards, including concerns over forced labour.
Shein's general counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Yinan Zhu, has been called to be a witness, an update on the committee website showed.
Stephen Heary, senior legal counsel at Temu, and Leonard Klenner, senior compliance manager at Temu, have also been asked to give evidence.
Shein declined to comment on the hearing. Temu was not immediately available for comment.
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Shein has previously said it is committed to respecting human rights and has a zero-tolerance policy on forced labour. Temu has also said it strictly prohibits forced labour.
Shein was founded in China but is now headquartered in Singapore.
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Margaret Beels, director of labour market enforcement at the Department for Business and Trade, was also asked to speak at the hearing, along with Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleanor Lyons, who last year raised concerns about Shein's London IPO.
McDonald's UK and Ireland CEO Alistair Macrow, and Claire Lorains, quality technical and sustainability director at supermarket group Tesco, were also called to give oral evidence.
(Reuters)
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