Top Stories
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Hertz, Avis, Enterprise sue Chicago over bidding for new O’Hare facility
TransportHertz Corp. and Avis Budget Car Rental LLC are among four car rental companies suing the City of Chicago over the bidding to occupy a new facility to be built at O’Hare International Airport. The third-biggest U.S. city and its Aviation Department are requiring the companies to guarantee payment of rising facility construction costs and [...]
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Electric car maker Tesla pays off U.S. government loan a decade early
TransportCall it Elon Unchained. With the early repayment yesterday of Tesla Motors Inc.’s loan from the U.S. Energy Department, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is free to run the electric-car maker for the benefit of himself and other shareholders. As a co-founder of PayPal, CEO of rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and chairman of [...]
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Memorial Day road trips driven by fee fatigue
TransportThe number of Americans driving during the Memorial Day holiday weekend will rise 0.3 percent from a year earlier to the highest level in eight years, according to a forecast by AAA. Approximately 31.2 million Americans plan to drive to their destinations, up from 31.1 million who drove last year, according to Heathrow, Florida-based AAA, [...]
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Eight questions for Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx
TransportIf confirmed as the next Secretary of Transportation, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx will have opportunities to break with the business-as-usual transportation policy that revolves around Washington and special-interest politics. It is important to the confirmation process to understand Foxx’s position on existing programs and to what extent he agrees with the Administration’s centrally run, command-and-control [...]
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Greyhound to mimic airlines and charge more during peak travel periods
TransportGreyhound, the iconic U.S. bus brand, has turned to pricing models used by the airline industry as it seeks a ticketing system capable of boosting profitability by charging more for travel during peak periods. FirstGroup Plc, the U.K. company that owns Greyhound, will spend as much $40 million on computerized yield-management technology to replace Greyhound’s [...]
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Five startups that want to define the future of travel in five different ways
DigitalBetween business and leisure travel, transportation that ranges from planes to bikes, and booking platforms for everything from hotels to tours, there are endless opportunities to define the future of travel. This week’s SkiftSeedlings speaks to that breadth of opportunity by including everything from a media company looking to launch the world’s largest consumer travel [...]
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Do Hailo and Uber taxi e-hail apps defy a NYC judge’s orders? Nobody knows
TransportNew York City’s much-anticipated e-hail app program was cut short by a temporary restraining order (TRO) just days after launch, but that hasn’t halted the operations of the two startups that were already approved for participation. Hailo and Uber‘s cab drivers continue to pick up passengers via the companies’ mobile e-hail apps every day. Why do they [...]
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Boston airport employees indicted for accepting bribes from line-cutting cabbies
TransportA grand jury has indicted five employees of the Massachusetts Port Authority for allegedly taking bribes from cab drivers and letting them cut ahead of other taxis to pick up passengers at Logan International Airport. The five men face charges including soliciting or accepting a bribe as a public employee and soliciting or accepting an [...]
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Car sharing startup RelayRides acquires Wheelz for its unlocking technology
TransportWith a still small, but growing, market around people that want to rent out their personal cars to their neighbors, some consolidation seemed inevitable. On Tuesday startup RelayRides, which was one of the first companies to jump into the neighborhood car sharing market, announced that it has acquired Wheelz, a startup that had originally focused [...]
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Early adopters of electric cars are rich, urban, educated men
TransportA study from Norway sheds a little light on what kind of person is buying electric cars, and how they drive. The Institute of Transport Economics in Norway concludes that the typical early-adopter of an electric vehicle is likely to be a man, probably middle-aged, living in or near a big city who has a high income and [...]
