Royal Mail has prepared itself for the most high profile privatisation since the railways about 20 years ago.

It was reported that the state-owned postal service will announce its half-year profits tomorrow; a key condition to the flotation which will take place in the third quarter 2013.

Wit an estimated value of £4billion, the Government has also expressed interest to start discussions with potential investors. The privatisation could allow Royal Mail to join the FTSE 100 index of the UK’s biggest companies on the stock market.

Royal Mail’s boss Moya Green wants the shares to be available to postmen, postwomen as well as the public.

Londoners will soon be able to enjoy zero emissions rides as before June 2013  thanks to a partnership between greentomatocars; Londons second largest minicab company and first UK green minicab company and Chinese car manufacturer BYD.

The partnership means up to 50 of BYD’s e6 electric cars will added to the greentomatorcars’ fleet. BYD e6 is a five seat crossover car using a 75kW motor and has a maximum range of 186 miles per charge in urban driving conditions and a top speed of 87mph. The e6 is capable of providing quick acceleration thanks to having its peak torque right from the start.

The deal has been strongly welcomed by Boris John; Mayor of London, who’s always looking for ideas to make London cleaner. “It is my aim that London’s minicabs and taxis will be zero-emissions by 2020, which will have a major impact on air quality”, said Boris. “Every year the fleet is getting cleaner, making our city an even more attractive place to live, work and visit. Encouraging many more electric vehicles is a key part of this transformation, so it is great news that greentomatocars has committed to operating 50 of these super clean machines from next year.”

It’s probably only in China, where there are over 100 million cars and limited parking space, can we discover the new useful feature of convertible cars.

Watch the video below to find out and have a great weekend!

Cyclists, if you are on the lookout for a new, innovative bike, then the Bicymple might tempt you. It’s a chain less bicycle that can travel sideways. Scalyfish Designs, Bicycple’s designer, claims that it’s not just a stylish concept bicycle – the Bicymple is easy to ride and super easy to maintain.

Watch the video below for more details and have a great weekend!

Fancy a nice walk underneath London’s busy streets without a tube breakdown included? The ‘Pop Down’ project may soon be able to deliver that to you, with architects and developers in London aiming to use the forgotten 6.5 mile long Mail Rail tunnel from Paddington to Whitechapel; providing an urban experience.

The project will see the tunnels that were closed in 2003 by Royal Mail after 75 years and delivering over 4 million letters per day be revitalised to create an urban mushroom farm.

While the project may seem a bit fungi, the tunnels provide an ideal environment and fiberglass sculptures at street level will provide filtered light. Additional concepts of ‘Funghi’ restaurants and cafés are also being considered at each entrance as part of the overall project.

The concept developed by Fletcher Priest architects in London, recently won the Green Infrastructure Ideas Competition, hosted by The Mayor of London, The Landscape Institute and the Garden Museum. Other concepts entered included miniature raised gardens on top of bus stops and a lido in Regent’s Canal.

The mushroom garden walk would allow an additional place for people to take a lunch break right under the streets of London, regardless of the weather.

When Mercedes wanted to promote its new F-Cell hydrogen fuel cell electric car, marketed as “virtually invisible to the environment”, it made the car look almost invisible by combining LED technology with high definition DSLR cameras.

Watch the video below to find out more and have a great weekend!

 

If you visited any eBay site yesterday, you would have seen a totally different look of the site, with a brand new logo and a modern look with features similar to Facebook and Pinterest.

Whilst the rest of the site doesn’t change much, the homepage has received the most restructure work. Now called “eBay Feed”. eBay users can now customise their homepage  based on their interests, preferences and shopping history.

eBay’s search has also been greatly improved, with an auto-suggestion feature similar to Google’s. Shoppers are also promised to be given more relevant results and ability to personalise their search results.

One change is not enough for one day at eBay; so on the same day as the launch of their new look, eBay also launched a same day delivery called “eBay Now” in San Francisco, USA. Currently limited to iPhone users, eBay shoppers can use the eBay Now app to order items and have them delivered in as little as an hour.

With main competitors like Amazon offering same day express delivery service, eBay Now could be a real game changer for eBay in satisfying the ever more demanding modern consumers.

Driverless car technology is no doubt still it its infancy and there will be a long time wait until we can get our hands on one, especially with all the legal requirements around it. However, let say we are in 20xx when driverless cars are a reality, how would it change the world?

For normal people, the difference might just be “to drive or not to drive” but for someone like Steve Mahan, a blind man who lives in California, it could be life changing. See Google’s driverless car and Steve in action below.

If you are visiting Amsterdam soon, expect to see the latest green transport solution offered to commuters – the Hopper taxi service. Hopper operates hundreds of electric scooters, offering a taxi service at a fixed price of €2.50 within the city centre.

Hopper scooters in action (source: allinx.eu)

Hopper electric scooter has a maximum speed of 25 kph (around 15mph) and can drive up to 130km per full charge.  Given a single tram ticket costs €2.70, this new service is expected to be welcome by Amsterdamers who are known for their early adoption of green ideas.

Ruben Beugels, Hopper’s founder who started the idea of Hopper after being stranded when a tram broke 6 years ago, calls the scooters a “new form of public transport,” says they will help bridge the gap between using public transport and getting to your final destination, or that last kilometre – right to the doorstep.

 

Hate it or not, Royal Mail postmen will start leaving parcels with your neighbour if you are out from today. And you can’t choose which neighbour to receive your parcel either. So please make sure you are good friends with the ones next door.

This new scheme means you might not see the famous “Sorry you were out” cards, unless you choose to opt out of the scheme by ordering a sticker to put on your front door or letter box.

In case your parcel goes missing, you will only get standard compensation of maximum £46. However, items sent by Special Delivery, international parcels from abroad and high value parcels are excluded from this scheme.

Critics have raised concerns that items could be lost or damaged by neighbours but Royal Mail came to this decision after a successful trial in around 750,000 homes in the UK so these potential issues might not happen as much as we fear.

Given the fact that Royal Mail is the biggest delivery company in the UK, this scheme will more or less affect everyone in the country. Therefore, if you haven’t said hi to the ones next door, do it now as you might need to knock at their doors often.