itsonthemove.com Miniblog

Highland Drift: Whisky, Tourism and the Cost of Slow Transport

In the Highlands, distance is never just geography; it’s payroll, shift patterns, missed ferries, delayed casks, and tourists rethinking the trip. At GMB Scotland’s annual Congress in Blackpool on 8 June, the union argued that weak road, rail and sea links across northern Scotland are damaging the region’s economy and called on both the Scottish and UK governments to treat transport as essential infrastructure, not a someday ambition.

The union tied the problem directly to Scotch whisky and tourism. Using Scotch Whisky Association figures, it said the industry contributes £7 billion (US$9.33bn) to the UK economy and supports about 11,000 jobs in the Highlands. Scotland’s distilleries also draw roughly two million visitors each year.

Yet the route that stitches much of this together, the A9 from Perth to Inverness, remains a symbol of drift. GMB Scotland said only 11 miles have been dualled in more than a decade, and completion could still be 10 years away.

Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary, said the region’s signature industries depend on dependable roads and ferries, and that when those links fail, workers, families and communities absorb the loss through wasted time and reduced opportunity.

The union said better connectivity would protect existing employers in the Highlands and islands while making rural Scotland more credible for future investment.

Posted on 9 June 2026

Walmart Turns the Grocery Run Into a Sandwich Run, Too

The modern errand has become a kind of centaur: half grocery run, half dinner plan. Walmart is now leaning into that reality by turning its app into a place where shoppers can add a sandwich to the soap and bananas.

In select stores, customers can order Subway through Walmart.com or the Walmart app and have it arrive in 30 minutes or less. The meal can come by itself or ride along with a Walmart Express Delivery order. The delivery charge is a flat $10.

Menu prices will match what customers pay in the restaurant, and some participating locations will offer items available only through this arrangement.

The rollout begins with Subway, which has spent about 20 years tucked inside many Walmart locations, but Walmart says the idea is bigger than sandwiches. Over time, the company plans to include other in-store restaurants as well.

For now, the service is live at select Walmart stores in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. By the end of summer, Walmart expects it to reach about 1,400 locations.

Eligibility depends on where a customer lives. If the address tied to a Walmart account falls within a participating area, the Subway option should appear online or in the app.

Subway North America President Damien Harmon described the move as the next step in the chain’s long partnership with Walmart, centered on convenience, value and fresh-made meals.

Posted on 8 June 2026

Limoges Bets Big on Electric Buses and Smarter Trolleybuses

Limoges is giving its transit system the kind of makeover that usually ends with everyone saying, wow, you look so much cleaner. Through the Moovéo programme, created with local operator TCL, the city plans to electrify and reorganise major parts of its network by 2030 using battery-electric buses and updated trolleybuses.

The headline move is the launch of two Bus Rapid Transit lines. Line A will run 13.6 kilometres from Beaubreuil to the University Hospital, with buses arriving every six to nine minutes. Line B will stretch just under 10 kilometres between Val de l’Aurence and Panazol, operating every eight to ten minutes. Both corridors will be served only by battery-electric buses, with 33 vehicles assigned in total.

Limoges is not new to electric transit. Its trolleybus network has been running since 1943, and the current five routes handle about half of all passenger trips. Under the overhaul, that system will be reshaped into four lines, labelled T1 through T4. The next-generation trolleybuses will include onboard batteries, letting them continue beyond sections without overhead wires.

Iveco Bus, via its French arm Heuliez, has won the supply deal for 20 to 45 articulated electric buses plus 13 battery-electric 12-metre models. Vehicle deliveries are due to start in 2028 and continue over four years.

Posted on 4 June 2026

High Gas Prices Turn Food Delivery Into a Tougher Hustle

In Milwaukee, the food-delivery economy is being mugged by arithmetic. Wisconsin gas prices have eased lately, but regular still averages about $4.35 a gallon—roughly $1.50 more than a year ago—and that long stretch of high fuel costs is cutting directly into what drivers keep.

The problem lands hardest on people whose job is essentially turning gasoline into dinner. Tony Robertson, who delivers for DoorDash as a side gig about five days a week, says fuel spending quickly eats into earnings. For drivers without another steady job, he indicates, the math gets especially rough: make money, then immediately feed it to the gas tank.

That pressure is changing behavior. To protect profit, many delivery workers are passing on low-pay trips that require longer drives. Robertson says experience helps; after enough time on the platform, he can decline less worthwhile orders with less risk to his standing in the app.

The slowdown is also showing up at Paper Table Food Co., a downtown ghost kitchen built for pickup and delivery rather than dine-in service. Worker David Wright says fewer drivers have been coming through as gas costs climbed. The facility houses several kitchens, though he says Wingstop generates most of the orders.

Uber and DoorDash have offered temporary fuel assistance and gas cash-back cards, but the help has been limited. Robertson says sticking with the work is still possible, especially with weekly pay and another source of income for gas.

Posted on 2 June 2026

Papa Johns Sends Sandwiches Skyward While Pizza Waits Its Turn

Papa Johns is trialing drone delivery with Wing, Alphabet’s drone arm, in Indian Trail, North Carolina, near Sun Valley Commons. Very futuristic, though in a pleasingly daft twist, the aircraft are not carrying pizza yet. They’re carrying Oven Toasted Sandwiches: Philly Cheesesteak, Chicken Bacon Ranch, and Steak & Mushroom.

That odd little detour is practical. Sandwich boxes are compact and forgiving. Pizza boxes are broad, flat, and temperamentally theatrical. Drones have payload limits, and a hot pizza wants to remain level unless you fancy a mozzarella avalanche. So Papa Johns and Wing are using this test to learn the mechanics of airborne food delivery while developing custom aerodynamic packaging that might eventually let pizzas fly without becoming abstract art.

For now, qualifying customers order through the Wing app. Residents around Charlotte can check eligibility at wing.com/get-delivery. The longer plan is more integrated: Wing’s network could be built into the Papa Johns app alongside the company’s Google Cloud-based AI ordering agent.

This is Wing’s first direct partnership with a national restaurant chain and part of a broader attempt to make drone delivery operationally useful, not merely flashy. Stores need workflow changes, pickup space, packaging that survives flight, and systems that function during busy meal periods.

Pizza by drone is possible: Flytrex and Little Caesars are testing it in Wylie, Texas, with a drone that carries up to 8.8 pounds up to four miles, including two large pizzas and drinks.

Posted on 1 June 2026

Walmart Bets the Modern Errand Can Disappear in 30 Minutes

The frontier in retail is no longer abundance but latency: how little time can exist between a small domestic need and the arrival of a bag at the door. Walmart, leaning on the ordinary geographic fact of its stores being almost everywhere, is extending 30-minute-or-less delivery to 33 U.S. markets as of May 28, 2026.

The offer covers more than 100,000 eligible products, including groceries, pharmacy orders and prescriptions, baby items, pet food, electronics, household supplies, pantry basics, and fresh food. The company says the service responds to increasingly immediate shopping behavior: batteries and party supplies on the general-merchandise side, dog food and cold-and-flu medicine among consumables, and grocery gap-fillers such as coffee pods and canned goods.

The rollout includes Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, Tampa, and Oklahoma City, among other markets. Shoppers in eligible areas will see a 30-minutes-or-less option tied to their account address.

Walmart says an algorithm weighs basket size, driver supply, and distance from the store. In the first quarter alone, it completed millions of deliveries within 30 minutes across more than 19,000 ZIP codes. More than a year into the effort, 26% of its Express deliveries already arrive that quickly.

Pricing for Walmart+ members is $10. Other same-day tiers remain: Express in under an hour, On-Demand in as soon as three hours, and Scheduled delivery windows.

Posted on 31 May 2026

Ferrari’s Electric Leap Arrived Like a Spectacle and Landed Like an Argument

Ferrari staged the debut of its first fully electric car, the 550,000-euro Luce, with the hush-hush intensity of a state secret and the result was a very public wobble. About six weeks after invitations went out, guests were ferried by police-escorted dark vans to Rome’s Vela di Calatrava complex, where security covered phone and laptop cameras and repeatedly checked for tampering.

The launch, five years in the making, was choreographed beneath Santiago Calatrava’s vast ribbed structure. Components of the EV were displayed first, including seats and other elements created with former Apple design chief Jony Ive. Then came John Elkann, Benedetto Vigna and senior executives, plus a video of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc teasing the unrevealed car.

When the Luce finally appeared in five colors, with lights blazing and music thumping, it marked a sharp visual break from Ferrari tradition. It was often shown in blue rather than the company’s signature red. Inside, the first Ferrari five-seater offered a roomy cabin with a camel-colored, high-luxury interior.

Markets and social media recoiled the next morning. Ferrari shares fell 8%, and the design drew mockery, memes and AI clips. Critics argued the minimalist, iPhone-adjacent look jarred with Ferrari’s identity. Even so, some analysts think scarcity, collector appetite and brand power may still carry the Luce. Posted on 29 May 2026

Ferrari Bets on a Polarising Electric Future With the Luce

Ferrari has entered the battery era with the Luce, its first fully electric model, priced at $640,000 (£474,320) and due later this year. The Rome unveiling marks a striking break with tradition: this is Ferrari’s first five-seater, and its shape was developed with LoveFrom, the design firm founded by former Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive.

Named after the Italian word for light, the Luce has been in development for five years. It uses four Ferrari-built electric motors, one at each wheel, and can reach 60mph (96km/h) in about 2.5 seconds. Ferrari says every major component is made in-house, a strategy meant to support long-term servicing and protect resale values.

The design has split opinion online. Some responses on X cast the car as a betrayal of the brand, comparing it unfavorably with Jaguar’s heavily criticised electric concept. Others hailed it as a bold and beautiful leap. Ferrari design chief Flavio Manzoni has framed that backlash as a familiar stage in innovation and suggested attitudes may soften over time.

The launch comes as other supercar makers retreat from all-electric plans. Lamborghini has switched its focus to hybrids, citing weak demand for luxury EVs. Porsche has also pulled back, squeezed by soft Chinese sales and US tariffs. Ferrari, notably, is not going all in: petrol and hybrid models will remain alongside the Luce.

Posted on 26 May 2026

Tesla Opens China’s Gate to FSD, but Arrives to a Crowded Field

After years spent knocking at a closed gate, Tesla has finally brought Full Self-Driving (Supervised) to China, naming the country among 10 markets where the system is now offered. The move follows repeated delays since 2024 and lands in a market where domestic electric-vehicle makers have not stood still.

For years, Chinese Tesla owners had access only to Autopilot and Enhanced Autopilot, with limited FSD functions reserved for select users while approvals remained unresolved. Even now, the technology is not fully autonomous: FSD (Supervised) still demands a driver ready to steer or brake, while an unsupervised version remains confined to Tesla’s Robotaxi trials in Texas.

Whether broad consumer rollout in China has fully begun remains uncertain. Tesla’s China site lists intelligent assisted driving for the Model 3 at 64,000 yuan, or about $9,409, and says updates will arrive shortly.

Tesla had expected approval by late 2024, then again in September 2024, and was still waiting as recently as April, when CFO Vaibhav Taneja said the process was ongoing. Hiring for autopilot test engineers in China had stirred speculation just before the announcement.

Meanwhile, rivals such as Xiaomi and Xpeng pressed ahead. China granted its first level-three certifications in December 2025 to Changan Auto and BAIC Motor. Reuters reported Tesla’s system is classified at level two. Robotaxi operators Pony.ai and Baidu’s Apollo Go already run driverless commercial services. In April, Tesla ranked fourth in China EV sales, behind BYD, Geely and Chery.

Posted on 25 May 2026

Summer’s Fare War: Travelers Press On as Fuel Costs Rise and Spirit Falls

Summer travel is entering the season under a harsher sun: fuel. Airfares in April reached $623 for a domestic round trip, the loftiest level in nearly four years, ARC data show, while gasoline has climbed above $4 a gallon and AAA says it could approach $5 before summer ends.

The squeeze began after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran helped ignite a conflict that effectively closed a crucial shipping lane. In less than three months, jet fuel prices doubled. For airlines, fuel trails only labor in cost, and carriers are pushing more of that burden onto passengers even as they trim growth. Fewer flights on some routes mean fewer seats, and with demand still strong, prices face more upward pressure.

Spirit Airlines, long the best-known U.S. discounter, shut down earlier this month after failing to emerge from near consecutive bankruptcies, citing jet fuel among the blows. Its fall, the largest U.S. airline collapse in decades, removed a major source of cheap tickets.

Road trips offer little mercy. AAA expects 39.1 million people to drive at least 50 miles over Memorial Day, up just 0.1%, the weakest growth in a decade. GasBuddy sees Memorial Day gas averaging $4.48, versus $3.14 a year ago, and perhaps $4.80 through Labor Day if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed.

Yet travelers still come. TSA expects 18.3 million screenings through next Wednesday, near last year’s 18.5 million. UBS put March leisure-travel intent at 82.8%, barely below 83.1% a year earlier and still near nine-year highs. United expects 53 million summer travelers; American sees 75 million from May 21 to Sept. 8, above its 2019 record. Flexible flyers may still find bargains using Google Flights’ Explorer, choosing Tuesday or Wednesday departures, and spending miles before they lose value.

Posted on 24 May 2026

Fuel Duty Cut Kept in Place as Rising Energy Costs Reverberate

At the pump, policy now arrives like weather: first a squall, then a stay of rain. The 5p-a-litre cut in fuel duty, due to begin disappearing in September, will instead survive until the end of 2026. That reduction was first introduced in March 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine drove up petrol and diesel costs, and what was meant to last a year has since become a recurring emergency measure.

The latest extension comes as fighting involving the US, Israel and Iran has tightened global oil and liquified natural gas supplies. On Monday, average petrol prices reached 158.52p a litre, their highest since the Iran war began, according to the RAC.

The government says keeping duty lower this tax year will cost £455m, a decision made possible by stronger growth figures. Keir Starmer linked the move directly to events in the Middle East.

There is extra relief for industries that run on the less glamorous fuels of the economy. From the middle of next month until year-end, duty on red diesel will fall by more than a third to 6.48p a litre, easing costs for farmers using tractors and other machinery. HGVs will also get a 12-month vehicle excise duty holiday, worth about £600 for a typical heavy lorry, aimed at softening supply-chain pressures that can feed through to shop prices.

The unresolved question is merely postponed: what happens in spring. Posted on 23 May 2026

Old Paddle Steamer Steps In as Mull Ferry Falters

On Tuesday evening, in the Sound of Mull, an elderly survivor of another age briefly stepped in where modern necessity had faltered. The 79-year-old paddle steamer Waverley, launched on its maiden voyage in 1947 and still the world’s last seagoing vessel of its kind, took aboard 42 foot passengers at Craignure and carried them to Oban after CalMac’s MV Isle of Mull suffered a fault.

The breakdown left CalMac relying on MV Loch Frisa, but its 18:40 sailing could not take everyone. At that point, Waverley’s crew offered assistance. Its owners later said the crew had been “delighted to help out”.

A spokesperson added: “We were happy to be able to offer this at no cost given the support CalMac has shown towards Waverley over many years.”

MV Isle of Mull has since gone back into service after spare parts were installed. Yet the wider west coast network remains troubled. MV Isle of Lewis is still out while components are found for repairs. On Friday, electrical engineers are due to begin work on a bow thruster problem aboard MV Lord of the Isles.

Elsewhere, MV Loch Seaforth and the new MV Isle of Islay are operating single-ended because of bow ramp faults. With only aft ramps usable, vehicles must turn on the car deck before disembarking; some larger ones have had to reverse on.

Transport Scotland said it recognised the impact ferry disruption can have on island communities and passenger safety.

Posted on 22 May 2026

Summer’s Fuel Contest: Gasoline Challenges Jet for Every Barrel

American refiners are approaching summer with a problem fit for a crowded auction room: every barrel can only be split so many ways. Along the Gulf Coast, some of the world’s most margin-sensitive plants have lately chased the richer prize—jet fuel—after the war in Iran jarred inventories and prices. As Natalia Losada of Energy Aspects put it, “U.S. refiners have been maximizing jet fuel production at the expense of gasoline and diesel yields. Gasoline is going to need to compete for yield going into the summer.”

The numbers are stark. EIA data show U.S. jet fuel output above 2 million barrels a day in each of the last four weeks—the first such run on record. Valero Energy Corp. and Marathon Petroleum Corp. have added jet-making capability, including at sites not usually geared for it. In Europe, too, processors are in “max jet mode,” Shell executive Frans Everts said.

Yet the driving season is arriving with gasoline inventories at their weakest seasonal point since 2014, and imports at the lowest for this time of year this century. Gasoline refining margins hover near $50 a barrel, the loftiest since the 2022 energy crunch. “It turns into a bidding war,” said Eugene Lindell of FGE NexantECA. “Gasoline wins now. And then jet says, ‘Hey, listen Buster, I see your 20 and I raise you.’”

If refiners swing toward gasoline, Europe and the U.K.—already buying unusually large Gulf Coast diesel and jet cargoes as Middle East flows wobble, per Vortexa—could feel the pinch. Susan Bell of Rystad noted summer blends naturally yield less gasoline per barrel; to push output higher, refiners must “steal” components from jet and diesel. “Both jet yield and diesel will fall,” she said. Andy Lipow summed up the logic: refiners make whatever pays most. Posted on 20 May 2026

Malta Puts a Price on Not Driving

Malta is trying to buy a little breathing room from the automobile. On an island where cars crowd the asphalt and congestion hangs around like cigar smoke, the government is offering young residents 25,000 euros — about $28,650 — to give up their driver’s licenses for five years.

The plan, called the “Driving License Surrender Scheme,” targets drivers aged 30 or younger. To qualify, a person must have lived in Malta at least seven years, held a license for no less than 12 months, and have no record of suspension or revocation. The money comes in five annual payments of 5,000 euros. Quit early and the recipient has to pay back the appropriate share.

Transport Minister Chris Bonett says the scheme aims to produce a “mobility shock,” especially before dependence on private cars hardens into reflex. In a country with one of Europe’s highest vehicle densities, that sounds less like a slogan than a survival tactic.

Malta has set aside €5 million a year, enough for 1,000 participants annually. Early response has reportedly been strong, suggesting that for plenty of younger drivers, cash has more pull than a steering wheel.

There’s a catch with teeth: once a license is surrendered, it is treated as permanently suspended. After the five years are up, getting back behind the wheel means taking 15 hours of driving lessons and earning a new license.

Posted on 17 May 2026