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Nearly half ( 49 %) of small businesses say they have not benefitted from falling inflation this year , according to a new poll commissioned by iwoca – one of Europe ’ s largest SME lenders .
The research also reveals that the cost of doing business is too high for half ( 50 %) of the UK ’ s 5.6 million small- and mediumsized companies .
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Rising costs have hit the vast majority of small businesses , with just 15 % of SMEs saying that they have not experienced cost increases over the last six months .
While households brace for a 9 % rise in Ofgem ’ s energy price cap this winter , small businesses are already feeling the heat . According to iwoca ’ s polling , nearly a third ( 28 %) of companies cite soaring energy bills as their biggest cost increase , while a quarter ( 23 %) point to business supplies being more expensive .
With costs going up , nearly half ( 45 %) of small businesses predict that they will have to raise their prices over the next six months .
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B2B Software-as-a-Service fleet management company , GoMetro , has been selected as a recipient of a significant grant from the Freight Innovation Fund .
Group CEO and Founder of GoMetro , Justin Coetzee , said : “ The grant will be used to finance a six-month trial with leading logistics companies Maritime Transport and Welch ’ s Transport to implement GoMetro ’ s EV-FIT solution for electric vehicle ( EV ) fleet transformation and the GoMetro Bridge fleet management software platform .”
With its trial partners , GoMetro will be collecting and analysing fleet movement data for a chosen depot , from which they will identify critical vehicle and infrastructure specification needs .
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“ The grant is an amazing validation for GoMetro in the UK freight market , and implementing our solution with major logistics players is an incredible opportunity to show how our software platform can help fleet owners achieve better results ,” Coetzee continued .
The funding is the third tranche of the department ’ s Freight Innovation Fund Accelerator Programme .
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