TAXI CONTROL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 290, 8 December 1933, Page 3

TAXI CONTROL.

TRANSPORT BOARD'S BILL. CITY IN OPPOSITION! The proposed vesting in the Auckland Transport Board of the sole right to make by-laws for the licensing- and regulating of taxi cabs within the Auckland Transport district was discussed at last night's meeting of the Auckland City Council, when reports wero received from the Mayor, who heard a deputation from the Transport Board and from Mr. Geo. Hogan, chief traffic inspector. The council decided to oppose the Transport Board's suggestions.

Tho Mayor reported that a deputation comprising Messrs. E. H. Potter, deputychairman of the Transport Board, G. R. Hutchinson, H. G. R. Mason, and W. St. J. Clarke, secretary of the Transport Board, had waited on him, and that Mr. Potter had stated that the Auckland Transport Board proposed to introduce, through Mr. Mason, an amendment to the Municipal Corporations Bill, providing that within the Auckland Transport district, the power to make by-laws in relation to vehicles carrying passengers for hire would be vested in the Auckland Transport Board and in it only. This would entail the licensing of taxis by the Transport Board, which is at present done by the City Council.

In the chief traffic inspector's report, it was stated that tht> average amount of fees derived from the issue of licenses for taxi cabs for the five-yearly period ending March 31, 1933, was approximately £800 per year. Of this amount, the council received approximately half, the remainder being distributed between the 16 contiguous local bodies. This arrangement had been in operation for many years, the council issuing licenses and exercising supervision of the taxi cabs, and the taxi cabs being permitted to operate in the districts of the several local bodies without further payment of fees. The proportion of the fees received by the council was barely sufficient to reimburse it for the cost of supervision.

The supervision and control of taxis entailed the testing of drivers and frequent inspection and testing of brakes; the quarterly inspection of vehicles for mechanical fitness; the frequent inspection and testing of taxi meters for accuracy; the supervision of taxi stands and the erection of signs; the collection of license fees and the issue of licenses and license plates; maintenance of a system for the receipt of property lost in taxi cabs, and the storing and return or sale of same; the prosecution of offenders against the by-laws and regultaions.

Considerable time was devoted to the investigation of complaints regarding overcharges of fares, etc., and inquiries necessary in cases of persons applying for taxi drivers' licenses.

The Transport Board gave as its reasons for the necessity for the change of control that it was acting in response to a deputation from the Auckland Taxi Owners' Association, said the chief traffic inspector's report. The membership of the association, numbering 15, represented approximately 5 per cent of the taxi cab operators in the city area, and the board could scarcely justify its action on the grounds that the deputation was representative of either the ratepayers, taxi cab users, or taxi cab operators in the Auckland district. In the absence of the requisite statutory powers, the board was in no better position to fix a minimum fare or limit the number of cabs than was the City Council, but as the Municipal Corporations Act was being amended, there was every justification for stating that the council would be better able to administer the provisions of the amendments than would the board.

The board, in its proposals, did not intimate whether it was prepared to take over the supervision and inspection at present undertaken by the council's traffic department, and it was possible that, should be the board be successful in securing the authority it desired, the council would be left with the responsibility of supervision and control.

Question of Representation. Mr. J. E. Meehan, a member of the executive of the Auckland Taxi-drivers' Association, said this morning that the petition to the Government that the whole of the taxi business in Auckland should be placed under the control of the Auckland Transport Board was signed by 100 taxi-drivers out of Auckland's fleet of approximately 250.