TAXI CONTROL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 243, 13 October 1936, Page 5

TAXI CONTROL.

INQUIRY AT INVERCARGILL. TENTATIVE AGREEMENT. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) INVERCARGILL Monday. The committee set up by the Government to inquire into tlie taxi business held its first sitting in Invercargill today. Of great assistance to the committee was the information that a tentative agreement had been, reached between the employers, tlie Invercargill Taxi Proprietors' Association, and the employees, the Southland Taxi Drivers' Association. The terms of the agreement, amended after a conference late in the proceedings, set a minimum wage of £4 a week for drivers, limited the number of hours worked and made provision for annual holidays. An advance in the fares charged for taxi work in Invercargill was proposed by the proprietors. In presenting the case for the taxi proprietors, Mr. T. R. Prvde said that the taxi industry was not in such need of improvement in Invercarglil as had been shown by the reports of the industry in northern centres. Good service was provided in Invercargill with reasonably good conditions for drivers. He was pleased to say that a satisfactory agreement had been reached between the owners and drivers. There was no "slave-driving" in the industry in Invercargill. Mr. Pryde said that the operation of rental cars was an innovation and was regarded as a very serious menace to the taxi industry. He suggested that rental cars should be placed as far as j possible on the same basis as taxis. I