The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1937. THE TAXI BUSINESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 98, 27 April 1937, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1937. THE TAXI BUSINESS.

JHer tto mu*e tfcet toefce ewetetawee, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good thiU ice cum do.

The taxi lias taken a more important place ■in the transport system than the public until now has realised. According to the Committee of Inquiry, the revenue of the taxi business in the year ended March 31, 1936, was .£850,000. In the same period the revenue from passengers in buses and service ears was iC900,000, in electric trains £1,257,505, and in railways £1,466,617. The total number o£ licensed taxis exceeds 1800, and it is estimated that they carry 10 million passengers jiii a year. The committee was impressed by i the growth in the demand for taxis to provide [transport as required to localities not served by trams or buses. But the committee found the business generally to be in a "confused and chaotic state," and that in consequence the labour engaged is paying "a heavy penalty in the form of long hours and low earnings." Therefore the. committee recommends that all taxi services be brought under the Transport Licensing Act, as service ears, buses and goods trucks are already, and, inter alia, that uniformity of working conditions, wages and hours should be secured. The Minister of \ Transport, the Hon. B. Semple, to-day intimates that these recommendations will be given legislative effect.

Those who have read the committee's report will not resist the conclusion that a [substantial measure of reform has been shown to be necessary, but as to the wisdom of the specific measures proposed they will be less certain. The committee contrasts the present state of the taxi business with that of buses and service cars under license and regulation. In the one, it says, "cutthroat competition is rampant"; in the others there is now practically no overlapping and duplication. But the conditions of demand in the taxi business are peculiar to it, and it appears certain that, if the service to the public is to continue unimpaired, without any substantial increase of fares, licensing and control are going to be exceedingly difficult. The "peak demand" for taxis in the cities arises between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.; no other "peak" approaches it; and for more than 12 hours ont of the 24 there is very little demand. Moreover, from day to day the demand varies with weather conditions, in such a way as to make estimate most difficult. Many thousand people come to the city each morning by tram, bus or train, and the controllers of those services know that the same number will return from the city in the late afternoon or evening. There is no such certainty about the number of taxi passengers. Thus the initiaJ, and perhaps the most perplexing, task of the licensing authority will be to determine how many taxis are needed in a specific area. If its estimate is too low, there will be public discontent; if too high, some of the taxis will be unable to earn the amount in fares that must be earned if a minimum wage is to be paid.

The committee has recommended that the taxi business be allowed 18 months in which to improve its internal organisation, and that after that time, if necessary, "licensing authorities take steps to organise one association ... in the principal towns." Along these lines a solution of the problem may be found. In the past the efforts of large-scale organisations have always been hampered, and sometimes they have been defeated, by the rate-cutting activities of individuals. Under a system of licensing, and of uniformity of wages and hours, such efforts should be more successful. The licensing authority would also fix fares, and fixation is desirable from every point of view. Many people refrain now from I using taxis, except in an emergency, because !of uncertainty about the fare* It is at least possible that under regulation the increase in the volume of business would be great enough to offset the increases in costs which will be inevitable when hours and wages are prescribed.