GOODS SERVICES BY ROAD.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20905, 12 July 1933, Page 10

GOODS SERVICES BY ROAD.

NEW REGULATIONS. ELIMINATION OF WASTE. A definite improvement in the control and operation of goods road transport services and the elimination of waste are expected to result from the enforcement of the regulations gazetted some time ago, according to the Commissioner of Transport, Mr J. S. Hunter, who arrived in Christchurch from Wellington yesterday. He said that the Dominion's transport legislation could now be compared favourably with that operating in most progressive countries, and the A-ork of eliminating uneconomic competition with passenger services was proceeding satisfactorily. Mr Hunter said that the legislation 1 governing the passenger transport services of the Dominion had worked as it was hoped it would in the removal of definitely wasteful competition and the consolidation of services. Following the apj plication of the regulations last i year, several million vehicle miles I had been cut off the running of serI vices throughout the country. The general aim had been to do away with duplication, thus allowing operators to concentrate on one dis- : trict with a consolidated service ra--1 stead of permitting unnecessary i running. ! The goods service regulations applied to vehicles operating over a i distance of more than five miles on main highways, and they would be I administered in much the same way j as the passenger service regulations, !the hope being that they would assist in the same objects being atI tained. District licensing committees which dealt with passenger services under the regulations would also deal with applications for goods services and they would shortly open I their sittings for the purpose of hearing applications for goods service licenses. . Discussing the statements made in Parliament last session concerning the proposal to overhaul transport legislation, Mr Hunter said that he thought this would deal with trolleybuses. These were defined as motor I vehicles. In Auckland and Christj church the Transport Board and the Tramway Board respectively were the operating authorities and the city councils the licensing authorities. In Wellington, the City Council was both the licensing authority and the operating body, and he thought a move would be made to make the law uniform in respect of these buses.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Hunter conferred with operators of passenger transport services and officers of the Railways Department in Christchurch. To-day he will meet proprietors of goods services to discuss the new regulations.