ROAD TRANSPORT LICENSING

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27470, 2 October 1954, Page 3

ROAD TRANSPORT LICENSING

SYSTEM DEFENDED BY INDUSTRY SPOKESMAN DENIAL OF “MONOPOLY” CHARGE (New Zeawna Press GISBORNE. °, ct °l’_ e . r ns l in g A denial that transport } lc ®'^ 1 g g creates a monopoly was nlad S nd R oa d the president of the New Zealand Transport Alliance (Mr W D. inomp son) in his report to the annual con ference in Gisborne. lirpnqing “Some critics of tra " sp ?llJ ICuJdwarcrue that in other business unae Sgt limitation of competiton has been found unnecessary, he sad. a principal factor .’n transport P tions was the. highly-valued public property comprised in roaas. Uncontrolled! competition was not desirable in transport if the aim M adequate and safe transport services were to be maintained, said Mr Thomp son. “Today there are some 5800 goods licensees, an average of more than 500 in every transport licensing dis trict. each holding a licence over tne whole of the district.” In the last five years there just on 2000 new licences granted ana more than 2500 transfers- that is, there have been more than 4000 new entrants into the business.’ In 1950, he said, returned servicemen held half the goods service licences. Since the war there had been an increase of 50 per cent, in licences and an almost complete turnover in the ownership of transport business. In the long run the public paid more for wasteful competition. Licensing had done no more than tne legislatittn intended it to do—to regulate the industry in the public interest, Mr Thompson concluded.