Critics Of School Buses Described As Unjust

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30536, 3 September 1964, Page 25

Critics Of School Buses Described As Unjust

Commenting on recent criticism of school buses, the president of the New Zealand School Bus Proprietors’ Association (Mr W. S. Aitken, of Geraldine) said at a recent meeting of his association that it would appear from a leading article in “The Press'* that private operators of school buses did nothing to their vehicles from one Transport Department inspection to the next and that some possibly did not meet requirements between inspections. Surely this was an unjust statement to make of school bus operators, Mr Aitken said. Most privately-operated buses were checked once a fortnight and serviced, if required, by A grade mechanics. School buses had also been criticised by a Piako delegate to the National Party conference, Mr Aitken said, and this criticism concerned safety standards. He agreed, Mr Aitken said, that school buses and other buses should be as safe as possible. If the mileage rate and the way in which it was arrived at were revised to comply with today’s costs, something most certainly could be done to improve the present standard of the buses, and in that event he felt sure that such criticism of the private operator would no longer be made. A statement by the Director of Education in the radio news recently that the old, overcrowded school buses be longed to private operators and not the Education Department was an unjustified attack, Mr Aitken said. “He knows quite well that operators are paid on a mileage rate and not on numbers, as his statement could make one believe. If privatelyoperated buses are overcrowded it is the transport officer in the district concerned who is responsible, not the operator,” Mr Aitken said. Age of Buses The much-offered criticism of the age of some school buses was also unjust. Buses might be rebuilt to equal the condition of new buses, end it was the condition thal really counted. Mr Aitken said he was shocked at a report from the Auckland Education Board about the behaviour of child ren on school buses. "Here we have some children destroying the interioi of the buses, yet parents are complaining of the comfori and safety standards oi school buses. What are we te do? The transport officer ol the education board and the board itself cannot make uf their minds what to do ir the circumstances,” Mr Ait ken said. If the board was not pre pared to take steps to sto; this type of behaviour, how then, could the standard oi buses be improved? Mr Aitken said he should also refer to the many un favourable criticisms mad< by the farming community. 1 farmers were prepared t< discuss with his associatioi

important items needed for improvement of the standard of school buses instead of criticising the service he was sure his association would be able to serve them much more profitably.