Toll Service

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31750, 6 August 1968, Page 16

Toll Service

Sir,—You rightly drew attention to the need for N.A.C. to plan ahead to obtain economic pay-lodds for the new jets. A field of far greater public investment is the Post Office inland toll service which, I suspect, runs at a low utilisation factor over the 24 hours. In the United Kingdom before the war it was possible to make a three-minute call anywhere in the country, between stated hours, for only Is. Our authorities formerly agreed that such a system was not economic here because of penal staffing costs. With the advent of direct dialling and automatic charging for a high proportion of our cities and towns, it should be possible to reconsider the provision of at least a limited-area cheap-rate system. This could have the effect of providing New Zealanders with a better return on their considerable investment and at the same time bring extra revenue to the department. The department needs extra turnover to spread its overheads and so reduce the cost of the facility.— Yours, etc., B. R. HOMERSHAM. July 30, 1968,

[The Chief Postmaster (Mr M. E. Wilson) replies: “The telephone system is designed to provide for peak demand. At present the toll traffic peaks during working hours and during the cheap-rate period are similaf, and any significant stimulus of traffic during the evening: period by extending the cheap-rate concessions could not be accommodated- To provide direct dialling on all toll calls would require expensive telephone exchange equipment to be purchased from overseas. Finance for additional equipment is limited and the provision pf service to people without telephones recedes first priority.”]