‘Shoppa’ bus for aged granted aid

Press, 10 February 1983, Page 4

‘Shoppa’ bus for aged granted aid

A “Shoppa" minibus service. run by a Christchurch woman, was granted financial assistance yesterday by the Canterbury United Council’s urban transport committee.

The service, run by Mrs Jean Hallman, received a continuous passenger service licence last August to carry aged people to and from shopping malls within a radius of 20km of Cathedral Square. For $4 passengers are picked up in groups and given about two hours to shop. A cup of tea is provided before returning home and assistance is given to carry heavy parcels into the house. The minibus, a specially adapted Bedford van, can carry eight passengers. Mrs Hallman started the service because of the inconvenience of using public transport for those who do not have their own cars, and the comparative expense of using taxis. In her report to the committee for assistance. Mrs ’Hallman said that the viability of the service was weighed down by the heavy establishment and legal costs. Mr M. G. Taylor, general manager of the Christchurch Transport Board. was against any support. “I feel that it would be inappropriate to support a poorly planned service such as this. She is financially unstable because she did not make provision, when she started, for costs," he said. Representing the New Zealand Taxi Proprietors’ Federation, Mr K. Murphy agreed with Mr Taylor. “Mrs Hallman has started something and has not done her homework on it,” he said. He felt that taxi-drivers offered a personal service to passengers which was being duplicated by the “Shoppa” minibus service.

The report said that the social nature of the service by bringing aged people together was important. It said that to gain advantage of any shared trip expenses in taxis, it would take a lot of organisation. While this could possibly be done at pensioner blocks, elderly people living alone would be left out. The report also mentioned the assistance grant given to the Transport Board’s “Be Mobile” scheme which caters specifically for the disabled. The two specially built buses are being funded 50 per cent by urban transport funds. Recommendations were passed to support the service and give financial aid this year only, and to a grant secured, by a suspensory loan to be made towards the purchase of the minibus. A third recommendation that the service be given assistance next year, depending on the outcome of the licence rehearing, was not passed.