BUSES AND TAXIS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 116, 12 November 1931, Page 15

BUSES AND TAXIS

COMPARATIVE FEES

Some of the criticisms at the last meeting of the Lower Hutt Borough Council about the Government buses on the Hutt road were made without due consideration of facts. Councillor Patrick, when criticising the action proposed by the Government under the Transport Bill to 'put off the taxi services at present running in competition with the buses, said the buses wore not bearing charges such as income tax and petrol tax charged against private enterprise, and yet the buses could not be made to pay.

Inquiries made by a "Post" representative elicited the following facts as regards charges paid, by buses and by the taxis. The registration fee for each bus is ai3, as against £2 for each taxi. The bus has a 10s licence fee to pay in addition, which the taxi has not.' Heavy traffic fees for the buses amount to approximately £2000 a year (£63 15s for each 33-seater bus), but the taxis have no such heavy traffic fees to pay. Third-party insurance costs up to £32 per bus, whereas a taxi only pays £7 10s under this heading. The charge that the buses cannot be made to pay is disproved by official figures. A profit of £1149 was shown last year, and this after full allowance on business Hues for depreciation.