RIVAL TAXI FIRMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 83, 7 April 1936, Page 7

RIVAL TAXI FIRMS

CHRISTCHURCH "WAS"

CASE OF INCORRECT FARE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

"Is this war never going to cease? Is common sense never going to prevail among these, people?" asked Mr. E. C. Levvey, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, when Robert Cyril Bradford, a driver for Gold Band Taxis, was charged with charging an incorrect fare. ' The case was brought by an informer employed by a rival taxi firm.

By regulations dated August 12, 1935, the Christchurch City Council fixed minimum taxi fares to stop uneconomic .competition among taxi firms, which, it was alleged, caused men to be employed too long hours for little' reward, the reason being that men driving taxi-cars usually are on a rental basis, receiving no wages, but a proportion of the takings. In this case it was admitted that* if the taxi had been hired at the point where the passenger joined it the right fare to the destination would have been 2s 2d, the actual amount charged. However, the cab had been called from a distant point. The contention of the prosecution was that the fare should have been charged from the hiring point, where the telephone message was received.

For the defence it was contended that the proprietor of Gold Band Taxis, C. S. Trillo, did not order his driver to go and collect the passenger, but informed him that if he went to a certain place a passenger was there for him. The Magistrate held this to be a mere subterfuge, and fined the defendant £1.