TRANSPORT ACT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 237, 19 September 1934, Page 4

TRANSPORT ACT

Yearly Saving of £300,000 MOTORNG STATISTICS (Own Parliamentary Representative.) WELLINGTON, September 18. A saving of approximately £300,000 for the year m operating costs is attributed to the Transport Licensing Act in the annual report of the Transport Department. 'The Act covers the carriage by road of passengers and goods. In describing the setting up of the Transport Co-ordination Board, the outstanding event of the year, the report states: “The assertion that proper regulation of the whole field of transport is of public benefit is indisputable, but there is not the same certainty as to the method and means of regulation. A regulatory system to be successful must be simple, effective and inexpensive; there must be no suggestion ol unnecessary red tape. “Revenue from third-party insurance for the year amounted to £229,133, and the amount paid out in claims and costs amounted to £196,789, or 85.88 per cent, of the net total of premiums received for the four years that the scheme has been in operation. The average claim ration has been 80.44 per cent., but a warning is issued that the statistics must be interpreted with the utmost caution, as experience over a longer period will be the only way of ascertaining figures that will be typical of third-party business in all its ramifications. The reduction of 3/- which was made in the premium this year is estimated to represent an aggregate premium reduction of between £25,000 ami £30,000 for the year.” Dealing with the present position whore there is no action at law where a negligent driver subsequently dies, the report states that most of the companies accepting risks under the Act are favourable to waiving this bar to action on certain conditions, and negotiations are at present under way with this object in view. Whether the alteration would be effected by legislation or by voluntary arrangement has not yet been decided. The steady decline in registrations of new vehicles, which had been operating from May, 1933. had been arrested, continues the report, 10,8-16 registrations being effected during the

year as compared with 9,428 in 1933. Registrations during December, 1933, were the highest for any month since October, 1930. At the end of the financial year there were 196,252 motor vehicles of all types in the country, 125,453 being in the North Island and 70,799 in the South Island. Petrol consumption decreased from the peak of 66,729,379 gallons in 1930 to 56,662,371 gallons last year, the actual amount being used by road traffic being 51,262,371 gallons. Buses, each of which averaged 22,200 miles during the year, hud the greatest mileage, service cars coming next, with 19,620 miles and taxis with 10,860 miles. Private ears averaged 3,680 miles. The farming industry accounts for about 30 per cent, of the whole of the cars in the country, 37 per cent, are used for family and private purposes and the remaining 33 per cent are used for business purposes. For the year the petrol tax brought in a net yield of £2,368,000, of which motor-ears contributed 56.41 per cent. Passenger transport affected by motorears, buses and motor-cycles contributed £64 out of every £lOO of the petto! tax against £35 out of every £lOO by trucks. The total road bill of the Dominion last year, including interest ami sinking fund charges, was £7,078,047 as compared with £8,9-17,571 for the peak year of 1930-31.