THE TRANSPORT ACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21115, 24 February 1932, Page 11

THE TRANSPORT ACT.

OPERATION ON TUESDAY.

SERVICE CARS AFFECTED. LICENCES TO BE ISSUED. Tho Transport Licensing Act, passed during tho last session of Parliament, comes into force on Tuesday, and after that day no passenger service can bo carried on in tho Dominion unless a licence has been obtained. Tho majority of the motor-bus services operating between Auckland and tlio various outlying suburbs will not for the present be affected, but service cars and buses running to more distant points will immediately come under the control of the Central Licensing Authority which was set up under tho Act. This authority, which has already held sittings in Wellington, hearing applications for licences for service car and goods services, will commence its sittings in Auckland on Saturday morning, when it will deal with applications for passenger-service licences. The operations of the Act wfll apply more directly to the service cars in the meantime. The vehicles employed in those services have not hitherto been subject to inspection by tho Public Works Department, which applies a severe test of efficiency, but in order that they may continue to run under tho licences now to bo issued they will require to have a certificate of fitness. Applications for 28 Services. While in Auckland tho Central Authority will consider applications for licences for 28 services, all operating longdistance runs from Auckland. Hiree applications havo been received in respect of services to each of tho following points: Now Plymouth, Hamilton, Thames and Whangarei. There aro two applications for services each to Rotorua, Tauranga, Leigh and Awanui, and there is one application for services to each of tlio following towns: Hastings, Cisborne, To Arolia, Waihi, Coromandel, Dargavillo, Ilussell and Kaitaia. Tlio ultimate aim of the Act is to coordinate transport services throughout the Dominion, but at the outset temporary licences will bo granted and when the vehicles aro found to comply with the requirements set out in the Act a certificate of fitness will bo given. It is anticipated that at the end of tlio first year of operation under tho new arrangement tho Central Authority will seek to bring about co-ordination, involving, as it will, the elimination of services considered unnecessary or uneconomic. A careful survey will bo made throughout tho first year, and at the end of that period tho Central Authority should be in a position to apply tho full terms of the Act. Opinions of Operators. Tho proposal to bring about co-ordin-ation is regarded as sound by companies and others now operating services on a large scale, for they sec in this a means of doing away with overlapping and uneconomic competition. It is felt that this will tend to make tho services more efficient and will bo in the. interests of those who run good services with wellequipped vehicles driven by experienced drivers. Tho majority of those now operating road services express the opinion that the Act has been devised to protect the railway service at the expense of that section of the public which prefers to travel by road, but they feel that the ultimate effect will bo to* put the remaining services on a better footing than ever before. For one thing, they foresee that tho public will have more confidence in tho car services, knowing that the, vehicles will havo been subjected to strict supervision as to fitness and that the operators will be required to maintain regular time-tables. It is not denied that one effect of the. new Act will be to eliminate sortie of the individual owners who run a single car and give these services to tho larger concerns that have greater facilities and the necessary financial backing. The great benefit to bo enjoyed by those who survive, in tlio opinion of one operator, will be that the companies receiving the certificates will have some protection, in that there will be no uncontrolled competition. Fares, he thought, would also be stabilised on a paying basis, whereas at present the rates were uneconomic as far as tho larger companies were concerned. Position of the Buses. Few of the bus companies operating in and around the city will be requited to seek licences from tho ( entral Authority, as in the of cases the five-year licences granted to them by the Aucklnad Transport Board have up to three years yet t<> run. The services running to the outer suburban areas to tho south were granted their licences under tlio Motor Omnibus Act, 1926. and when the Auckland Transport Board Act, 1923, was passed, these licences wore protected They are, however, cancelled under tho Act of last year, and it will be necessary for the operators to come before the Central Licensing Authority. On the other hand, (be services running to the outer western suburbs were granted their licences under the Act of 1928, and (hose aie preserved by the new Act for tilt* unexpired portion of tho period for which they were, given. All the suburban services have been working under regulations and subject to Public Works inspection, and they havo l)een without competition, other than the railways, on their particular runs. Ihe services to St. Heliers and le Papapa aro run entirely within the district of the Auckland Transport Board and are not affected by the provisions of the new Act. s