TAXI PROBLEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 15

TAXI PROBLEMS

AGREEMENT REACHED I CHRISTCHURCH INTERESTS ' 1 | [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION'] CHRISTCHURCH, Friday Subject to the approval of the Taxi i Commission, 011 whose suggestion the I conference was held, a meeting fully | representative of taxi interests of ! Christchurch to-day agreed to operate | generally under the conditions prej scribed by the taxi-drivers' award of 1031, with the exception of the provision of that award as to wages, and with special provisions regarding any J overtime worked by owner-drivers. A wage rate for taxi-drivers of £3 J2s 6d a week, plus overtime, was agreed on at the conference and will be submitted to the commission as a reasonable rate. The agreement reached at the conference will also, it is believed, end the illegal practices which have been complained of in evidence before the commission. Having agreed that some reduction of the number of taxi licences in the city was desirable the conference will suggest that this should be brought about gradually by the natural lapse of licences or by voluntary surrender. CARRIERS' DIFFICULTIES CASE OF PRIVATE OWNERS [BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION] CHRISTCHURCH, Friday Hie difficulties of private carriers who had not the chance to take some of the advantages open to the big concerns were explained in evidence given this morning before the Taxi and Carrying Commission. Herbert. William Wise, an ownerdriver carrier, a representative of the carriers operating 011 their own account without any organisation behind them, explained the position of the general carriers in relation to the big carrying firms and the carrying work done by the Railway Department. "We have to face competition from the two large carrying companies, the Express Company and J. M. Heywoods, 'which is just as unfair as that of the railways," he said. "They have a truck system for sending goods to other towns. The trucks take such a quantity of goods and aro available at such a low rate that the firms are able to do the city carrying to trucks free. That gives those two firms a tremendous advantage. "1 do not think this Government intends to encourage monopolies, yet that will be the outcome. Steps should be taken to stop this free cartage of goods. It is the cheapness of the truck that lets the big firms carry goods to the truck free. No individual carrier could get the volume of business in order to take advantage of the truck system."