POLICY DEFINED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24758, 4 December 1943, Page 8

POLICY DEFINED

TRANSPORT LICENCES SERVICEMEN'S PREFERENCE A rigid policy designed to safeguard the interests of returned servicemen desirous of applying for goods or pas-senger-service transport licences in any district was outlined by the No. .1 Transport Licensing Authority, Mr. E. J. Plielan, in an interview yesterday Recent regulations provided that preference should be given to ex-ser-vicemen who applied for transport licences of any kind, said Mr. Plielan. He was naturally required to take into consideration the necessity and desirability, in the public interest, of any service, and it would obviously be unfair to issue licences when sufficient were in existence in a particular locality. "However," he added, "where licences can be issued without detrimentally affecting other licensed operators, I can quite definitely say that first preference will be given to returned servicemen. In granting these licences, I will have to be satisfied that the serviceman will have a reasonable chance of making a livelihood, depending on his energy and initiative." Mr. Plielan appealed to every operator throughout his area who was contemplating the sale of his business to negotiate with servicemen. Before approving any transfer, he would have to be satisfied that reasonable efforts had been made to dispose of the business to a former member of the forces. Licences granted to other than returned servicemen would all be shortterm licences. A further requirement of the regulations was that prices for businesses were reasonable, Mr. Plielan said. In order to assess the amount of goodwill in any transport concern, he would require to see the profit and loss accounts and balance-sheet for each of the three years preceding the application. Other factors were the total mileage run by the vehicle or vehicles over three years, either on speedometer rcords or on an explained estimate. In the case of passenger services, the number of passengers carried over three years would have to be produced.