TAXI FARES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23951, 28 October 1939, Page 7

TAXI FARES

THE METER SYSTEM INSTALLATION REQUIRED CHANGE IN DUNEDIN Dunedin taxicabs will to be fitted with meters as the result of regulations just issued under the authority of the Transport Law Amendment Act passed during the current adjourned session of Parliament. Taxi proprietors in the city welcome the new decision, which they have been advocating for some time, but owing to the difficulty in obtaining supplies some delay mav occur in the installation. The regulations, which came into force on October 20, require all taxicabs, except private hire cars and others which the licensing authority may consider it desirable to exempt, to be fitted with taxi-meters within six months from the issue of the licences. Considering that the meters are manufactured mostly in Germany and Sweden, however, it is possible that it may be some time before supplies will be available from Sweden, and they certainly will not be procurable from Germany. Provisions for Drivers Minimum wages for taxi-drivers are set by the regulations at £4 10s a week, where no award is in force, and payment by commission is to be done away with. This is the scale at present in force in Wellington, where, the meter system operates, but it is possible that the rates may be altered by a new award which' is expected to be made shortly.

Standards of conduct apd "comportment are laid down in the . regulations, which provide that a driver must at all times while engaged in his employment be clean and tidy and Wear clean and respectable clothes and conduct himself in an orderly and civil manner He may refuse ,to, accept as a passenger any person who is drunk or noisy or is accompanied by a dog which is not suitably confined, and-be may ask for nrepayment for any trio extending for more than. 10 miles or exceeding one hour. : /, V

It is an offence'for a driver to leave his taxi to look for passengers or fares; to sleep or lounge in big car or smoke while conveying a passenger, or endeavour to attract-attention' by shouting, whistling,'.calling "of spunding a horn except as permitted under the traffic regulations,'' 1936. , No driver must loiter with a taxi; any driver, who travels along a street or thoroughfare at a speed of less than six miles an hour will be deemed to be loitering, except in cases where it is necessary.

Drivers must not be employed for any continuous period of , more than five hours-and a-half and, must have at least 10 consecutive hours for rest in any period of 24 hours. They must also have one day off in seven. A licensee will not be liable to be, convicted for a breach of this regulation, if he is able to prove, that contravene tion was caused by unavoidably delay in the completion■;of a journey arising' out of circumstances .. which ha could not reasonably have foreseen. Proprietors Pleased “Taxi proprietors in Dunedin have been advocating the meter\system for some time,” said the secretary of the Otago Taxi Proprietors’ Association (Mr W. O. Kempthorne) to a Daily Times reporter yesterday. “We asked the City Council 12 months ago to bring in the meter system, but action was delayed until about two months ago, when the council approved that system.” An endeavour was being made to fix the fares under the new system to correspond with the present fares as far as possible, Mr Kempthorne said, and the effect of the installation of meters should be to remove a good many anomalies. Fares would be fixed on a mileage basis, instead of being dependent, as at present, on the ideas of the various drivers within the zones fixed by the City Council. There was a possibility of fares being increased only in so far as the charge for waiting time was concerned.