ADVICE TO CARRIERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18465, 2 August 1934, Page 4

ADVICE TO CARRIERS

IMPORTANCE OF ACCOUNTS DUTIES TO THE PUBLIC CHARGES OFTEN TOO LOW Further valuable advice for operators engaged, in -the carrying industry was .given by - Mr. R. F. Gambrill, chairman o£ the . No. 4 Transport Licensing Authority, when this morning’s sitting of the authority opened. Mr. Gambrill'dealt mainly with the importance of keeping proper accounts and showed that, many operators who had not done so.were unwittingly running at a loss. “In inspecting the financial, statements'of operators,” said the chairman, “wo have found that in nearly every case where- the operator has nof. proper 1 accounts lie- 1 has bo'oii penalising himself, paying taxes unnecessarily, ami not being sufficiently conversant with his running costs to enable him to fix prices which-would show a margin of profit. It is only now, when they are asked to fill-in the forms required, that some of them realise that they have been living on capital for a long period.” Almost invariably, continued.'- Mr. Gambrill, those who' had ‘ kept'' proper accounts were able to"show;’;that. they wore making a profit, whereas those who had not done so were almost all running at a loss. It was essential in the operators’ own interests that they should keep proper books of account.

“This is a matter of concert; to us,” said Mr. Gambrill, “for wo want to see the carrying industry on a sound financial footing. The public have an interest, too, if an operator is not conducting his service on. sound, businesslike lines he has to put. up his charges, whereas if he ran his service in a businesslike way lie would bo able to show a profit without raising his charges.” The operators, the chairman went on, had a duty to the public to run their businesses on economic lines, without paying fees that they wore not required to pay. The natural thing to do was t.o pass any loss ou to -the public. Competition would keep that down, but if competition 1 were limited the losses would be | passed on to the public. The Transport Licensing Act would enable the operators to make profits at the present rates, instead of showing losses through unbusinesslike methods. “When .you find a man paying £l3 or £ls a'year unnecessarily in wages tax and objecting to paying £lO 10s or something like that for an accountant to keep his ' books, he is being penny .wise and pound foolish,” Mr. Gambrill pointed out. “Lots of the operators have the idea that we are being pernickity in making them fill in those forms.' Wo don’t want to cause any unnecessary trouble, but those things are essential for the operators and the public. Wo find i. many cases that they are charging rates that are quite unremunerativc. In one case we found that, operators were charging 4d. a ton. for the carriage of freight, when it was costing them (id. a mile to cover running expenses, without allowing for overhead costs at all. If you want to raise the rates there is a howl about it, and the authority and the operators .are blamed.” TEMPORARY LICENSES NO LOCAL ABUSE Interpretations of the clauses dealing with temporary licenses were given -by Mr. Gambrill m answer to questions. by Mr. L. C. Parker, who appeared for some operators who were not members of the carriers’ association, and were not present at the meeting on Tuesday night, Mr. Parker inquired as to what limitations were placed on the granting of such licenses, and what constituted the abuse referred to by Mr. Gambrill at Tuesday’s meeting. In reply, Mr. Gambrill fully explained the requirements of the Act, and went on to say that i'or the year ended January 1, 1934, 92 temporary licenses were issued in the No. 4 district, and 2127 throughout the Dominion. The percentage in this district to the total number issued was 4.3, so that there was.no abuse of the temporary license privilege here. . The greatest percentage of temporary licenses, continued, the chairman, was for the carriage of furniture and household effects, and the second greatest percentage for the carriage of horses and livestock, while smaller percentages were for wool, timber, and other goods. In this district one license- during the year had been taken out by each- of 61 operators, two by 27, three by 15, four < by four, five by two, six by one, and - seven by one. One operator had taken out over 10 temporary licenses, and on ] the face of it it would appear that that < operator was abusing the privilege. The 1 average period for temporary licenses was six days, though most of the operators in this district had a habit of 1 asking for the full 14 days. _ . l The authority, added the chairman. . was of opinion that the present system . of granting temporary licenses should , be continued, but that- postmasters 3 should be advised not to issue to operators temporary licenses that had been refused by other postmasters or by the 1 authority* without referring the matter 5 to the secretary. ‘