A BIG RESPONSIBILITY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3895, 28 April 1937, Page 7

A BIG RESPONSIBILITY

CREAM CARRIERS AND PASSENGERS. AUTHORITY’S WARNING. "I wonder if you realise the position in the case of an accident when you are carrying passengers?" said the Transport Licensing Authority at the Te Awamutu sitting on Tuesday morning, when reference was made to unfair competition with a possible passenger enterprise by cream carttage contractors.

Mr R. Metcalfe, the Transport Department’s representative, remarked that the carriers of cream, when questioned on the subject, said they do not charge fares to passengers. His inquiry showed that there were very few cream lorries that did not at times carry a passenger or two. It was then that Mr Phelan commented that he wondered if owners of such lorries knew what damages they could be mulct in.

Mr R. M. Andrew said the position was really very difficult. The cream cartage contractors certainly do not wish to convey passengers; but the position was one not of their own choosing. The need for carrying, say, suppliers to the dairy companies, who said they had urgent business to transact in town, even with the dairy companies, made it extremely difficult to refuse them the convenience. He wondered really if the cream carriers could rightly refuse those people the right to ride on the vehicles. However, he was definite in saying that no passengers were carried on cream lorries along routes served by passenger vehicles. He added that the cream contractors are aware of their liability in the event of an accident and subsequent claim by a passenger. Mr Phelan: Well, in case of an accident, it is “your funeral.”

To another question. Mr Andrew said the cream carriers had no desire to compete with any recognised service.