Where Licences are Refused to Bus Operators.
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WE are constantly being asked (now that licensing authorities are active in their efforts to avert competition from the bus operators with their own passenger-carrying undertakings) for light upon the rights of the bus proprietor to run into a town or other area where a licence to ply for hire has not been procured. The expedients of selling tickets from an office and of issuing return tickets to passengers, on the ground that accepting passengers holding such tickets is not plying for hire, are suggested by our readers.
We find it very difficult to advise our readers at all definitely with regard to the question of booking passengers at offices as a means of avoiding the need for a licence permitting plying for hire, because no authoritative decision on the point has yet been given by the High Court. On the other expedient of retarn tickets, decisions have recently been given, but they do not touch the question of the booking office. Having regard to the decifd:ons referred to, it appears that a licence to ply for hire is not required where the only persons who are picked up are those who have previously paid their fares, and it does not seem that 'any distinction should be drawn between cases where the fares are paid in the town in which the persons are to be picked up and those where the fares are paid in some other town. It would seem that one of the essential elements constituting plying for hire is the presence of a bus, and so long as a bus is not present at the time when the intending passengers are secured there is no plying for hire.
This would seem to make for plain sailing, but it is difficult to advise as to the restrictions to be observed. Clearly no passengers must be booked whilst the bus is within their view, nor, while the bus is waiting; should they be referred to the booking office for their tickets, and it would seem that they must not be booked whilst the bus is within the district of the licensing authority, which, of course, makes it difficult to operate the service to the satisfaction of the travelling public.
Where a licence to ply for hire is refused by a licensing authcrity, it is, in our opinion, better not to attempt expedients to override the decision, but to appeal to the Minister of Transport, as the appellant is the more likely to secure a successful and satisfactory decision if he appeals at the outset than if he din so at a later date when he had taken various courses in order to avoid the necessity of obtaining a licence or to overcome the difficulty created by the refusal of a licence. His position certainly would be much stronger in . the event of the proposals whichare contained in the Road Traffic Bill becoming law.