Present and Coming Difficulties in London Taxicab Administration.
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With, as we were in a position to announce last week, the 5,000th motoreab licensed to ply for hire in the Metropolitaa area, there are fresh evidences that certain difficulties in the cab world as a whole will become acute between to-day and Christmas. Some of the inotoreab owners appear to incline to a rate of Is. per mile, by way of supposed remedy for decreased total earnings, but we linliesitatinglv condemn that proposition as futile. For reasons which we have explained more than once, and which were last set out on page 154 of our issue of the 28th of last month, a sanctioned rate of is. per mile means at least is. 2d. for the first mile, and probably the same minimum for each following mile in average London traffic; the combined time-and-distance mechanism renders any other effect impossible. In this one fact, we linve a circumstance which would, if an increase of 50 per cent. were to be secured, turn the public against the motorcab for the trip of one mile or less. The parallel of the failure of the whisky tax should not be forgotten ; " consumers " will not hear increases beyond particular points, and they begin to abstain on the large scale. Today, with the 811. rate, a hirer knows that he can pay the " round " shilling, with only 8c1. or 10d. shown on the taximeter, and do so in the pleasant fore-knowledge that the driver will be satisfied. The projected alternative, a minimum shilling to the " maw" of the recorder, would alter the whole attitude and patronage of the short-distance hirer. He would feel that, whether he wanted to take a. eab for 600 or 1,600 yds., the " round " shilling would not see him through—that there would be coppers, in addition, to furnish the expected " tip." Do owners lightly wish to imperil the frequency and incidence of short runs? It would be a serious set-back to them to see the average earnings per mile affected in the wrong direction, and that result is being courted by some. ne do not assent to the view that the "tip " can be eliminated, however desirable that abstract ideal may appear to some would-be disciplinarians, and we emphatically do not concur in the view that the drivers, on their getting 25 per cent. of is. instead of 8d. (i.e., 3d. instead of 2d.) would, with lamb-like docility, forego the enstomary 2d.,
or 4d. which now comes to them, without deduetion, per short journey. It is beyond the limits of their !Inman nature to do so : it should be not within range of the owners' commonsense and practical " polities " to expect it. The situation, in the supposititious circumstance of a change to a shilling rate, would then be : a large percent:tee of short-distance " fares" would inevitably be. lost to the motoreab trade; owners would get 3d. more (net) on each such hiring that was obtained ; the driver would get: Id. more out of the takings and the same " tip," or, since many people tip on a roughly-conceived sliding scale according to the amount registered, a larger one! In short, we look upon the plan of a is. rate as one which would be of no benefit to the owner, and of doubtful benefit, in the aggregate, to the driver.
Motoreab proprietors are being rapidly carried to the point at which an old law will assert itself with cruel rapidity; we mean, of course, the Jew of the survival of the fittest. We should be sorry to have to tie ourselves down to a statement as to what, certain 1909 and 1910, balance-sheets will be like; we shall, perhaps, never havethe opportunity. The stage of " capital-shedding" mayhave been reached, in October next. The feet that, as in all transportation undertakings, average demand cannot. support the cost of maximum supply must enter into the scheme of organization, must have its effect upon overloaded giants, and must lead to a general elimination of weaklings. London, in 1904, before there was a network of tubes, had a total of 11,057 hackney-carriages, of which 2 were motorcabs; to-day, London has 5,000 motorcabs, not more than 1,200 hansoms in steady use, and no more than 2,.500 four-wheelers in the same category. The motorcabs, by next April, will on paper total nearly 7,000. and the problem of profitable use will become. more complex each month after Parliament rises at the close of the present Session—whenever that. may prove to be. So much, by way of review and summary.
The question now arises, can any universally-acceptable scheme be formulated, for the betterment of average. earnings, and the removal of points of disagreement in respect of " Extras? " Neglected and old-type cabs will, in. any event, have to be thoroughly renovated or sold off : we are not able to hold out prospects of salvation for owners who rest upon what they did in 1907. Apart from our undivided support for the rigid enforcement of " Extras" registration, with, say, not less than one-third' as the driver's share, and in which direction we would urge the proprietors to ask Sir Edward Ffem7 for a new, specific regulation end an appropriate penalty for infraction, we have one suggestion to put forward qua the wider use of motorcabs: stands in suburban areas, and methods of working in, to and from such districts, merit serious consideration. Every principal suburban railway-station has its day-time possibilities, and, as experience at Wimbledon has proved, many of the residents who take, train in the morning want systematized motorcab service at nights—after the last train has gone. Instead of present-day concentration upon one or two central depUts, we believe that decentralization will prove of value; our arguments in favour thereof were, we may remind cabinterested readers, given at some length in " The Motorcab Special " of the 30th April, 1908. The central-repair and district-running depots of London's premier omnibus company should find parallels in the cases of some London cab companies.
The Effect of Fine Weather Upon Surface Traffic-receipts.
The directors of London and Provincial public-service companies are hoping for a line summer : the difference between good and bad weather is the difference between a dividend and a working loss. Omnibus patrons largely stay at home, or in the hotels, during wet weather ; only a proportion takes cabs. Hirers of cabs are more numerous on wet days than on fine days, within a certain radius, as fewer people care to walk, but the same cannot be stated in the case of the less-pretentious omnibuses. In the latter case, too, heavy rain reduces the useful capacity from 34 to 16; an almost-negligible number of travellers, on the average, has the hardihood to go outside. Ex
pressed as revenue, it is not beyond the mark to put the value of a bright, clear and warm day at an extra 30s. of takings per motorbus in service, and that increase above normal is, under sustained favourable conditions, at the rate of more than £10,000 a week for division between London proprietors. It is, therefore, obvious that a series of good traffic returns depends upon the weather, and nobody can gainsay the view that an experience of the kind is both deserved and overdue. To the London General Omnibus Co., whose usual income is greater than those of the combined tube railways of the Metropolis, a fine summer will mean the turning-point in a history which has been chequered of late. The Japan-British Exhibition should also help the expected improvement, as this undertaking will drew visitors from everywhere.