AN INTERESTING PLY-FOR-HIRE CASE SETTLED
Page 61
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Magistrates Decide that Return Tickets Issued Outside Swansea are Permissible AN interesting reserved judgment has now been given by the SWausea magistrates on the subject of plying for hire.
Mr. Howell •M. Davies, Imperial Motors, Abercynon, and Messrs. J. James and Sons. Ammanford, were summoned, in December, for alleged plying for hire in Swansea borough without being in possession of the couPeirs licences to do so.
The defence to the cases was that the services were not of the ply-for-hire kind, but were carrying passengers as arranged by prior contract. The buses were marked 'Private" and the " absolute " precaution against the picking up of passengers in Swansea was taken. Passengers were only brought into Swansea on the issue of return tickets, and to make sure that no one obtained possession of a return ticket for travelling out of Swansea without first having been carried into Swansea these return tickets were punched by the bus conductors on the inward journey while the buses were yet outside the boundary. No one might board the buses for carriage out of Swansea unless pos sessed of a punched return ticket. The owners had thus, it was contended, done everything possible to prevent the illegal picking up of passengers.
The prosecution contended that the services were regular bus facilities amounting to ply-tor-hire services.
The magistrates reserved decision.
The judgment now given is that the services were not plying for hire, and that there was no evidence of illegal plying. The summonses would be dismissed with costs against the police in the following amounts :—£10 10s. to Messrs. J. James and Sons ; and £5 5s. to Imperial Motors (Mr. H. M. Davies, proprietor).