HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
Page 15
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An Octasional Chat on Subjects and Problems of Interest to those Who are Engaged, or About to be Engaged, in Running Commercial Vehicles for a Living.
THESE ARE NOT the sort of articles that one would imagine were likely to be of world-wide interest. Most of the actual concrete figures which appear therein are strictly limited in their application to this country alone. It does at least, however, indicate a widespread circulation of this journal that I have before me a letter from a reader in India. Him I will call, for the time, being, "Gurkha." As he `writes, he is anticipating a speedy termination to his sojourn in that portion of the Empire, and looks forward, on his return here, to taking up the ear hire business as a means of obtaining a living. This derision is, evidently, not the result of an impulse, for his letter indicates that he has already decided upon the makes of ca e which he will utilize, that he is determined to go in for both the private hire side of the business and the hackney carriage. Moreover, the six questions which he asks are all of first importance.
In the old days a man who wished to use 'a hackney carriage took out a licence for so doing and paid 15s. for it. The possession of this licence relieved him of the necessity to pay the full amount of the usual motorcar tax : instead, his expenditure was limited to two guineas or three guineas according to the weight of his vehicle, these amounts being the oldtime carriage duties. Additionally he was afforded . the privilege of a rebate of half the petrol tax which he had paid in the purchase price of his fuel. Now all that is altered. The payment for a hackney carriage, seating not more than six persons, is 215 in the Metropolitan Police area and 212 in all other districts, except in 430 far as the Ministry of Transport may make the former sum payable in certain localities. This sum covers the cost of the hackney earria,ge licence and other duties ; the petrol tax itself has now, of course, been eliminated entirely.
The local authorities, who have hitherto exercised considerable control over hackney carriages, will still collect the game amount of money as they did before, but they will obtain it from the Road Fund. They will exercise the same control as before over the issue of hackney carriage drivers' and conductors' licences, and licences for vehicles to ply for hire. Moreover, it is still necessary for the owner to acquire and pay for drivers' hackney carriage licences and conductors' licences. These usually cost a shilling each.
It is evident that my correspondent is not clear as to the distinction between private hire work and employment of a hackney carriage. This is hardly to be wondered at, for learned Counsel themselves have been known to argue the point without getting much " forrader." However, I will help them to do so to the best of my ability.
The use and registration of hackney carriages is governed (apart from London, wherein special conditions apply) by the Town Police Clauses Act of 1847, which may be considered now as applicable to every borough and urban district in England and Wales. Provisions of a. similar nature are effective in Scotland and Ireland. The control authorities in all cases are the borough and urban district councils respectively, and these authorities, it should be noted, may, if they wish, refuse to give licences, with the proeiso that they exercise this discretion freely and properly • thus, for example, they may not refuse to entertain all applications except those of favourite proprietors, with whom they have either a written agreement or a tacit understanding. A hackney carriage is defined as "any wheeled .carriage, whatever be its form or con strction, which is used in standing or plying for hire." It does not include any carriage starting from a livery stable
yard or garage whereat carriages are let for hire and previously hired for the particular passenger e thereby carried, if such carriage starts from the stable. yard or garage, and is, bona fide, the property of the occupier of the stable yard or garage, and does not stand or ply for hire in the urban area.
The above definition still leaves us more or less where we were, for it all turns on the meaning ef the words " ply for hire." It is precisely this portion of the Act which has been the subject of so many disputes. As the outcome of these eases, it appears that carriages which " can be.hired," even by a limited section of the public and are exposed for hire, even though not on a public highweyeor place, are plying for hire, and therefore mustt be licensed."
I hope I have made this matter clear to all, and particularly to my correspondent "Gurkha." It appears to me from his letter that the work which he has in mind—as, for example, employing his vehicles for station, work, picking passengers up , at stations and conveying them to their destinations and vice versa—is plying for hire within the meaning of the term, and that he must, therefore, apply: for an appropriate licence.
Naturally, he raises the question of running costs, and specifies Certain makes of car in his letter.
do not propose in a series of articles, such as this is, to endeavour to differentiate between the fuel* consumptions of various makes of car. I am, therefore, going to ignore his particular selection, and what follows may be taken as generally applicable to vehicles of about 20 h.p. and to taxicabs. The costs themselves are based on the same principles which I have applied in dealing with commercial vehicles; it is not, therefore, necessary .to explain them in -detail. The running costs in pence per mile are as follow :—
Fuel, 2.63d. ; lubricants, 0.3-7d. ; tyres, 2d. ; maintenance, 1.10d. ; depreciation, id. for a car costing 2500 complete, but without tyres;' and a fifth of a penny, more or less, per 2100 first cost on that basis. Total for a 2500 car as defined, 7.10d.
The standing charges per week ere, in London :— Licence duty, 72d. per week ; wages, 780d. ; rent and rates, 54d. ; insurance,. 132d. (covering six passengers to an unlimited amount); interest on first cost, 168d. Total, 25 Os. 6d. for a London car.
In the provinces the licence duty will be 5gcl, per week, and the total of standing charges will therefore be 24 les. 4d.
The follchring are the running costs for various weekly mileages, given in pence per mile run. It will' be noted that, even at low mileages, the difference between London and provincial costs is slight ; at higher mileages it disappears.