Another one year-only fares grant
Page 41
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Because another wages award and the effects of the pending Transport Bill had not been taken into account when the fares application had been lodged, the 9.78 per cent return on capital expected by the applied-for increase could not possibly be achieved by the North Western Road Car Co. Ltd., a joint sitting of the North Western and East Midland Traffic Commissioners was told in Manchester on Monday.
NWRCC and joint operators were applying for a 4d minimum fare with 5d fares being raised to 6d and approximately half the number over this denomination being increased by, in most cases, 2d.
Although £116,000 per annum would be realized, allowing for a 4', per cent fall in traffic, this would not entirely offset the additional £120,600 spent on operating costs by the company in the year following the last fares increase in July 1967, said Mr. F. D. Walker for the applicants.
No account had been taken of the possible advantages or disadvantages that might accrue when the Transport Bill became law nor the further wage award granted on September 14 1968. He pointed out that over 50 per cent of the company's stage carnage services were unremunerative and, indeed, overall, subsidiary interests were more profitable than these operations. Revenue from express services had dropped by nine per cent already this year.
Net revenue as a percentage of capital employed for the year ended March 31 1967 had been 9.08, in 1968 7.25 and for the calendar year of 1969 would be 5.99 without a fares increase.
Mr. J. K. Isaac, traffic manager, said NWRCC will have reduced its operations between March 1967 and December 1968 by 450,000 miles and its fleet by 21 vehicles to effect economies. The percentage of one-man operated vehicles in the fleet had increased from 35 to 41.76 per cent since last July.
Objection had been lodged by Denton UDC whose clerk, Mr. M. Batley, asked whether management consultants could not be called in to advise on economies. Mr. Isaac said the company was now in the Transport Holding Company and the group was considering such action for some of its companies.
The chairman of the NW Commissioners, Mr. C. R. Hodgson, said the application was modest and the company had been wise in not including in its calculations the imponderables embodied in forthcoming legislation. As for other companies and municipalities, the increase would be granted and reviewed in 12 months' time.