Contracts Pay for Stage Services
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COME 40-50 per cent. of the mileage kJ run by regular bus operators in South Wales was not renumerative, said Mr. H. J. Thom, South Wales Licensing Authority, at Carmarthen, last week. He was adjourning an application by L.C.W. Motor Services, Ltd., Llandilo, to increase fares on services between Llandilo and Lampeter.
Mr. L. C: Williams, for the company, said that the gross revenue from all work last year was £14,921, with a trading profit of .£3,792. Without contract work there would have been no profit at all. Certain contracts had been lost and on the present fares the ' Lampeter route was incurring a deficit.
Mr. Thom said that the public had every right, when an application was made for increased fares, that all the operations of the company should be taken into consideration.
A joint application by Western Welsh Omnibus Co., Ltd., and United Welsh Services, Ltd., to operate a service between Ammanford and Carmarthen was granted. Giving decision, Mr. Thom declared that this was an offer to run a service which other operators had proved to be entirely unremunerative. Costs were so high that it was becoming increasingly difficult to persuade operators to take on untemunerative routes.
KEEP 6 PER CENT,, OF FLEET IN RESERVE
A PPROXIMATELY 6 per cent of a large fleet should be kept in reserve to cover vehicles under repair, said Mt. W. S. Jefferis, assistant engineer of the Southampton District of the Road Haulage Executive, when he addressed the Portsmouth centre of the Institute of Traffic Administration.
In the South-Western Division of the R.H.E., he said, repair and maintenance work was divided into major classes—scheduled operations and unscheduled operations. Scheduled operations covered daily examinations by the driver, service examinations by the engineering staff, dockings every 26 weeks and complete overhauls at specialized workshops. Unscheduled operations comprised minor adjustments at depots, rectification of serious defects, breakdown service and major repairs at
area or district workshops. '
Mr. Jefferis said that outside contractors with special equipment could often do work far quicker than the R.H.E.'s own workshops.
OBLIGATORY BUS SHELTERS?
WHILST recognizing the desirability of fresh legislation dealing with the provision of bus shelters, the Government is not necessarily prepared to make it obligatory for private bus companies to provide them. A Private Member's Bill on the subject has been presented by Mr. Mitchison, but the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport said in the House of Commons, on Monday, that as it has not yet been printed, the Government's attitude could not be indicated.