Motorcab Topics.
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it is intended to place a fleet of three or more taxicabs in service in the district of Sale, near Manchester.
Our leading article, this week, deals with certain aspects of the growing complexity of the London motorcab trade.
The Russian Motor Taxicab Co., of 23, Newsky-Prospect, St. Petersburg, is to be converted into a limited liability coneern with a capital of 000,000 roubles,.
Twenty Points for Taxicab Users.
The first 1,500 wall cards of our " Twenty Points for London Taxicab tsers " have now been distributed amongst the principal hotels, restaurants and clubs in the Metropolis, and, as fast as possible, the remarkable demand which has arisen for this useful budget of information is being supplied by the sale of the " Points " in pamphlet form.
New York Taxicab Finance.
We recently intimated that a scheme of reconstruction was contemplated for the affairs of the New York Taxicab Co., Ltd_ On Wednesday of last week. at an extraordinary general meeting of the company, in London, this scheme was placed before the shareholders. The shareholders have now to accept oue fully-paid preferred share in the reconstructed company for every three preferred shares of the old company. In. reply to several questions, the chairman said that the average takings of the company's cabs for the past three or four months have been about H dollars per day. The ex penses have been recently cut down largely, but he was unable, from motives of policy, to make any public statement as to the cost of operation. The company has 400 cabs at work at the present time, and it is hoped that, with the fresh capital that is now to be provided, a. large addition to this fleet will shortly be passible.
Taxicabs at Hull.
In the days of the old horse-cab, it was impossible to obtain a hackney carriage from any of the stands in the Ci:by of Hull between the hours of 1230 and 8 a.m. Owing to representations which have recently been made by the Provincial Motor Cab Co., Ltd., the stands are to be opened for the
convenience of the public in the matter of hiring of taxicabs during both night and day in future. The taxicabs are being well patronized by the public, and a successful future is predicted.
Berlin Prefers White.
Our Berlin correspondent writes.— " Berlin has now a number of open motorcabs., each with an American canopy; these, in general get-up, compare favourably with private cars. White, as a ground (*lour for Berlin zotorcabs, seems to be giving way to orange, which glitters like gold in the
sunlight. Still, white dominates in Berlin as yet.'' The Legal Status of Cab Drivers held to be "Not a Servant."
Judgment. has now been delivered on an appeal against an award by the Judge of the Southwark County Court upon a claim for compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act, whereby the widow of a taxicab driver, named Doggett, claimed, from the Waterloo Taxicab Co., Ltd., for the death of her husband, as the result of blood-poisoning, which he had contracted as the result of a damaged hand, after the back-firing of an engine. The. County-Court decision awarded £249 damages to the widow. On the appeal, this was reversed, and it was held by the Master of the Rolls that a taxicab driver is not a servant within the meaning of the Act. The position of the driver of a taxicab is, in most respects, identical with the position of the driver of a horse cab. The relationship between the owner and the driver of a horse cab has frequently been held to be not one of master and servant_ The same deeisions are applicable to the relationship existing between the owner and driver of a taxicab ; the contract between them is for each day separately; the driver is paid nothing as wages; and the proprietor exercises no control over the driver who can go when and
where he pleases. Moreover, the learned judge held, it was not easy to se how there eordd he dismissal or discharge of a person whose contract was for a day only. Cases, however, might exist, he added, in which the proprietor of a taxicab exercised such an amount of ontrol over the driver as to justify the conclusion that the relationship was one of master and servant.
The result of the original County Court hearing was reported in our issue of the 7th April.