FARES CONTROVERSY . AGAIN RAISED IN YORKSHIRE M.H.C.S.A. Officials Address Mass
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Meeting of Independent Operators THE fares-control controversy which has arisen in Yorkshire on the Minister of Transport's proposed amendment to the contract-carriage law again arose at a mass meeting of Yorkshire independent operators, at Leeds, on April 24. The meeting was convened by Yorkshire Motor Coach Owners, Ltd.
It was indicated that, whilst Y.M.C.O. is opposed to the amendment because it does not provide for the control of pre-hooked-party fares, the Motor Hirers and Coach Services Association is in agreement with it, being in favour of freedom in the operation of contract carriages.
The ppint of view of the M.H.C.S.A., as put forward at the meeting, showed a fear that if pre-booked-party fares were controlled by the Traffic Commissioners, there would also be control of routes and terminal points. There was general agreement at the meeting that operators should have complete
B40 freedom to take pre-booked parties wherever they wished to go. Speakers for Y.M.C.O. contended that the scheme for pre-booked-party licensing, recently drawn up by the standing joint committee of independent operators' associations in Yorkshire, provides for control of fares by a graduated scale based on mileage, but allows for freedom with regard to routes and terminal points.
The representatives of the M.H.C.S.A. promised that their Association would consider this scheme, although they could hold out little hope of any provision for such a scheme being made in the Road Traffic Bill, 1934.
Apart from the fares-control issue, the Leeds meeting approved various proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Act, 1930, which, it is suggested, should be included in the provisions of the Bill of 1934.
Objections by railway companies to the applications of operators should, it is suggested, be restricted to the submission to the Commissioners of particulars of railway fares and timetables. Road service licences should be valid for three years instead of one year, likewise the licences of drivers of public service vehicles. Another point which the meeting endorsed was that the Minister, in giving decisions on appeals, should base them on the facts in each individual case, rather than in accordance with a general policy.
Mr. A. H. Butterisick, chairman of Y.M.C.O., presided, and the chief speakers were Mr. F. A. Flin, vice-chairman of the M.H.C.S.A.; Mr. Raymond Birch, a member of the Council of that Association, and Councillor Clifford Thomas, secretary of the South Wales Omnibus Association, and vice-chairman of the M.H.C.S.A.