No Tax Relief Means Higher Fares
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" WITHOUT relief from even the extra IT 3d. of fuel tax, our last chance of retaining our 1960 fares level has gone, and we must soon seek authority to raise certain of our charges," said Mr. A. F. R. Carling, chairman of the Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., at the company's annual general meeting last week. Since last July, he said, three items alone had added to their costs at the rate of £260,000 a year; these were the new national pensions scheme, wage awards and the extra 3d. on fuel tax. Even the mainly buoyant traffics which the company were experiencing could not bear such increases at the fares levels of two years ago.
Total receipts in 1961 were £5,461,524; of this, only some £244,000 will be distributed to shareholders, general and fuel tax taking £915,311 between them.
Daimler Fleetlines In 1962, 74 new vehicles, mostly double-deckers, will be put into service at a cost of about £447,000. Mr. Carling said they looked forward to comparing, under arduous operating conditions, their first 10 Daimler Fleetlines with the Leyland Atlantean, of which 132 would be in service by July. The company's first 36-ft. by 8-ft. 2i-in. single-deckers will come into service this year, and Mr. Carling lamented the fact that if British regulations had not lagged so badly behind those of other progressive countries a substantial part of Northern General's fleet might by now have been composed of these larger vehicles.