Unreasonable Profits Alleged
Page 39
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
AN allegation that, as a restilt of conservative estimating, United Auto' mobile Services, Ltd., had been making • unreasonable -profits; was Made' by Mr. N. Harper at an apneal hearing at New• castle •upo'n Tyne last Week. Mr. Harper was representing 25 local councils in the fliartheast, who were appealing against fare increases granted to the company by the :Northern Licensing -Authority in March.
Mr. Harper said the capital employed should be a basis for 'deciding whether the eornpany's profits were 'reasonable. The figure of £6,233,060 stibrnitted.' as • their wOrkifig capital was misleading as it waS £2,500,000 More than theyaludtion of assets,employed as shown in the balance sheet.
A sum representing the goodwill of the business should not have been included in the amount assessed as capital, he said. Mr. Harper ad,ded that between 1953 and 1955, U.A.S. had under-estimated their profits by more than 32 per cent.
For•the company, Mr. M. Holmes said the Licensing Authority could decide whether or not their fares were reasonable without referring to capital.
A simple yardstick was to ask whether it was reasonable for an undertaking operating more than 1,000 buses, and carrying millions of passengers, to . derive a profit of less than £500,000. He said it was customary in assessing the worth of any commercial undertaking to include a figure for goodwill.
Decision will be announced later.
TWO "ARTICS " GRANTED
THE Scottish Deputy Licensing Authority last week granted Messrs. Charles Alexander, Aberdeen, permission to operate two articulated vehicles on the collection and delivery of goods within 20 miles. Mr. Alexander, head of the applicants, said that merchants were ordering goods in small lots and required more frequent deliveries because of the credit squeeze. British Railways opposed the application.
OBITUARY
IvE regret to record the deaths of SIR HENRY 'Guy, MR. G. IvicaeLLAND, MR. ARTRUR DU NSMUt R, MR. HARRY BOYER and KR. T. SMITH F,Riwtiv.
Sir Henry, who was secretary of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, was 69.
Mr. McClelland, who was 86, had been a haulier and bus operator in Hamilton for more than 60 years.
Mr. Durtsmuir was a coach operator in Tranent.
Mr. Boyer founded the first regular bus service between Rothley, Mountsorrel and Leicester in 1911. He was 92.
Mr. Smitherman was engaged in haulage in the Hadley area from about 1937 until his business was natiOnalized. He Was 80.