TAXATION AND DEPRECIATION,
Page 15
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
,Ideas that are Agitating the Minds of Many Coach Owners.
A T THE present time there are two questions which are agitating the minds of many coach owners. One is the overbearing toll of taxation which is exacted from the industry; and the other deals with that item of operating costs .known as depreciaton.
In regard to motor taxation, there is no greater millstone round the neck of coach owners, for when 'they take out licences in the spring or summer they take the risk of bad weather, bad trade, and ether conditions which may result in vehicles being Off the road for -weeks at a stretch.
In. winter-time. not five per cent, of coaches in the-country emerge from their garages, for the simple reason that the limited-business available does not warrant the payment of tax impost, Coach owners who do keep an odd one or two "saloon coathes for football work admit that occasionally they could fill half a dozen vehicles, but, owing to the impossibility of obtaining an emergency or one-day licence, much wanted business has to be turned down.
That a purely seasonal trade, as the roach owner's, should be heavily taxed quite out of proportion to its revenue or to the use which the coaches make of the roads is so glaring an anomaly that, opinion is rapidly crystallizing in favoiir of a demand not only for a revision of the tax, but also' for the provision of :faeilities which will enable" the • coach 'owner to ." go out" for winter traffic.
When March comes round not many owners in the provinces will be much inclined to pay about .£20 taxation fur the ensuing quarter after their expert-. en"ces last year. The volume of business done between March and June, during whichthe vehicles are not, excepting in odd instances, in commission more than 14 days, does not warrant the exaction of such a payment,
Now as to theother point—depreciation. Some coach owners are saying : "We paid so much three years ago for our 28-seater coach, which can now be bOught for £200 or £300 lass. Should we continue writing off as much per annum as we have been doing in the past, or allow ourselves to be influenced by the lower cost of replacement? "
One coach owner expressed himself to the writer thus ; "Every industrial and commercial concern has had, during the past 12 or 18 months, to do a lot of writing down to: bring prices within reach of the public, and, although the eame'plausible argument may be applied to the coael:Cowner, it is by no means sound policy to manipulate too freely basic items of establishment charges simply to make concessions to the public.
"We made our concessions to the public last year and the year before— many of us without regard to running costs, capital charges, depreciation, or anything else. Why • should we adjust, our percentage of depreciation to the present cost of replacemeut I We have machines on which, during the past three years, we have charged ourselves 20 per cent. for depreciation—total, 60 per cent. We do not intend replacing them this coming season. They cost us a lot of Money when we bought them, and, who knows but what, when the time comes for putting them out of service, we shall not have to pay quite as much for n right-up-to-the-minute model when we want one, say, in 1924
or 1925? ,
"I 'clareemv that, if we only took la per cent, off this ceming Season and 10 per cent. next year, we should in all probability have recovered :the,:cos,t of a new coach, but it is not Wise to speculate on mere probability. "A it is, by continuing on the same lines as hereto-fore, 20 per cent, Of the capital cost per year, quite a legitimate charge in running costs might,very easily become a little reserve fund."
New Lancashire Bus Service.
There is a probability that...the muckdiscussed bus service between Colne and Earby will be established shortly. Two years ago Colne Corporation was granted powers to rim buses on a specified route, and vehicles were . purchased a few months later, but have not yet been put to use, owing to a difficulty which arose with regard to the adaptation of a length of the road between Collie boundary and the Yorkshire boundary.
At one time it appeared that the Cm-poration would be involved in heavy expenditure in adapting the road, and the matter was placed before the Ministry of Transport, which has finally decided that no adaptation, or rec,onstructon, of the road for the traffic is necessary.
There has been considerable opposition expressed by the town council in the past to the establishment of a bus service, but the majority of members are now in favour of a trial being given to the scheme.