SCHOOL BUS CONTRACTS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24899, 12 June 1946, Page 10

SCHOOL BUS CONTRACTS

Sir, —I wonder if the Minister of Transport can explain why school-bus proprietors are not covered by fixed rates as are other transport and pas-senger-vehicle operators. I think I am correct in stating that all privatelyowned school buses are run on contract, either at so much a head or a mile. I fail to see why there should not be a set rate a mile, the amount to be in accordance with the seating capacity or load-carrying capacity of the vehicle. I am operating a 15cwt bus at almost a half the price a mile that is paid for a taxi My contract has been in operation for nearly two years, and although operating costs have risen by about 40 per cent, since I started. I am expected to scratch along and say nothing about such a delicate matter as a new contract price. I imagine this may be the Government’s way of showing its disapproval of private enterprise.—Yours, etc., S.B. PROPRIETOR. May 29, 1946. [The Commissioner of Transport says: “I am directed to advise that school buses come' under the provisions of the Transport Licensing Act only so far as the mechanical condition of the vehicle is concerned. Fixation of rates for hire is a matter between the bus operator and the education authorities.”)