MERGER QUESTION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 29241, 11 October 1940, Page 7

MERGER QUESTION

DISCUSSION BY CARRIERS GOVERNMENT PRESSURE FORMATION OF COMPANIES Reference to the Government policy of encouraging carriers to amalgamate their businesses was made at the annual meeting of the South ■^ u ?k\ Council of Carriers’ Associations, held in Hamilton this week. “The method most frequently discussed of achieving petrol economy and co-ordinating transport,” stated the annual report, “has been the formation of merger companies. How far such proposals are desirable or practicable is a matter entirely for the decision of carriers in the particular localities affected. It is impossible for this council to formulate a general policy on the point. Out. of some obscurity in departmental statements, two points of Government policy seem to emerge:— Majority Necessary “(1) No pressure will be brought through the transport licensing system to compel a licensee to join a merger, unless a substantial majority of operators in the particular district desires an amalgamation. “(2) Where the Government is not satisfied that the carriers in any particular district have taken all possible steps to achieve economy of running, then pressure may be applied to operators through the oil fuel control system.” “In a comprehensive general district report made by the council some time ago, attention was drawn to numerous anomalies in the transport system, and the opinion was expressed that in the face of these anomalies the industry had already done all in its power to bring about conservation of petrol supplies.” Coercion Alleged It was stated by delegates that in one district in the Waikato carriers who had declined to enter merger companies had had their petrol licenses restricted. It was also suggested that in some places cartage schedules had been fixed at a low le» ro l to induce carriers to join merger groups. The council passed a resolution strongly deprecating any attempt by the Government or the licensing authorities to compel operators to merge or centralise their interests by forms of pressure such as fuel control or tariff schedules.