H.—4o.

6. REGULATION OF COMMERCIAL ROAD TRANSPORT. TRANSPORT LICENSING ACT, 1931. A. APPLICATIONS FOR LICENSES, ETC. During the year ended 31st March, 1941, the four district transport licensing authorities dealt with 4,521 applications, for transport licenses, while the four metropolitan licensing authorities dealt with 1,503 applications. The details of the applications dealt with, which cover applications for new licenses, renewals of existing licenses, transfers of licenses, amendments of licenses, and reviews of licenses, are set out hereunder : —•

B. NUMBER OB 1 LICENSES IN FORCE. At the 31st March, 1941, there were 7,492 licenses in force, made up as follows : 1,378 passenger services, 4,713 goods services (with 9,483 vehicle authorities), 1,280 taxi services, and 121 rental-car services. C. REVIEWS OF LICENSES. Apart from the general review of operators' finances, &c., which is made each year, the Licensing Authorities had occasion to review 1,860 individual licenses. Of these, 1,749 were in respect of goodsservice licenses, while 46 related to passenger services, 33 to taxi services, and 32 to rental-car services. D. INSPECTION OF OPERATORS' ACCOUNTS AND RECORDS. During the year the Inspecting Accountants attached to the Department examined the accounts and records of 995 operators. In the course of their inspections they checked up on passenger-service fares, time-tables and charges, the effects of cartage rates and contracts on goods-service finances, and gave advice where necessary on the maintenance of adequate accounting and statistical records. In addition, they made 99 specific reviews of contract rates schedules, &c., for the information of the Licensing Authorities. E. FINANCES AND STATISTICS, 1939-40. (1) Passenger Services. (a) Growth of the Industry. Since the road passenger-transport services were brought under the Transport Licensing Act in 1932 there has been a tremendous increase in the volume of traffic handled. In the year ended 31st March, 1933, these services ran nearly 23,000,000 vehicle-miles to carry just over 16,000,000 passengers ; in the year 1939-40 they covered 26,000,000 miles to carry over 30,500,000 passengers. In other words, while the vehicle mileage run increased by 14 per cent., there was an increase of over 90 per cent, in the number of passengers carried. Over the seven years the total gross revenue from the road-passenger-transport operations has increased from £880,000 to over £1,400,000, or by 60 per cent., while net profits have risen from £5,000 to nearly £120,000. The main increase in the numbers of passengers carried has occurred over the last two years —viz., 1938-39 and 1939-40. Between 1932-33 and 1937-38 there was an increase of 6,000,000 in the number of passengers carried annually. Between 1937-38 and 1939-40 this figure was just over

2—H. 40,

9

Passenger Taxi o„ rvi „„„ Rental-car G , Services Services. Laxl bervl0es - Services. Uooa8 &ervlces - New applications— Received .. .. .. 525 265 16 630 Granted .. .. . . 509 226 3 440 Refused or withdrawn .... 14 35 12 126 Adjourned ...... 2 4 1 64 Renewal applications — Received .. .. .. 38 260 1 1,090 Granted .. .. .. 38 259 1 1,021 Refused or withdrawn .. .. .. 1 .. 17 Adjourned .. .. .. . . .. • ■ 52 Amendment applications — Received .. .. .. 323 1,130 57 860 Granted .. .. .. 299 1,103 52 681 Refused or withdrawn .... 1.3 13 4 111 Adjourned ...... 11 14 1 68 Transfer applications— Received .. .. .. 52 207 7 563 Granted .. .. .. 47 .1.94 5 522 Refused or withdrawn .... 4 11 2 29 Adjourned ...... 1 2 .. 12 Licenses revoked, cancelled, or suspended 47 37 8 132