1923 AUTO PLATES READY TOMORROW

The New York Times
November 19, 1922

Taxicab Operators Must Show Bond or Insurance Policy for $2,500.

NEW FEES BASED ON WEIGHT

Simpler Registration System is Expected to Produce 50 Per Cent. More Revenue.

Automobile plate numbers for 1923 and application blanks for the registry of cars in New York State will be ready for delivery tomorrow morning at the motor vehicle branch offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Beginning Monday, Dec. 4, and continuing through that month the plates and application blanks will also be available every day except Sunday at the Ninth Coast Defense Armory, Fourteenth Street, west of Sixth Avenue; the First Field Artillery Armory, Broadway and Sixty-Eighth Street; at the Bronx Borough Hall, Tremont and Third Avenues; at the Board of Trade rooms in the Butler Building, Jamaica, and in the Borough Hall at St. George, S. I.

In announcing yesterday the plans for the delivery of the 1923 plates John T. McNeill, head of the motor vehicle bureau in this city at Broadway and Sixty-fifth Street, said that no registry numbers for taxicabs or omnibuses would be issued unless there was filed with the application a certificate showing that a bond or insurance policy was then in force. Under the law enacted by the last Legislature every taxicab and omnibus operator or owner is required to be bonded or insured in $2,500 as a means for the recovery of reasonable damages through injuries due to accidents caused by such vehicles.

Not only has this law been opposed by the taxicab operators but it has not been enforced either by the Tax Commission or by the Police Department. Many taxicab drivers who took out bonds last Spring only paid the first instalment price and have allowed them to lapse, and it is said that only a small percentage of the taxicabs operating in New York City carry any liability insurance. The new law requires that operators of taxicabs when applying for new license plates or renewals must show that they are properly insured. Before the 1923 plates are granted, Mr. McNeill stated, every certificate of insurance will be investigated by the Motor Vehicle Bureau to determine whether it is actually in force. By this method it will be compulsory for all taxicabs operating on Jan. 1, 1923, with the new plates to be fully insured. For the present the plates for taxicabs, omnibuses and privately rented cars will only be given out from the Manhattan office at Broadway and Sixty-fifth Street.

A new system of registry fee also goes into effect with the 1923 plates and payment for the 1923 registry will be on the basis of weight of the car, the fee being 50 cents per 100 pounds on cars up to 3,500 pounds and 75 cents for cars weighing more than 3,500 pounds. For a four-cylinder car $8 is the minimum fee and for one of six cylinders or more the minimum fee is $10. While much simpler than the method now in vogue of taxing the car on horse power and sales price, it will also provide a much greater revenue from automobiles to the State, the increased income being estimated at from 40 to 50 per cent., which in the aggregate will probably represent an addition of $2,000,000 to the motor vehicle receipts. On the Ford cars it will mean an increased tax of from $2 to $2.50 for the open models, the fee ranging from $8 to $8.50 and $9 to $9.50 on the closed models. On the other hand, new cars weighing 4,000 and more will pay slightly less. The registry fee on commercial vehicles has been increased 60 per cent.

The numbers to be distributed in New York City for passenger cars will begin at 101,000 and continue through 140,000, then jumping to 627,201 through 800,000, and ten beginning at 870,901 to 879,100. For commercial vehicles and trucks the numbers will begin at 1,050,101, continuing through 1,122,100.