Interim increases on the way
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MANY National Bus subsidiary companies are applying for small interim fares increases. These are in tended to combat increased operating costs caused by higher diesel prices and the continuing effects of the long winter.
Bus operators are all having difficulty getting diesel fuel supplies, though there is little likelihood of service reductions yet. In some areas, though, excursions and tours may have to be cut to protect stage carriage fuel supplies.
Small operators with their own fuel supplies are generally being cut down to last year's allocation or less. One operator told CM that extra business brought in this year had become an embarrassment rather than a bonus.
He thought it illogical that fuel supplies for buses and coaches, which are economic users of fuel, are not being given priority so that more people use public transport.
Many small coach operators who do not have their own fuel supplies at their premises are having to bear the brunt of price increases themselves as they are working on previously costed contracts.
Some local authority school contracts do contain clauses which allow operators to increase their prices if costs rise significantly and in many cases they are doing so.