Steep rise in petrol, diesel prices is going to push up taxi, bus fares

THE transport industry has blamed the massive increase in prices at the fuel pumps for the spike in fares which commuters have been warned about.

According to the Department of Energy, from today the price of petrol is set to rise by 82 cents a litre for both 93 and 95 octane fuel, while diesel will rise by between 85 and 87 cents a litre, and illuminating paraffin will go up by 82 cents.

This will take the official petrol price up to R15.54 for 93 octane, and R15.79 for 95 octane (R15.20 on the coast). Diesel (0.05% sulphur content) will be R14.19.

National Taxi Alliance (NTA) spokesperson Theo Malele warned taxi commuters to brace themselves for fare increases.

“For us the fare increase is related to fuel increases and subsidy. Fuel price increases most commodities; the taxi industry also has operational costs and it needs to survive because currently we are operating on a shoestring budget.

“A lot of people think taxi operators are making billions of rand, when in reality the poor guys are finding it difficult to make ends meet, simply because government relaxed its responsibility of looking after its citizens,” Malele said.

He said taxi fares would not go up overnight, but would gradually increase to give commuters time to adjust.

“The respective associations will give sufficient warning to the commuting public that we will be increasing fares.

“So the public must be on the lookout for increase. Another reason for the fare increase is because we have seen several ministers talking about the taxi industry getting a subsidy imminently, but to date we have not seen any of the thoughts come into effect.

“It is a pity that there is nothing the taxi operators can do at this point,” Malele said.

Golden Arrow Bus Services (Gabs) expect the change to happen “in the next few months”.

The last increase was a 7% price hike at the end of December last year.

Gabs spokesperson Bronwen Dyke-Beyer pointed to fuel prices that had risen by 30% over the past year. “And they are projected to escalate by a further 6% next month.

“Regrettably the company is no longer in a position to absorb these cost escalations, and in line with the special conditions of its interim contract with the Western Cape Department of Transport, will therefore be adjusting fares in the coming months.

“The extent to which these cost increases can be effectively absorbed has proved insufficient and a significant under-recovery will still be prevalent even after the proposed increase is implemented.

“This fare adjustment is therefore an unfortunate but unavoidable last resort.”

Dyke-Beyer said the company was acutely aware of the effect that increased fares had on its commuters.

“We would like to assure them once again that this increase is unavoidable given the prevailing economic climate,” she said.

The George Municipality said the annual increase in the price of the GO GEORGE bus tickets formed part of the annual municipal tariff adjustments.

The green single ticket bought off-bus at vendors will cost 50c more at R10. The price of the grey single ticket bought on the bus increases by R2 to encourage passengers to buy their tickets off-bus before they board.

The multi-journey ticket (MJT) with 10 trips remains the best buy at R90 (R9 a trip) – an increase of 50c a trip.