July 23 2024
The rate of increase in unit costs for bus operators slowed in the most recent twelve months, after two years of double-digit increases.
The February 2024 round of the CPT Cost Monitor survey also confirms that overall gross costs rose by 3.1% over the year to February 2024, in Great Britain outside London. Adjustment for inflation to December 2023 prices also suggests that over the period February 2023-24 there was a real terms fall in costs of 3.7%.
The CPT Cost Monitor database now includes five sets of data collected twice a year since 2022. In this latest round, data was contributed by operators with a peak vehicle requirement of 21,000 so the survey is highly representative.
The full report (available to operators who contributed data) contains a wealth of information about industry costs and 48 pages of analysis - divided into sections and employing tables and charts to make it easily digestible. The report examines operating costs per hour & kilometre, and analyses movements over time. It also presents a range of KPIs covering service provision, fleet utilisation, fuel consumption, and staff productivity.
A shorter report – looking at cost movements over time – provided for all members, local authorities and other stakeholders is available here.
The information provided by the report will be used by the industry to inform discussions & negotiations regards funding, service levels and inflationary increases on contract prices.
The database for collecting June 2024 data is now open and any operator wishing to contribute should please contact operations@cpt-uk.org.