Transportation Feels Fuel Cost Increase
by Lisa Shirkey
April 29, 2008
Everyone is feeling the effects of the increasing cost of fuel. In September 2007, our bus fleet was paying $2.30 per gallon for diesel fuel. Today the price per gallon is $3.83. Furthermore unleaded gasoline for our vans has increased from $2.40 per gallon in September to $3.35 today. Our route mileage has increased by 280 miles per day with our entire fleet. Adding in the increased mileage per day, our predicted fuel cost increase was approximately $10,000. Instead, we are now predicting that by the end of the 2007-2008 school year, we will have spent approximately $95,000 to fuel our fleet- a 69% increase instead of the predicted 18%.
We have already found ways to reduce our costs by sharing transportation services with Cardinal, Newbury and Kenston.The fact that the price for fuel will not be decreasing any time soon, we are forced to explore other avenues that will help our department reduce costs. Many districts are looking at decreasing extracurricular trips to combat the excess fuel increase. This option is a possibility for our district as well, for the 2008-2009 school year.
