Rising Diesel Prices: What It Means for Coach Travel

Unfortunately, diesel prices have been creeping upwards again. Around our area we are already seeing prices close to and even over £1.80 per litre, and if things continue in the same direction, the prospect of diesel reaching £2 per litre by the end of the year is becoming a genuine concern.

We know rising fuel prices affect everyone, whether you’re filling a car, van, lorry or coach. But when you operate larger commercial vehicles every day, even a relatively small increase at the pump can make a considerable difference to the overall cost of providing a service.

To put it into perspective, a large coach can carry around 400 litres of diesel. At £1.80 per litre, filling that tank from empty costs £720. If diesel reaches £2 per litre, exactly the same tank costs £800 to fill.

That’s an extra £80 on a single tank of diesel.

When you multiply that across a fleet of vehicles operating throughout the week, those increases quickly become significant. And unlike a car that might be filled once every week or two, coaches can cover hundreds of miles on a single booking, particularly with tours, airport transfers, sports groups and longer-distance private hire.

The cost becomes even clearer when you break it down per mile.

A large coach averaging around 10mpg uses approximately 4.55 litres of diesel every 10 miles. At £1.80 per litre, that means diesel alone is costing around 82p for every mile the coach travels.

If diesel reaches £2 per litre, that rises to approximately 91p per mile.

So a 200-mile day’s work would use roughly £164 of diesel at £1.80 per litre. At £2 per litre, the same mileage would cost approximately £182. On a 400-mile day, you’re looking at approximately £327 compared with £364.

And that is before we’ve paid for anything else, insurance, finance, wages.

There is also mileage involved in coach hire that customers understandably don’t always see. A coach doesn’t magically appear at the pickup point and disappear when everyone gets off.

If we have to travel 30 miles from our depot to collect a group, that’s 30 miles of fuel before the actual journey has even started. If there’s another 30 miles back to the depot afterwards, that’s another 30 miles. The driver is working during that time, the coach is using diesel and we’re putting additional mileage, tyres and wear onto the vehicle.

It’s all part of operating a coach company and something we’ve been doing for over 40 years, but it does help explain why changes in diesel prices eventually have a knock-on effect on coach hire prices.

Fuel is also only one part of the cost of putting a coach on the road. There are drivers’ wages, insurance, tyres, servicing, regular safety inspections, testing, parts, cleaning and the ongoing investment required to keep a modern fleet safe, reliable and comfortable for our passengers.

At Executive Travel NI, we have always tried to keep our prices fair and competitive, and we’ll continue to do that. We’re certainly not using rising diesel prices as an excuse to simply put prices up.

But equally, we think it’s important to be open with our customers about the costs involved.

When a 20p increase in diesel adds £80 to a 400-litre fill, and increases the fuel cost of a 10mpg coach by around 9p for every mile travelled, it inevitably has an impact somewhere along the line.

Despite that, coach travel continues to make a lot of sense, particularly for larger groups. Putting 30, 40 or 50 passengers together on one vehicle instead of everyone travelling separately remains a practical way to travel, whether it’s for a school trip, sports fixture, wedding, airport transfer, day trip or private tour.

We’ll continue to watch fuel prices closely, keep our own costs under control wherever we can and provide our customers with competitive quotations.

Hopefully we don’t see the £2 per litre signs appearing at the pumps again. But if diesel continues heading in that direction, unfortunately the transport industry as a whole will feel the effects.

For us, the priority won’t change — safe, reliable coach travel, well-maintained vehicles and a fair price for our customers.

Executive Travel NI 
Keeping our customers moving safely for over 40 years