NCC SCHOOL CONTRACTS FUEL PAY RISE
Dear operator
I said to you a few months ago that I was trying to get some financial help for you towards your increased fuel costs, and the attached paper has been signed off by senior staff and Members and will be in the public domain tomorrow. It proposes that we apply an increase (capped at 14%) for up to 6 months on 13% of your total daily contract cost, 13% being the average amount of the fuel element of a contract – I know it will vary across operators and vehicles but we had to have one figure and this was the figure we used when we deducted money from your daily price for non-operation during the pandemic.
Assuming there is no objection from the opposition parties, we will implement this from 1 April. We will send more details on how we will actually do this next week, in time for your April invoices to be sent, so that you know what to put on the invoice. Of course, if you don’t need this additional sum then just submit your normal invoice with the usual daily price.
This temporary increase covers all local bus, children’s and adult transport services.
Hope this makes sense, and will go some way to alleviating your current financial pressures. What we do after 6 months is still not clear – let’s hope that things have stabilised by then.
Regards 20.04.2022
Dear operator
The temporary fuel increase for your contracts, as listed on the attached, is a 14% increase on 13% of your current daily cost. On the attached spreadsheet you will see a list of your contract numbers, the current daily price (as at 27th April) and the new daily price, that will run from 1 April to 30 September, or whenever your contract runs to if it ends before 30th September. This only applies to contracts let before 1 January 2022.
If you wish to claim this temporary increase (you don't have to) then please submit invoices with the new daily cost for April through to September. From 1 October the price will revert to your previous (current) daily cost, unless variations are agreed in the meantime.
If you submit invoices for April with your current daily cost and not the new one then I'm afraid we will pay at your current rate - we won't be able to go back and add on an extra amount in retrospect and we won't be querying it before we pay, as we do have the resource to do so. However you could then claim the new daily cost for May onwards.
If you operate a mileage contract, then please contact your normal contact in the team to talk through the temporary increase with them.
If fuel costs decrease significantly between now and the end of September then we will make a further change and decrease the daily amount and re-inform you what to charge, as specified in the paper that has been agreed by Members.
We are doing this so that you are able to continue running your contracts and to take some of the increased cost pressure off you and to stop early termination of contracts. It is a massive task for my team to undertake and so please bear with us as we update costs, meaning we may not be able to start paying invoices until Thursday next week.
Thank you 29.04.2022 NCC
