Here we go again. The price of diesel has gone up by 32 cents per litre. To their credit, the maxi operators have said that they had no plans for an "immediate" increase in fares, since the cost of fuel is only a small part of the expense of operating a maxi. Sensible thinking. But since "immediate" will soon pass, this is a reminder of the increase in fares that could be justified by the increase in the price of diesel.
For a typical 12-seater maxi using diesel, the fuel consumption can vary from about 9 km/litre to 12 km/litre. For our purposes, we will use the easy figure of 10 km/litre. For a journey of 10 km, the maxi will use one litre of diesel. His increased fuel cost for that trip would be 32 cents. Shared among 12 passengers, that comes to less than three cents per passenger. If the maxi is half-full, on average, the 32 cents increase will have to be shared by six passengers, that is, just over five cents per passenger.
In general, for a half-full maxi, he can justify an increase of five cents for every 10 kilometres. Even with just three passengers, a 10-cents increase in fare will cover the increased cost of fuel for 10 km. If maxi operators want to increase their fares for other reasons, that's another matter, but only a miniscule increase can be justified by the new price of diesel.
Noel Kalicharan