Call for diesel rebate as fuel prices ‘push coach travel to breaking point’

Coach UK, the business group representing passenger coach fleet operators, has called on the Treasury to deliver an emergency 20 pence per litre rebate for the UK’s 2,500 coach operators, citing struggles to absorb ‘soaring’ pump costs.

The organisation, which is part of the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), warns that without urgent relief, operators will be forced into difficult decisions about service viability, including for home-to-school transport work, school trips, community group transport, sports clubs and tourism.

According to a survey of its membership, operators had faced a median 46 per cent increase in fuel costs since hostilities broke out in Iran earlier this year. With fuel the second largest expense after payroll, it accounts for nearly a third of overall costs, Coach UK said.

Coach operators take 600,000 children to school each day, says the organisation, but services are becoming unsustainable due to fuel cost hikes, having initially been tendered at a fixed price. According to its survey, if high fuel prices persist into 2027, 41 per cent will withdraw from home-to-school contracts, with 18 per cent of respondents set to contemplate closing their businesses altogether.

According to Coach UK, the targeted rebate scheme it proposes would cost £52.2 million over the course of a year, and could be part-funded by the increase in VAT revenue received by the Treasury since the rise in diesel prices.

Graham Vidler, chief executive of the CPT, said: “Coach operators provide a hidden backbone of transport in the UK. They’re entrepreneurial businesses which are used to navigating bumps in the road. This year’s surge in the price of fuel, though, is posing a threat to the entire industry.

“In the usual course of events, coach operators get no public subsidy. We are asking, as a last resort, for short-term support from the Government to keep coaches on the road. A 20 pence per litre emergency rebate on fuel duty would be a modest cost to the Treasury and would safeguard vital services.

“If operators are simply left to sink or swim, they will be forced to cut back. The impact will be felt by parents, sports teams, community groups and by the visitor economy across the country.”