Staff Report #11 – Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – October 31, 2018

Staff Report #11

November 28, 2018

To All Commissioners

Re: Financial Update – Specialized Transit Services – Operating Budget – October 31, 2018

Recommendation

That the report be NOTED and FILED.

Background

Set out in the table below is the Statement of Operations for Specialized Transit Services for the ten month period ending October 31, 2018. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.

London Transit Commission

Statement of Operations – Specialized Transit Services

Ten Months Ending October 31, 2018

(000’s omitted)

Description  Actual  Budget  Amount Better (Worse)  Percent Better (Worse)
Revenue
Transportation $ 467.0 526.5  $ (59.5)  (11.3)%
Province – provincial gas tax 1,758.7 1,758.7 0.0 %
City of London 4,336.0 4,336.0 0.0 %
Total revenue 6,561.1 6,621.2 (59.5)  (0.9)%
Expenditure
Personnel cost 785.9 771.2 (14.7)  (1.9)%
Contract service cost 5,939.4 5,733.8 (205.6) (3.6)%
All other material expense 114.4 116.2 1.8 1.6 %
Total expenditure 6,839.7 6,621.2 (218.5)  (3.3)%
Net favourable/(unfavourable) $ (278.0)  $ – $ (278.0)  (4.2)%

As indicated, the service has a net unfavourable operating budget performance to-date of 4.2% or $278,000 made up of the following:

Revenue

  • unfavourable transportation revenue of $59,500 due to lower than budgeted ridership ($35,200) and lower than budgeted average fare ($24,300) (mix of riders different vs. budget)

Expenditures

  • unfavourable labour costs relating to vacation timing and overtime costs $14,700
  • unfavourable contract costs of $205,600 due to the August 1, 2018 contracted rate increase ($166,300) and higher than budgeted service hours ($39,300)

Ridership

The table below sets out actual to budget ridership and other performance related measures as well as a comparison to the same period in the previous year.

Description Actual Budget Variance % Variance 2017 Actual % Variance
Eligible passenger trips 243,980 263,200  (19,220)  (7.3)% 233,050 4.7%
Attendant/companion trips 29,824 30,200  (376)  (1.2)% 22,627 31.8 %
Total Trips 273,804 293,400  (19,596) (6.7)% 255,677 7.1 %
Average fare  $ 1.705  $ 1.794  $ (0.089) (5.0)%  $ 1.726  (1.2)%
Service Hours 120,853 120,030 (823) (0.7)% 111,730 8.2 %
EPT per service hour 2.02 2.19  (0.17)  (7.9)% 2.09  (3.2)%
Total trips per service hour 2.27 2.44  (0.18) (7.3)% 2.29 (1.0)%
Total Registrants 8,864 8,416 5.3%

The lower than budget eligible passenger trips is related to the trips per hour being less than budgeted, which is a reflection of a number of factors including:

  • distance of trips being taken (longer trips are more difficult to accommodate in a shared schedule)
  • periods of day and day of week which trips are taken/required (fewer trip requests in a period result in less rides per hour)
  • schedule efficiency overall

All of the aforementioned factors are monitored and schedules are adjusted accordingly in an effort to ensure that scheduled hours by time of day and day of week best match demand.

Administration will continue to monitor operating budget performance reporting on same on a monthly basis including providing recommendations as may be appropriate.

Recommended by: Concurred in by:

Mike Gregor, Director of Finance

Concurred in by:

Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager