Staff Report #6
September 25, 2019
To All Commissioners
Re: Financial Update – Conventional Transit Services – Operating Budget – August 31, 2019
Recommendation
That the report be NOTED and FILED.
Background
Set out in the table below is the Statement of Operations for Conventional Transit Services for the eight month period ending August 31, 2019. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.
London Transit Commission
Statement of Operations – Conventional Transit Services
Eight Months Ending August 31, 2019
(000’s omitted)
| Description | Actual | Budget | Amount Better (Worse) | Percent Better (Worse) | |
| Revenue | |||||
| Transportation | $ 20,717.2 | $ 20,976.0 | $ (258.8) | (1.2)% | |
| Operating | 1,022.8 | 940.5 | 82.3 | 8.7 % | |
| Transfers from reserves | 705.7 | 520.0 | 185.7 | 35.7 % | |
| Province – provincial gas tax | 6,081.3 | 6,081.3 | – | 0.0 % | |
| City of London | 20,651.1 | 20,651.4 | – | 0.0 % | |
| Total revenue | 49,178.4 | 49,169.2 | 9.2 | 0.0 % | |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Personnel cost | 33,066.5 | 33,303.1 | 236.6 | 0.7 % | |
| Direct bus maintenance | 4,532.9 | 4,035.9 | (497.0) | (12.3)% | |
| Fuel | 4,412.0 | 5.485.2 | 1,073.2 | 19.6 % | |
| Facility costs | 2,190.8 | 2,283.5 | 92.7 | 4.1 % | |
| Insurance | 2,024.2 | 1,826.5 | (197.7) | (10.8)% | |
| Contribution to reserves | 432.0 | 356.6 | (75.4) | (21.2)% | |
| All other material expense | 1,939.4 | 1,878.4 | (61.0) | (3.2)% | |
| Total expenditure | 48,597.8 | 49,169.2 | 571.4 | 1.2 % | |
| Net favourable/(unfavourable) | $ 580.6 | $ – | 580.6 | 1.2 % | |
As indicated, the conventional transit service to-date has a net favourable actual to budget performance of $580,600 representing approximately 1.2% of the total budget to-date of $49.2 million.
The major performance issues relate to:
Revenue
- unfavourable transportation revenue of $258,800 due to lower than budgeted ridership ($238,300) and a lower than budgeted average fare ($20,300) (mix of riders different vs. budget);
- favourable operating revenue due to higher than budgeted interest on operating and reserve fund accounts; and
- a net increase in funding from reserves of $185,700 required to mainly offset the higher than budget return-to-work program (personnel cost).
Expenditures
- favourable personnel costs due to fewer revenue service hours utilized and timing of replacing vacant positions, offset by an increase in costs associated with the return-to-work program;
- unfavourable direct bus maintenance and servicing due to an increase in the number of replacement engines installed as well as major repairs to bus involved in an uninsured collision;
- favourable fuel costs of $1,073,200 attributed to favourable fuel rates ($801,700) and favourable fuel consumption ($271,600); and
- unfavourable insurance costs of $197,700 attributable to the 30% rate increase for bus insurance at the July 1st renewal date.
Ridership
The table below sets out actual to budget ridership performance for the eight months ending August 31, 2019 as well as comparison to the same period in the previous year.
| Description | Actual | Budget | Variance | % Variance | 2018 Actual | % Variance |
| Total Passengers (000’s) | 14,720.4 | 14,889.6 | (169.2) | (1.1)% | 14,658.2 | 0.4 % |
| Average Fare | $ 1.407 | $ 1.409 | $ (0.001) | (0.1)% | $ 1.390 | 1.3 % |
| Revenue Service Hours | 422.4 | 430.4 | (8.0) | (1.9)% | 413.5 | 2.1 % |
| Rides/Rev Service Hour | 34.8 | 34.6 | 0.3 | 0.7 % | 35.4 | (1.7)% |
Administration will continue to monitor the operating budget performance, including ridership, on a monthly basis.
Recommended by:
Mike Gregor, Director of Finance
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager