School transport fees to rise by at least 15 per cent

Parents will have to cough up 15 per cent more in school transportation fees for their children, as the Minivan Cooperative adjusts its fees to reflect the cost of living and the fuel surcharge.

As the next scholastic year looms, cooperative chairman Charles Mercieca did not rule out that the cost could rise further in the cases of parents and schools that did not go through the cooperative.

However, the price is set for the bulk of the routes - five per cent of the price increase will reflect the cost of living adjustment, while the remaining 10 per cent is intended to reflect the fuel surcharge.

Mr Mercieca claimed there were independent operators who had increased their prices by as much as 100 per cent, however, he could only speak for the cooperative's members.

As the sector was already liberalised, operators were free to charge what they wanted for the service they provided. The cooperative, he said, only had control over the routes and transportation agreements that go through it, and the fees for the academic year of 2008-2009 had already been distributed.

Mr Mercieca quashed reports in the media that the yearly fees of children's school transport would double as a result of the EU directive on seat belts, which came into force on May 9, 2006, but was never enforced until earlier this year.

Malta had been granted a two-year extension to give service providers time to implement the law and it was transposed into the island's legislation in July, 2007.

The cooperative had raised the point that, the way things stood before, minivans were allowed to carry more children under 10, because two could fit easily into one seat if they did not need to be buckled up.

The directive, however, stipulates that "member states are not entitled to allow vehicles to carry more children than there are seats and seat belts available" unless they reach certain agreements with the Commission. The European Commission made it clear on May 21 that it was unacceptable for Malta not to follow this directive "to the letter". Speaking for the cooperative, Mr Mercieca said they calculated that the maximum seating regulation was not hitting them "across the board". Only certain busy routes were being affected by this directive and these would "need to be catered for", he said without going into detail.

He remarked that the whole issue actually generated more work for the cooperative, since a number of parents had turned to the cooperative for transportation services, driven away by the high prices charged by independent operators.

The majority of operators contacted by The Times, both independent and members of the cooperative, said they would be adjusting their prices by 15 per cent, reflecting the cooperative's decision.

However, one operator felt the directive, which had pushed him to carry a smaller number of children, had left him no alternative but to drastically increase his prices to maintain the same level of income.

Mr Mercieca added that the prices were being adjusted now to reflect all the necessary changes, and a legal notice prevents them from changing new prices halfway through the scholastic year.