Nakhonchai Tour Co Ltd, a major inter-provincial bus operator based in Nakhon Ratchasima, has told the Department of Land Transport it is having to cut its service by 30% due to the impact from soaring diesel prices.
Chaiwat Wongbencharat, managing director of Nakhonchai Tour, said the surge in price and the Transport Ministry's rejection of a provincial bus fare hike will force the company to run fewer buses on some routes as it is unable to bear the increasing financial burden on account of rising fuel prices.
Also, he said it was reasonable for the ministry to agree to a fare increase as public transport operators have collected fares based on a 19.69 baht per litre diesel price set on Feb 15, 2016.
Existing fares do not reflect the actual cost of operating a bus service with the diesel price hitting 30 baht per litre today, he said. According to Mr Chaiwat, the firm and its affiliated company, Nakhonchai 21, currently operate 130 buses which consume more than 500,000 litres of diesel each month.
He said the company has never before had to cut back bus services, adding several other bus operators had also requested a fare hike from the department.
Mr Chaiwat's comments came after Sujinda Cherdchai, president of the Passenger Bus Operators Association and the owner of Cherdchai Tour Co, which operates inter-provincial buses, met Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith to discuss a fare hike on Monday due to the soaring diesel price.
The ministry refused to raise public transport fares, reasoning it was in the process of studying all transportation costs which would take around two months.
The government Wednesday announced it would cap the diesel price at 30 baht per litre to ease the impact resulting from climbing world oil prices.
The Energy Ministry said world oil prices have fluctuated for two months. The price of Dubai crude rose US$15.30 (490 baht) per barrel on Saturday to more than $77.
The spike in the crude oil price resulted in the price of diesel in Southeast Asia soaring by about $17 to $93.24 per barrel.
This resulted in the price of diesel in Thailand jumping by 3.82 baht per litre in one day.
In Ayutthaya, Chareonchai Traiklin, 38, said he and other workers hired to plough rice fields have had to charge more to cover the cost of fuel used for their ploughing machine.
In the northeasten province of Nong Khai, the operator of a ferry from Nong Khai municipality to Vientiane in Laos has reduced services, from six round trips a day to five to save on fuel costs. The operator said it would need to raise fares if the diesel price continues to rise.
In the far South, measures against the smuggling of petrol from Malaysia have been stepped up at a border checkpoint in Yala's Betong district after the diesel price there hit 30.63 baht per litre or nearly double the rate of petrol sold in Malaysia.
Aside from diesel, the liquid petroleum gas (LPG) price has risen by 9.8% as well, resulting in an increase in retail prices of a 4kg LPG cylinder to 147 baht, 7kg to 223 baht, 15kg to 423 baht and 48kg to 1,355 baht.