Friday, March 29, 2024

BC Ferries cancels fuel rebates due to rising gas prices

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BC Ferries is advising customers that the company is ending its fuel rebates program due to “current world fuel market conditions,” as of Wednesday, June 27th.

As a way to regulate costs, the company “closely monitors the cost of fuel and from time to time applies a rebate or surcharge,” they said in a statement.

In short, when fuel prices are low, BC Ferries’ ticket prices reflect that through the use of rebates, and when they are higher, surcharges are added to make up the cost.

The release also stressed that the company does not profit financially from this rebate/surcharge mechanism.

“Over the past 14 years, we’ve had fuel surcharges, fuel rebates, and periods with neither,
depending on the market price of diesel fuel, so over the years it has basically been neutral for our customers,” said Mark Collins, BC Ferries’ President and CEO.

“We know that the affordability of travel is important… and we use fuel deferral accounts and fuel hedging as tools to help reduce the impact that fluctuating fuel prices have on the cost of ferry travel.”

Since Spring 2016, the ferries have had a 2.9% fuel rebate in place for all major and minor routes, and 1.9% for the northern routes.

These amount to 50 cents for an adult and $1.70 for a vehicle on the Metro Vancouver – Vancouver Island route and 30 cents for an adult and 70 cents on a variety of minor routes, for example.

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Brishti Basu
Former Senior Staff Writer and Content Manager at Victoria Buzz.

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