Staff Report #5 – Financial Update – Conventional Transit Services – Operating Budget – April 30, 2018

Staff Report #5

May 30, 2018

To All Commissioners

Re: Financial Update – Conventional Transit Services – Operating Budget – April 30, 2018

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 four month period ending April 30, 2018. The statement sets out actual to budget performance for the period.

London Transit Commission

Statement of Operations – Conventional Transit Services

Four Months Ending April 30, 2018

(000’s omitted)

 Amount  Percent
 Better  Better
Description  Actual  Budget  (Worse)  (Worse)
Revenue
Transportation $ 11,544.3 $ 11,494.7 $ 49.6 0.4 %
Operating 492.6 459.7 32.9 7.2 %
Transfers from reserves 386.9 260.0 126.9 48.8 %
Province – provincial gas tax 2,603.2 2,603.2 0.0 %
City of London 7,479.1 7,479.1 0.0 %
Total revenue 22,506.2 22,296.7 209.5 0.9 %
Expenditure
Personnel cost 15,261.9 15,276.0 14.1  0.1%
Direct bus maintenance 2,062.1 2,059.4  (2.7)  (0.1)%
Fuel 2,412.6 2,363.3 (49.3)  (2.1)%
Facility costs 1,292.9 1,340.9 48.0 3.6 %
Insurance 294.5 200.0 (94.5) (47.2)%
Contribution to reserves 518.0 480.6 (37.4)  (7.8)%
All other material expense 590.2 576.5 (13.7)  (2.4)%
Total expenditure 22,432.3 22,296.7 (135.6)  (0.6)%
Net favourable/(unfavourable) $ 73.9 $ –  $ 73.9 0.3 %

As indicated, the conventional transit service to-date has a net favourable actual to budget performance of $73,900 representing approximately 0.3% of the total budget to-date of $22.3 million.

The major performance issues relate to:

Revenue

  • favourable transportation revenue of $49,600 due to higher than budgeted ridership ($126,400) offset by lower average fare ($71,800) (mix of riders different vs. budget);
  • favourable operating revenue of $32,900 due to higher than budgeted interest income; and
  • an increase in the transfers from reserves of $126,900 utilized to offset the unfavourable insurance expenditures noted below.

Expenditures

  • unfavourable fuel costs of $49,300 attributed to unfavourable fuel rates ($175,600) offset by favourable fuel consumption ($126,300);
  • favourable facility costs of $48,000 due to favourable natural gas, hydro price and consumption variances;
  • unfavourable insurance claim costs of $94,500; and
  • unfavourable contributions to reserves of $37,400 due to increases in interest income (operating revenue).

Ridership

The table below sets out actual to budget ridership performance for the four months ending April 30, 2018 as well as comparison to the same period in the previous year.

Description Actual Budget Variance % Variance 2017 Actual % Variance
Total Passengers (000’s) 8,792.2 8,696.6 95.6 1.1 % 8,625.9 1.9 %
Average Fare $ 1.314  $ 1.322  $ (0.008)  (0.6)% $ 1.308 0.5 %
Revenue Service Hours 212.3 215.7 (3.4)  (1.6)% 207.3 2.4 %
Rides/Rev Service Hour 41.4 40.3 1.1 2.7 % 41.6 (0.5)%

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