The B.C. Ferry Com-missioner has issued his final ruling approving B.C. Ferries' application for a second fuel surcharge of three per cent on the Horseshoe Bay - Langdale route.
Effective Feb. 1, that means foot passengers will pay an extra 20 cents per round-trip, cars will pay 75 cents more per round-trip, and recreational vehicles will pay $1.50 more on the local route.
Those increases are on top of a six per cent fuel surcharge approved by the commissioner last year and applied to rates on July 25, 2005.
The increase is meant to help B.C. Ferries pay for rising fuel costs but is not as high as originally asked for by the corporation.
The commissioner has decided to grant a three per cent increase now, and possibly another three per cent increase in June if oil prices continue to increase as the ferry corporation forecasts.
The commissioner has also given B.C. Ferries a fuel conservation target to reduce the actual volume of fuel consumption by one per cent per year for the next two fiscal years.
"We are looking into a number of options. One of the keys is to maintain on-time performance, which means we will not have to make up time during the run, which uses considerably more fuel. The other is not to run extra sailings if they are not necessary and we are looking into equipment adjustments to maintain optimum engine performance and minimize the amount of fuel we are burning," Mark Stefanson, vice president of communications for B.C. Ferries said.
The company's fuel forecasts project their annual fuel costs to rise to $76 million this fiscal year, up from $50 million last year.
The commissioner's complete ruling, including information on the formula that would allow the implementation of a further fuel surcharge in June is available at www.bcferrycommission.com.
