Increasing Fuel Prices Make Bus Companies Turn Off Engine

Bus companies are turning off engines due to increasing fuel prices. Chairman of All Bus Drivers, Mustafa Yıldırım, stated that they increased their prices due to fuel increases and they experienced a great decrease in the number of customers. Yıldırım added, "The costs have increased so much that 35-40 percent of the sector is about to turn off engine, meaning, about to go bankrupt."

The war after the pandemic and the high inflation felt all over the world caused record increases in fuel prices like everything else. While the fuel hikes applied in 2022 exceeded 200 percent, the annual rate of increase in diesel prices was 286 percent. On Wednesday, June 8, the liter price of diesel was increased by 1 lira and 92 cents. The liter price of diesel oil increased to 27.81 TL in Istanbul, 27.92 TL in Ankara and 27.93 TL in İzmir. Fuel oil is expected to rise to 30 liras in the coming weeks. “Our demand for a 25 percent raise is not approved, we are at a loss” Stating that the bus industry is at great risk, Mustafa Yıldırım, Chairman of All Bus Drivers, said, “We talked to the Ministry, but they do not approve of the 25 percent hike demanded by the industry. They reject this rate and make inspections from behind and impose fines. We have entered a vicious cycle.” “Its not like we have a chance to take action and turn off engines, but the costs have increased so much that 35-40 percent of the sector is about to turn off their engines, meaning, about to go bankrupt. We carried 45 million passengers in the last 5 months. Despite the pandemic, this rate was around 55 million last year." Stating that they spend 40-50 liters more fuel in each pass because they had to pass through the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, Yıldırım said, “The cost of 42 liters of fuel for each pass is 1,200 TL per vehicle. This figure is 60-65 thousand TL per month. 35 thousand tons of fuel per year is wasted just because of this. We throw away 1 billion TL annually in the bus industry. They should give us a 50 percent discount on highways and bridges, and a SCT refund on fuel. They should at least return 20 percent of the SCT.” Examples of bus - flight ticket price comparisons: 1 passenger Istanbul Bus Station/Ankara; 300 TL 1 passenger Istanbul Airport/Ankara travel cost starts from 500 TL 1 passenger Istanbul Bus Station/Izmir; Starting from 350 TL-400 1 passenger Istanbul Airport/İzmir starts from 650 TL 1 passenger Istanbul Bus Station/Bodrum starts from 550 TL 1 passenger Istanbul Airport / Bodrum starts from 800TL 1 passenger Istanbul Bus Station/Antalya starts from 460TL 1 passenger Istanbul Airport/Antalya starts from 1,900TL