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Estimate a school-bus route budget from measured duty time, distance and service days.
Price paid duty time
Include required preparation, inspections, waiting and return travel in the paid minutes. If morning and afternoon runs are separate, enter their combined daily duty time and distance on the same basis.
How the calculation works
Daily cost = duty minutes ÷ 60 × hourly driver cost + daily distance × variable cost per distance unit + fixed daily allocation. Period cost = daily cost × service days. Cost per student-service day = daily cost ÷ positive student count.
A worked example
Three duty hours at 28 cost 84. Eighty distance units at 0.55 cost 44, and fixed allocation adds 35: 163 per service day. Across 180 days the operating budget is 29,340. With 40 students, the cost is 4.08 per student-service day.
Separate cost from route feasibility
A low estimated cost does not make a route safe or practical. Check actual travel times, school arrival windows and contractual obligations separately. Keep repairs or insurance outside the variable rate if they already sit in the fixed allocation.
What the result leaves out
No route, safety standard or vehicle-capacity requirement is validated. Distance and variable unit cost must both use miles or both use kilometres. Student count is a budgeting denominator, not an occupancy or transport-safety approval.
Open the calculator with your own figures →
The defaults are constructed examples, not market benchmarks. Choose one currency for every monetary input; the currency selector formats values and does not convert exchange rates. Keep a copy of the records and assumptions behind your result so you can repeat the comparison after the next reporting period.
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