(14 Apr 2020, 8:52 pm)Andreos1 wrote It's a while since this thread was updated and seeing as it's my latest pet peeve, I thought I'd dig out the latest BSOG rates and enhancements. 

It also ties nicely in with the prices thread and discussion which appears to have been ongoing over the course of today. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...-operators

Here's the latest figures. 
The current rate of BSOG is:

Fuel type Unit payable BSOG rate from 1 January 2014
Diesel Pence per litre 34.57
Biodiesel Pence per litre 34.57
Bioethanol Pence per litre 34.57
Biofuels – used cooking oil Pence per litre 34.57
Unleaded petrol Pence per litre 32.66
Natural gas used as road fuel Pence per kilogram 18.88
Road fuel gas other than natural gas Pence per kilogram 18.88

You can see it hasn't changed much over the last few years.

One point to note and one which is hidden at the bottom of the link/page, is the following:
You can draw your own conclusions, particularly when one 'premium' service (usually operated by the newer, more fuel efficient vehicles), charges higher fares than a service operated by older, more polluting, less efficient vehicles - despite the uplift and enhancements quoted below. 

 

To be fair though and I'm one who hates giving money away for free it's just a rebate for the fuel duty more so than a free grant with a fancy name. They're still paying roughly 20% of the fuel duty that's due and with the governments efforts to move people away from cars to buses and reducing emissions it's not exactly the worst thing, at the end of the day it's a bit unfair to charge them the same rate as a car especially when other industries such as airlines don't pay any fuel duty at all and trains use red diesel which is a lower rate. It'll be the same reason why it hasn't increased since Fuel Duty hasn't neither.

To the QE stuff I can't imagine that's the reason - it's probably a legacy thing in place to try and spread loads out more to let people get on who are going further afield. You have to remember until not too long a go the X1 and 56 were both ran by singles which were often packed at peaks. The last thing you want to do is have a bus full of people going to the QE and leaving people going to Concord or wherever behind when those people could use a different bus with plenty seats or it's just a pricing error.