(20 Apr 2026, 9:07 pm)Busadvocate wrote Do Nexus contracts have any mechanism for a price adjustment for exceptional/unforeseeable things happening to fuel prices? I have never heard of any mention of it, but in the wider transport world I'm pretty sure there are examples elsewhere in the bus/coach world and in road haulage. Otherwise any other than very short term contracts are a gamble for both sides. (If a contract is just based on whatever are current prices at the time when the contract is made, the customer gets no benefit if prices fall ; so they do have an incentive for some risk /benefit sharing.)

Hedging doesn't mean no issues. While it protects the operator from shock rises, when prices fall I doubt if it can be "heads you win, tails you don't lose". So it suggests to me the big firms can end up paying more than the spot price if they hedged at the top of the market.

And I'm pretty sure hedging will have a minimum supply quantity that is quite high, and small businesses like City Transport (licensed to operate just 5 PSVs)  would not be in scope.

I'm not sure how they could? If they're awarding a contract based on price, their own budget would be out of control if potentially each contract could fluctuate based on market conditions. I haven't seen a Nexus contract for a good 5 years or so, but I suspect they still have a bit about variations in there, but I believe that's more for improving or fixing the service.

Absolutely, re: hedging, but in this context we're talking about submitting a tender to operate a contract. Even if the price fluctuates downwards, your costings remain accurate for the contracts you have.