Start from the vehicle, not the child
A child does not cost you money. A vehicle running a route does, whether it carries ten children or thirty. So price the vehicle first, for a whole term, then share that cost across the children on it.
1. Add up what one vehicle costs for a term
- Fuel, for the morning and afternoon runs and the empty miles back to base.
- Wages for the driver, and for the escort if young children ride.
- Maintenance, tyres and repairs, set aside every month rather than paid when something breaks.
- Insurance, the vehicle licence and roadworthiness papers, spread across the year.
- The vehicle itself: the lease payment, or what you set aside to replace it.
- Parking, administration, phones and software.
- A contingency for the weeks when fuel prices rise or a vehicle is off the road.
2. Count the seats you can really fill
Do not divide by the number of seats. Divide by the number of children you can expect to carry across the term, after absences, families who leave and seats you keep free for new pupils. Pricing at a full bus means losing money on every route that is not.
3. Divide, then add your margin
- Term cost of the vehicle, from step 1.
- Divided by the children you expect to carry, from step 2.
- Gives the cost per child per term.
- Add your margin. That is the base fee.
4. Adjust for what each child costs to serve
- Distance: set fees by area or by distance band, so a child in Ajah does not pay the same as one five minutes from the school.
- Pickup type: collection from home takes longer and fits fewer children on a route than a shared pickup point, so it should cost more.
- Runs: a morning-only or afternoon-only place is worth less than both.
- Siblings: a discount for the second child costs you little, because they share a stop.
5. Agree how and when parents pay
Most families in Lagos expect to pay by the term. Ask for payment before the term starts, and say in writing what happens if fuel prices move sharply during it: a review date beats an argument.
If you contract with a school instead, agree whether the school collects the fees and pays you, or whether you bill families directly.
6. Keep the routes efficient, because that is your margin
The same fee can be profitable or loss-making depending on how the routes are planned. A route that zig-zags across the Island wastes the fuel and driver time your fee was meant to cover. School bus routing software sequences each route against capacity, bell times and distance, and the reports show planned against measured distance for each route.
Software is a cost line too. Trayvar is priced per vehicle per month; see school bus software pricing to add it to step 1.