Fuel Jumped on Nov 1, but Your School Van Fare Didn't — Who Absorbs That?

Ceypetco raised petrol and diesel prices again on 1 November 2026, but regulators have told bus operators and school van owners to hold their fares right where they were. Three-wheeler unions can't even agree among themselves on this one — some want an immediate hike to cover fuel costs, others say wait and see how things settle. Van owners running on thin margins say they're now spending more per trip than parents are paying them, while parents already stretched by school costs say any increase just lands on them with zero room to negotiate. It's easy for a regulator to freeze a fare on paper; it's the driver who finds out next week whether the sums still work. If you run a school van or a private bus, are you genuinely losing money at today's fares, or is there still slack before it actually hurts? And if you're a parent, would you rather pay a bit more now, or risk your van just stopping the route next term because it stopped making sense? ඉන්ධන මිල ඉහළ ගියත් ස්කූල් වෑන් සහ බස් ගාස්තු ඒ විදියටම තියෙනවා — ඒ පාඩුව අන්තිමට දරන්නේ කවුද?