Wednesday Jul 23, 2014

KZN commuters pay the most

KwaZuluNatal motorists are paying the highest commuting costs in the country, with the average driver burning almost R1 500 a month in fuel.

This is despite the fuel price being cheaper in the province than in inland provinces.

The National Household Travel Survey, released by Statistics SA, revealed that KZN drivers of cars, bakkies and trucks were paying an average of R1 421 a month on their travel costs, compared with the national average of R1 011.

North West and Gauteng drivers pay an average of R1 313 and R1 291 respectively.

Reasons why KZN motorists were paying higher petrol costs were not specified, but Dr Isabelle Schmidt, executive manager of social statistics at Stats SA, speculated that it was because people were living further from their places of work.

'We did not specifically interrogate why costs were the way they were. However, it is possible that drivers who commute in and around the (Durban) metro, and from the North and South Coast areas to the metro, may be contributing factors to the relatively high costs.' Those who used bus transport to and from work were paying about R360 a month, while those using taxis paid an average of R341.

The price of petrol is predicted to go up by 26c a litre at the beginning of next month. Earlier this month eThekwini residents were hit with electricity price increases of 7.4 percent, while the cost of water went up by 9.9 percent and rates by 6.9 percent.

The Mercury

Posted at 07:42AM Jul 23, 2014 by Editor in Durban |