5000 Operating Expenses

Operating expenses are expenditures incurred by a transit agency in providing public transportation service. Operating expenses for transit agencies generally include, but are not limited to, salaries and wages, fringe benefits, services, fuel and lubricants, vehicle maintenance, materials and supplies, utilities, insurance, taxes, interest, and leases. NTD has developed the guidance in this section in order to give agencies a better understanding of which object class expenses they should report. The agency reports costs within each object class under four different functions: Vehicle Operations, Vehicle Maintenance, Facility Maintenance, or General Administration. These functions and associated sub-functions are described in the section titled Operating Expenses: Functions. The following table illustrates the relationship between Operating Expenses Object Classes (addressed in this section) and Functions (addressed in the following section) by providing high-level examples.

Note that examples in the following table are not exhaustive; for further details, please refer to this section, Operating Expenses: Object Classes and the following section, Operating Expenses: Functions.