Just about everyone who lives year-round on the Vineyard has done it — made a booking for the last ferry of the day, on the off chance of running late, then driven onto an earlier boat.

It’s a convenient, no-cost precaution for customers of the Steamship Authority, but for the SSA itself, the practice is not convenient at all and certainly comes at a cost.

It means the last ferry of the day often runs with hardly anyone on it, particularly on weekends and holidays.

At the monthly meeting of the boat line governors in Hyannis this week, SSA management presented a plan to cut those last ferries come this winter.

The proposed schedule for the coming winter period — Dec. 29 to April 3 — would eliminate the 8:30 p.m. trip from the Vineyard to Woods Hole, and the 9:45 p.m. trip the other way, on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

The plan, which has not yet been approved by the SSA governors, would also eliminate the 6 a.m. trip to the Island and the 7 a.m. trip to Woods Hole on Sundays, making eight fewer crossings per week.

It makes travel a little less easy for everyone who lives here; then again, it might be more palatable than some of the potential alternatives, like a fuel surcharge.

There’s a lot of nip and tucking going on at the SSA recently, in response to cost increases which are likely to roughly halve the boat line’s net operating income for this year.

They’ve tried all sorts of ways to cut costs: turning off boat engines while they are loading, slowing the boats on their passage, consolidating trips on an ad hoc basis wherever they can.

For every week on the reduced schedule this winter, the SSA will save another $4,400.

And there’s more. Management also proposed dropping two trips per week from the spring schedule and extending the spring schedule a week longer, before going into the high rotation of summer.

The problem was spelled out in detail in an analysis, commissioned last month and put together by boat line general manager Wayne Lamson and treasurer comptroller Robert Davis.

Notwithstanding an additional $2.2 million anticipated to flow from fare rises approved in April, projected net income for the year now looks like about $2.1 million, just over half the $4 million budget projection.

“This supplemental increase,” the analysis says, “was a reaction to crude oil prices trading between $100 and $115 per barrel since the middle of February. Since the April meeting, crude oil reached $120 a barrel in the first week of May; $130 a barrel by the beginning of June and most recently $145 a barrel at the beginning of July.

“Vessel fuel oil expense for July through the end of the year, using current futures trading prices, is now expected to exceed budget projections by approximately $2.7 million.”

In light of this, the report says, staff had identified further cost reductions — the postponement of nonessential maintenance, reductions in staff numbers and overtime, and the use of in-house staff instead of consultants.

Even more drastic measures may be considered if things get worse, such as winding back operations out of Oak Bluffs and transferring sailings into Vineyard Haven at the end of the day or even closing Oak Bluffs entirely earlier than scheduled, as well as further reductions in freight boat and high-speed ferry services.

Falmouth governor Robert S. Marshall, who has been most pessimistic (and, to date, prescient) about future movements in oil prices, said he still thinks a fuel surcharge should be considered.

He believes oil prices have yet to peak.

But Mr., Lamson said the SSA need not consider such drastic measures yet.

He said early indications for patronage are good, grant income is offsetting some of the costs, and that he is “hoping, with another good month under our belt, we’ll be in a better position.”