FRSC, FCCPC proposed guidelines for road haulage vehicles to reduce accidents in Nigeria

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) are seeking the establishment of guiding principles for road haulage vehicles as means of reducing incidences of road accidents due to overloading in Nigeria.

Speaking at a Joint Forum on “Safety Haulage ‘Operations for Sustainable Road Usage in Nigeria’ in Abuja, the Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC, Mr Babatunde Irukera, said a guiding framework is a panacea in minimizing accidents on the country’s roads.

According to him, the guidelines will be clear on “what is acceptable and not acceptable in the operation of haulage services to reduce road mishaps.

The Vice-Chairman explained that in the proposed framework, “the key issues are safety and protection of lives and even the vehicles. Secondly, the durability of the infrastructure- roads and the vehicles. And thirdly is traffic management.

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“All of these three things are complicated severely by the way we carry on haulage. To ensure that we get to a point where we are self-regulating, to make sure that these vehicles do not carry weight in excess of their capacities.

“To also ensure have an operational time for these vehicles to operate. Even in developed countries where the infrastructure is better, they have time that they operate,” he stated.

Irukera called on the installation of speed limiters on haulage vehicles in Nigeria including tracking devices and hour counters to monitor how many times a vehicle is in operations.

“The appropriate mechanisms, tools or technologies for implementing these principles would be the next stage and they are quite available.”

On his part, the Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, said road safety issues cannot be handled by a few agencies but it is the responsibility of every road user to ensure safety on the road.

He, therefore, solicited the cooperation of all transport operators in achieving a sustainable, safer road and its attendant impact of reducing the rate of fatality and actualization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Oyeyemi was represented at the forum by Deputy Corps Marshal, Ojeme Ewhrudjakpor.