Our members lost 400 trucks to seaport access roads —RTEAN

The Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) has decried the poor state of port access roads in the country, saying its members lost over 400 trucks in Apapa and Tin can Island ports axis in the last one year.

This is even as the association added that some of the truckers have sold off their trucks as scraps due to lack of jobs and poor port access roads.

State Chairman, RTEAN, Alhaji Musa Muhammed, said this at a monthly news event held in Apapa recently.

Muhammed who was represented by the State Public Relations Officer of the association, Comrade Abayomi Afini, said that members plying their trade in the ports are leaving the business in droves because it is becoming increasingly unprofitable due to the very poor state of the port access roads and the downturn in the Nigerian economy which has cut imports coming into Nigeria through the seaports by about half.

He lamented that while the poor port access roads is damaging their vehicles daily, cost of acquiring new trucks has doubled and cost of spare-parts has gone up by over 50 per cent.

“In Tin Can and Apapa alone, there are about 40 truck owners that are no longer in business due to the very bad ports access roads. These are members that had about 10 to 15 trucks each. This means that we have lost nothing less than 400 trucks to the bad seaport access roads

“The very bad situation is made worse by the fact that instead of the cost of freight going up following the rising cost of business, cost of freight is rather falling. In 2007 for instance, we used to charge N160,000 for a 40-feet container to Ikeja, but today we charge N60,000 for the same 40-feet container to Ikeja because even as the cost of doing the business is very high, there is no business anywhere because of government policies that have dried up imports to Nigeria.

“In fact, it is more profitable to operate Keke NAPEP than to own a truck today in Nigeria,” Muhammed said.

Muhammed also said that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) deceived its members to subscribe to the N10,000 payments for stickers it introduced last year as a measure for minimum truck standardisation in the port. He added that lack of unity among the various truck owners associations in the port contributed to NPA’s success in collecting the fee for the stickers even as he blamed the government for not sticking to the two recognised associations in the transport sector.

“Last year, NPA came up with the issue of stickers. The issue has been on for six years but because there are many associations in the port, which is why we have the problems we have today.

“If the government had been dealing with the two major associations, that is the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and RTEAN, there wouldn’t have been the problems we have today in the port. These two bodies are supposed to take care of all transport problems in the country, but today, we have so many associations.

“On the issue of the stickers, we had several meeting with the MD of the NPA and the General Manager, Western Port of NPA, and they told us that immediately we are able to pay the money, extortion would stop at the gate. But that has not stopped.”

The RTEAN Public Relations Officer also revealed that the association has an internal standard assurance mechanism to make sure that members’ trucks meet the required standard. He said that the association had always ensured that its members maintain their trucks and make sure they are in good shape.

He, however, denied the allegation that members of the association parked their trucks indiscriminately on the roads thereby causing traffic gridlock, saying the reason why trucks litter the roads is because the government has failed to provide trucks bays or parking lot for trucks coming into the ports.