Why NPA’s ETO must integrate petroleum tankers

Since the launch of the electronic call-up system at the ports by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), sanity has returned to major access roads and traffic gridlock reduced drastically. However, activities of petroleum tankers have been a thorn in the flesh of the e-call-up success story, writes TOLA ADENUBI.

PRIOR to January 2021, the roads leading to Nigeria’s busiest ports of Apapa and Tin-Can were riddled with too many articulated vehicles seeking to either enter the ports to lift cargoes or exit the ports with already lifted cargoes. The convergence of too many articulated vehicles looking for containerised cargoes or liquid cargoes led to confusion on the ports’ access roads, and ultimately grounded vehicular movement in and out of the ports.

The launch of the electronic call-up system by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in January 2021 saw the eradication of traffic gridlock along the nation’s ports access roads.

The electronic call-up system, also referred to as Eto, is a system where movement of trucks in and out of the ports is controlled electronically with the aid of a computerised system from a controlling centre.

With this system, the days when truckers besieged the ports’ access roads looking for cargoes even when such trucks had no business being around the ports became history.

However, checks by the Nigerian Tribune has revealed that more than two years after the novel introduction of Eto at the ports, petroleum tankers have still not been integrated into the electronic platform, a situation that is threatening to tarnish the successes recorded by the NPA’s electronic call-up system.

 

Menace of petroleum tankers

With many tank farms located around the Tin-Can-Coconut stretch of the ports in Lagos, the activities of some of the petroleum tankers may become injurious to plans by the NPA to continue to enforce sanity on the ports access roads.

Checks by the Nigerian Tribune further revealed that many petroleum tankers deliberately clog the ports’ access roads in search of liquid cargoes even when they have no business being around the ports’ premises at such time.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, a staff at one of the petroleum tank farms in the Coconut area explained that many petroleum tankers park on the highway leading to the ports because of a lack of a dedicated holding bay for them.

According to the tank farm staff who wouldn’t want his name in print, “Most of the petroleum tankers that you see lined along the Apapa-Oshodi expressway from Kirikiri to Mile 2 and down towards Cele Bus-stop are actually waiting for their turn to pick cargoes.

“At times, they spend weeks or months on the queue, crippling traffic around the Mile 2 axis leading to the ports. Ordinarily, some of them shouldn’t be on the road until it is their turn to get loaded from the tank farms.

“Their presence on the highway reduces the lanes available to other road users and sometimes cripples vehicular movement along these routes leading to the ports. This is an avoidable situation if many of the petroleum tanker owners have dedicated yards or spaces near the ports. But because their garages or yards are far off from the ports, they tend to want to move closer to the port by parking along the Apapa-Oshodi highway.

“The Apapa-Oshodi expressway has virtually been turned into a parking lot by this petroleum tankers and this shouldn’t be so.”

 

Delayed Eto integration

During its first year anniversary in 2022, the Managing Director of the Trucks Transit Parks (TTP), the firm handling electronic call-up on-behalf of the NPA, Mr Jama Onwubuariri, explained that efforts are in top gear to integrate the petroleum tankers into the Eto call-up system at the ports.

“We are discussing with the petroleum tanker drivers’ associations. We are discussing with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) to see how their members can come onboard the Eto app.

“It is important that the petroleum tankers are integrated into the e-call-up system since they are always coming to the port to get petroleum products from the tank farms. We will continue pushing for that and will update the media as soon as that is done,” the TTP Managing Director had responded to enquiries during the first year anniversary of the system.

However, investigation by the Nigerian Tribune has revealed that the delayed integration of the petroleum tanker operators into the NPA Eto system is driven by the refusal of the petroleum tanker operators to make payment for the electronic call-up services.

Checks by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that the electronic call-up system charges N30,000 for export cargoes, N25,000 for flat-bed and N25,000 for empties.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, a tanker driver, Ismaila Ahmed, explained that the aspect of payment of charges has delayed the integration of petroleum tankers into the NPA Eto system.

“They (TTP) asked us to come and join their Eto app. We have no issues with that as long as we won’t pay a dime. Petroleum tankers are very important to the economy of this country. We carry cargoes that determine the fate of this country. We pay all manner of charges at the tank farms. That should be enough. Incurring additional charges all in the name of being integrated into an electronic platform doesn’t sound good to us.

“If we must be integrated into Eto, it has to be at no cost,” Ahmed said.

 

Way forward

The efforts of the NPA’s Eto system in ensuring sanity at the ports has received widespread commendation. For this to continue, there must be a meeting point between the Eto managers and the petroleum tankers. Both parties have to agree to work together because the activities of the petroleum tankers have caused a lot of pain along the Apapa-Oshodi end of the Lagos ports access roads in recent times.

For residents of Festac, Amuwo-Odofin, Ikotun and others, the menace of petroleum tankers along the major express road, the Apapa-Oshodi expressway, has remained a problem that needs prompt resolution.