Truckers Disregard 30% Slash Of Haulage Rates, Accuses Shippers Council Over Failure To Engage Barge Operators

Truck owners operating from the nation’s seaports have flouted the 30% haulage rate reduction directive put in place by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, saying the order only covered the COVID19 lockdown period.

The truckers also accused the council for failing to engage barge operators for them to reduce their fares on consignments movement through the waterways, describing it as robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Recall that the council had appealed to truckers to slash charges by 30% during the period of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

The Council and some of the transport associations and union agreed at the meeting that haulage rates be reviewed downwards by thirty percent during the lockdown period.

But investigation conducted by DAILYFOCUS NIGERIA, over the weekend,confirmed that the rates have been hiked up as truck owners explained that the 30% drop in haulage rates fall under the lockdown period which can no longer be sustained by the operators .

According to them, two major reasons, which include slow pace of the ongoing road construction along the ports corridor and the council’s failure to engage barge operators made the operators to make a U-turn in their charges .

Head of Operations, Council of Maritime Truck Unions and Associations (COMTUA), Alhaji Inuwa Abdullahi described the meeting between the council and truckers without inviting the bargers on rate reduction as robbing Peter to Pay Paul .

He lamented that the directive by the council cannot hold waters anymore as the infrastructure decay in port operations pose serious danger to their businesses.

Inuwa who also double as a chieftain of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), lamented that the shipping lines have failed in their obligations to engage truck owners to maintain and adhere to the directive by the council.

Asked about the current haulage rates, Inuwa explained that “It has to do with demand and supply, therefore no fix price is attached to the charges at the moment but it is well above the reduced rates introduced by Shippers Council.

“The Shippers Council should have also engage the barge operators for them to also reduce their charges but limiting it to truck owners alone sends a negative signal to the haulage sub sector of the maritime community .

On his part , Public Relations Officer, West Africa Road Transport Union and a chieftain of NARTO, Alhaji Salami Nasiru lamented that road infrastructure in the maritime sector needs urgent attention to boost port efficiency.

Salami commended the council’s intervention during the lockdown to reduce the haulage rates but maintained that truck owners can only survive in their business when .there is a level playing ground for all stakeholders.

He stressed the urgent need for intermodal system of transportation to boost port efficiency in the country .

But on the contrary, Secretary, Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Chapel, Chief Godwin Godwin Ikeji stated that truckers within that jurisdiction are ready to reduce the haulage rate due to the gridlock along the corridor.

Ikeji lamented that the barge operators are smiling to banks while the truckers are lamenting over the state of the dilapidated roads linking up the seaports.

 

 

 

By Roland Ekama