Truckers operating at the nation’s seaport have described the freight charges with which they operated last year and in the previous years as too bad expressing their hope for an improved freight rates this year.
Speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos, the Chairman, Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), Alhaji Isiaka Olalere stated that the condition with which the truckers operate in the industry was nothing to write home about.
Olalere regretted a situation where a truck would embark on a trip and at the end of the trip, the said truck owner or the driver could not go home to his family with up to N20, 000 not to talk of being able to maintain the truck to meet the standard set by the authorities at the ports.
He further called on the Federal government to consider reducing the price of diesel with which they operate in the same manner it reduced the price of Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol from N97 to N87 to assist them in their operations.
According to him,” in terms of freight charge, our freight charge last year was too bad. We are expecting improvement this year and government reduced fuel price from N97 to N87, we are expecting government to reduce the price of diesel also because diesel is the one we are using for our trucks, we don’t use petrol. But government is not doing that because there is no subsidy on diesel”.
“So, I will want the government to reduce diesel a bit so that things will go the normal way for us. That is part of our expectations this year”.
He recalled that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) last year asked the various trucking associations operating in the maritime sector to submit their freight charges which it later summoned them to a meeting with the aim of arriving at a suitable freight charge but regretted that since then nothing was heard from the shippers’ council with a view to a new freight charges even as he observed that the Council may still be working on the charges.
“There is an urgent need for an upward review in the freight charge because the way we are working now is nothing to write home about I must tell you the truth”, he stated.
