The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr. Hassan Bello has said that the bad condition of the Apapa roads has forced the council to suspend its intention to commence the proposed re-fleeting exercise for truck owners in the nation’s maritime industry.
Bello who disclosed this at an event in Lagos recently noted that the re-fleeting exercise, if allowed to continue with the present state of the road networks in Apapa, would amount to an effort in futility as the trucks would deteriorate in no time since they were going to ply the same bad road.
He said,”Reform is coming to the transport system and that is why it is good to alert you and we know we are ready for it. The reform is not only for the truckers, it will also come to the freight forwarders, it will come to surveyors but the most important thing is one has to be ready for reform otherwise the reform will sweep you off.
“We need to re-fleet the vehicles at a very cheap rate but as you have also mentioned, how can you re-fleet them when the roads are bad? That was why we have not done anything and that is the truth and we told the authority.
“We value your words of wisdom and we have told all concerned and said, look, let us stop this insanity, let us have the roads repaired before we start the issue that of re-fleeting because if you put new trucks on these roads, then, it will mean you are going back to the past”.
The NSC boss observed that when the exercise eventually commenced, there would be trucking companies as opposed to one person, one truck model as obtained presently.
“We all have to establish a company and we are talking of a minimum of six trucks, certified fleet within your stable. These trucks are supposed to be fitted with modern gadgets and we are going to work with NAC to ensure that.
“We cannot do reform without you, we want you to own it not buy in those reforms, after that, we will talk with NAC and we will have a meeting with NAC because of the new man you talked about. We will go with you so that we get what the issues are. That time, we will be looking for a single digit interest for re-fleeting because this is what the government looks at”, he said.
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