Frontline terminal operator and biggest Roll on Roll Off vehicle terminal in Nigeria, PTML as well as the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) have charged the Federal Government to take it upon itself to provide a holding bay for articulated trucks calling at the port, saying that the government should not wait on the truck owners to get truck parks by themselves.
Leading the vanguard for a government owned holding bay for trucks, General Manager of PTML Terminal, Mr. Tunde Keshinro told Shipping Position Daily last week that Nigeria economy is not yet developed to the highest level of full privatisation and capitalization whereby the truck owners can afford to own truck holding bays.
Keshinro noted that presently, Nigerian ports are not synchronized in terms of truck business and the federal government needs to provide the truck park as an incentive, taking into consideration the environmental realities of the ports
"By virtue of Nigeria's economy, we are not yet there at full privatization stage and capital structured economy that people can afford to pay full prices for everything, so somebody somewhere must provide input, Government should provide an incentive by providing a truck holding bay, it is a natural thing, somebody must foot the Bill"
From the holding bays, the movement of trucks to the port can now be regulated. This must be provided on a basis of incentive to the industry, and from there, their movement to the port can be regulated, taking into consideration the location of the port" he said.
The PTML boss argued that the congestion experienced at the port currently is caused by articulated trucks and not about bad roads; he said the roads have always been in a bad condition since 2007.
Also speaking in the same vein, Deputy National President of CILT, Dr. Alban Igwe said it is primarily the federal government’s responsibility to provide truck holding bays which he described as 'public goods'.
According to him, "It is primarily government responsibility, there are what we call public goods, nobody builds a house on its own except he gets government permission, security is also the government's responsibility, the government would have to bear the cost of establishing the truck park, they would have to be charging money from the park, it is like you building a road and putting a toll gate in order to maintain the road".
"Government has to establish quality standards for everything called public goods", he said.
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