“Many of our users are not tech savvy, so they find it a bit difficult to use our App”
Mr Temidayo Adeboye is the Chief Operating Officer of Truck Transit Park; operators of the NPA electronic call-up system. In this interview with Oluyinka Onigbinde and Adewale Buraimoh, he talks about the revolutionary e call-up system, the challenges and the prospects.
What is your appraisal of the electronic call up in the last one year?
I don’t like to self-appraise myself, but I think the general public has seen the effect of what TTP has brought to Apapa and its environs. We have been working with NPA now for a year and we have seen a year of heightened sanity in Apapa environs. Let me say that the Apapa side is working and we are still working on the Tin Can side. The major problem we have at the Tin Can axis is the quantum of road construction going on there as well as extortion from touts and ‘area boys’. So we are working with the Lagos state and other authorities to see if we can bring sanity to that corridor as well.
Prior to the deployment of ETO, how will you assess the traffic situation in Apapa?
It was horrible. Before, it would take me one and half or two hours from Ijora Olopa to the Port. But right, now I can do that same journey in 15 to 20 minutes.
How does ETO works?
Eto is a tag-in tag-out system. We have a platform and also physical infrastructure which are the parks. So when you book to access the port or any of our clients’ facilities within Apapa, we will schedule you to go to a facility where you will park. We do matching and batching in the park where we batch you to go to a ‘pre- gate’. When you get to the ‘pre-gate’, we now schedule you to go to the Port depending on the traffic situation on the road. The first two movements are not dependent on traffic because you are moving from outside Apapa to inside Apapa, that is from the Park to a pre-gate. But the last movement into the port is dependent on the traffic flow between the Pre-gate and the port. So you have to book to enter a park and when you enter the park, you will be matched and batched to enter a Pre-gate then you will be scheduled to go into the port. You have to follow these processes. You cannot just go from the park directly to the port. You ticket won’t work because you’ll need to tag in and tag out of the park before it is activated for you to enter the Pre-gate. At the Pre-gate, you will still need to tag in and out before that same ticket will give you access to the port.
It’s over a year since Eto started, what are the challenges?
The major challenge we have had is dealing with extortion. Second is the technology-to-human interface. Many of our users are not Tech Savvy, so they find it a bit difficult to use our App. But with much training, we have started overcoming those challenges. Like in the past, many people pay other people to do the ticket for them. That is why some complained that eto was too expensive. It is not expensive; it is a standard price. If you pay somebody else, the person is going to charge you an extra fee to do the ticket for you.
When you talk of extortion, extortion from who? What are you doing to mitigate this?
Extortion from Area boys, and all these transport unions. We are in discussion with the Lagos State government. Lagos State is changing their policy now. Unions are not supposed to be collecting monies on the road. There is going to be a universal ticket that the Lagos state government will sell to drivers which will contain a fee for every agency, so there will be no need for NURTW, NARTO or other unions to go to the roads and start collecting money from people.
How impactful has Eto been?
I don’t want to assess myself, but I am sure if you go round and ask the people especially residents of Apapa, they will they you that Eto has been a game-changer. Property value in Apapa used to be almost zero. But right now, they can have value for their property in Apapa. I know families who had moved out of Apapa in the past, but they are now moving back to Apapa because they can drive in and out of Apapa.
How much technology has TTP brought in particularly in addressing the traffic situation in Apapa?
There are two forms of technology. We have the hardware and software. In all the parks, there are standard hardware you must have there. You must have the Access Control, CCTV and 24 hours’ power. When we have all those things, it gives us the ability to be able to control the truck movement from your park to a Pre-gate; then into the port. We also have the software which is the Eto itself. That is where users come in and book, and the app that does the scheduling and the batching of movement according to the traffic in the environment. So we have brought in quite a good level of technology.
Having operated for about a year now, are you thinking of reviewing some of your operations?
What we are trying to do in the immediate future is to improve on our technology. We are trying to see if we can go contactless, use infrared scanners like what we have at the toll gate in Ikoyi. When the toll gate started, it was only cash. Then they moved to the use of cards but now they have moved to the Magnetic Strip where you no longer need a card. We are also evolving like that and hoping that this year we can catch up with using those kind of strips, so you don’t need to use cards. You just fund your wallet and we programme you, then the strips will allow the pass to open when you are supposed to have access to those ports.
Messrs TTP seem not to enjoy the full cooperation of truck park owners, truck drivers and some terminal operators. Why is it so?
It is just a common thing with human beings. As long as there is a willing giver, there will be a willing receiver. Yes, the truck park owners are not supposed to release trucks at particular times but because of the pressure from the transporters and money changing hands they might release some trucks. There are ways we can stop that. Initially, we were using the carrot and stick approach; so we suspended the trailer park directly. But right now, we want to drive this process forward with technology, so that it is only when we want you to have access that your technology will work for you. So we can use technology to stop those things. That is part of the improvement of technology we are going to do this year.
TTP has been accused of padding the real cost of the e call up system, and that it now costs more than what was advertised.
That is not true. Due to the technology to human interface that many of our users do not have the capacity to use, they would pay other people to do it for them. When you pay somebody else to do it for you, it would come with a cost. So what is meant to be N20,000 can be said to be N25,000 with N5,000 extra. That is why they say they pay N35,000for Eto ticket. There is no way to can pay N35,000. If you go on the Eto platform and create your own user profile, there is no charge there that is N35,000. I challenge anybody to bring me any charge that is N35,000 on the Eto platform. All the charges are between N10,000 and N15,000 and some are even N5,000 for port concessionaires that have their own parks. Those are the standard charges. So if someone goes to pay somebody else to do the Eto ticket for him and those ones charge him, you can’t say it is the Eto system that is doing that. I need every one to clearly understand that. There is no charge that is higher than N15,000 on our platform.
On the average, how many trucks do Eto handle in a day?
Right now, I would say we probably do an average of 1,700 trucks for both Apapa and Tin Can ports.
Some group of truck drivers (precisely) COMTUA has called for the unbundling of Eto. Do you think that is necessary?
I would say it is total selfishness and people just wanting to be inquisitive. There is nothing Eto is doing wrong. It has a triple redundancy. So if the system shuts down, it moves automatically to another server and if that shuts down too, it moves to another server again. I just want to say that, it is when a good thing comes, everyone wants to be a part of it.
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What level of cooperation are you enjoying from the Lagos State Government?
We have been enjoying a good cooperation from them, in terms of enforcement. They have helped us a lot to especially move the trucks off the roads. One of the major challenges we have is not even passing the trucks to the port, but the trucks willing to enter the ports. There are two legs to this; when you go and drop a cargo in the port, you can also pick out a cargo in the port. Every truck driver that wants to go and drop a cargo also wants to pick out a cargo to minimize its cost and maximize its profits. So we find out that many people that have got tickets to go into the port, go to Creek road or somewhere near the port to park and be waiting until they get a ‘business’ that they will bring out of the port. So Lagos state government has really helped in forcing them to leave the environment to make it more safe and less congested. There is still a lot more collaboration that we plan to do and we are doing with the Lagos state government in terms of that. But they have been very cooperating.
You recently launched the Eto at Kirikiri Terminal, but some truck drivers also kicked against.
At Kirikiri, we have fixed all the total installation of all the IT infrastructure that we need there, but we haven’t gotten full approval to kick off but the total infrastructure we need to operate in Kirikiri is in place. We have gotten the Staff to put there, but we had a bit of challenge when we initially started without the IT equipment; that force us to stop. We are now putting all the IT infrastructure, we are and we are waiting for NPA to give us approval to start.
What level of cooperation are you getting from the NPA?
NPA has been very fantastic as well. In fact, I would say NPA is a single-one entity that has made the Eto to succeed. This is because, left to the truckers and all these truckers unions, they would have stopped us from operating. But NPA has seen the impact it has created in Apapa environment and port operations. We have promised we won’t fail and we thank them very much for that.
Lastly, what’s your advice for drivers, terminal operators and truckers in general?
My biggest advice is that people should be patient and follow the system. It would work much better. This is because, right now even as it works, there are still people who are trying to circumvent and break the system. If everyone can just be patient and watch the system despite bottlenecks, we would arrange and change the processes to fix the problem and everything will happen smoothly. One year is not enough to rate something. We have done one year and we want to build greatness on that. So we are hoping that people would still be patient and cooperate with us and let us get it right by making it a proper and good place to do business.
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