The union has also blamed petroleum tank farms for the long queue of trucks along the Apapa Oshodi expressway and the Kirikiri access roads, in what the union described as 'biting more than what they can chew'.
Secretary of the Techno Oil Unit of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG, Mr. Onward Onwundiwe confirmed to Shipping Position Daily that most tank farms collect money from multiple marketers even when they do not have products in their tanks.
The union has also blamed petroleum tank farms for the long queue of trucks along the Apapa Oshodi expressway and the Kirikiri access roads, in what the union described as 'biting more than what they can chew'.
Secretary of the Techno Oil Unit of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG, Mr. Onward Onwundiwe confirmed to Shipping Position Daily that most tank farms collect money from multiple marketers even when they do not have products in their tanks.
According to him, loading programmes are usually prepared on daily basis according to the number of marketers that have paid for their products. These programmes will now be used to call the trucks to the depot for loading.
Onwundiwe said that surprisingly, only few tank farms work with the amount of slots they have before beckoning on the truck drivers to come to the depot. This according to him encourages tanker drivers to come and block the roads.
"Some of the depots collect money above the capacity of product they have, and when the product is finished, the drivers will not want to go away, they will like to remain there until another product is received, it is only few of the depots that are reliable to give what they have"
"Some of the drivers park at Ogere, but sometimes, it is not yet time for them to come and they start coming, that is why you see them spending two days at the depot without loading", he explained.
He also attributed some of the blame to unscrupulous tanker drivers who deliberately come to the depot in search of business opportunities. Onwundiwe said that many of the drivers have been warned, but have refused to heed.
The Techno Oil unit scribe also blamed some marketers for contributing to the traffic decay, he said that some have not paid for their product, yet they will ask the truck to be coming when the bank has not even okayed their payment.
He said that stakeholders especially at the Kirikiri tank farms "are being careful not to allow this place to block in case of emergency, so, the best thing is for depots to prepare their programmes according to what they have in their depot, it’s not good to have multiple programmes and all of them cannot enter".
He said that programmes are released according to the time of payment and day of payment for product.
"Some of the drivers do not have anything doing at the depot, they just come with the hope of getting a job", he reiterated that this happens especially to truck drivers coming outside of Lagos.
He however suggested that the vehicles are supposed to be connected with a radio call.
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