Mr. Alogo Ogbogo is the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the President of West African Road Transport Owners (WARTO). In this interview with Anozie Egole, he speaks on the challenges facing the sector.
“The holding bays are even not sufficient”
The issue of traffic gridlock in Apapa seems not to have a solution, how do you think sanity can be brought to the area?
Well, the reasons for Apapa gridlock are not far-fetched, if you notice the kind of trucks we have there, are all container trucks. And we have said times without numbers that shipping companies should go and acquire a container stacking area and stack the containers there before moving them at night and you must have a scheduled movement. It is that stacking that the shipping companies and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have refused to provide that is the primary cause of all the gridlocks and congestions that you are seeing. Because, if you investigate you will find out that some of these drivers have spent close to close to 10 days on queue and therefore everybody will be desperate to access the ports, discharge the containers and go and do other businesses. So you see these monies they are extorting from transporters are because the transporters are desperate and they want to leave, so they can pay to leave the queue. So until the issue of a container stacking area which is the responsibility of the shipping companies is done, there may not be solution to the crisis. We have said that over and over to these regulatory agencies, but it is like these shipping companies are lords over themselves that cannot be controlled, but they don’t do businesses like that in other places the way they are doing it here in Nigeria.
The other issue is the bad road; the roads are terribly bad and this Apapa ports is one of the major sources of revenue to the government. So I wonder why the government should be so adamant to a money spilling machine to the federal government and the roads get so bad because they lack maintenance culture. You don’t allow your roads to be so bad before you think of maintaining.
Another issue is that shipping companies are also not helping issue, sometimes the trucks are queued up to enter the ports and they will tell you there is a system breakdown. And within that period when the systems broke down, no truck will either enter or exit the ports.
Is there any action taken by your association to address some of these issues you have raised?
We have said these things times without number, but these shipping companies and terminal operators; sometimes they don’t have sufficient cargo handling machines. There should be sufficient cargo handling machines that should be able to discharge these cargoes quick and these trucks that are filled up trying to assess the ports. For example, if there are trucks that are filled up trying to assess APMT, the terminal can decide to commence the loading of the vessels that are pending and waiting to go and if they start that it means they will not pay attention to any other thing. So you see that these gridlock is a function of so many things and no matter what mechanism you try to put in place to address these congestion, if at the entry point of the NPA gate, a truck that is supposed to be checking the process for like 15minutes, but because of these challenges the trucks stayed for close to two hours; in that case there is no effort that will address the traffic. Because at the main entrance, there are lots of hiccups there and it doesn’t work well. These security personnel along the corridor are also not helping matters, they tie the process because they want to negotiate how much they are going to collect from the driver.
There are accusations that people managing the holding bays are frustrating the system, what is your reaction to that?
That is part of the corruption that we are talking about in the system. The holding bays are even not sufficient. Well, of course it is possible considering the Nigerian factor. And you should also bear in mind that these people loading the containers that they have time limit where if you don’t deliver the containers you start paying demurrage, so they are all in a hurry to discharge. So all these issues are making transportation very cumbersome, because the profit of a transporter is the function of his turn-around. And you have a container loading and trying to assess the ports sometimes for 20 days and you see these drivers there is nowhere to relax themselves.
Where are the holding bays, is it the ones at Lillypond or the one at first gate? How many trucks come to do business from there? The thing is that they can sanitize the holding bays in such a way that they can be raising their call ups from the holding bays. So that every truck going to the ports; all things being equal if the system is not corrupt, the trucks get there then you do their call up system from the holding bay to the ports.
There is an appeal from some sections of truckers soliciting for N3billion grant from federal government for the acquisition of new trucks, what is your take on that?
Well for now, I am not in the picture, but I know that as I speak with you now, we are about discussing with Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) on how to encourage truck re-fleeting the government is trying to look into that. Even if they solicit for the grant, it is not out of place. You have the Bank of Commerce and Industry, you have the Agric Bank, there is also the Cabotage fund and various interventions and yet the transport sector that is the driver of all the sectors have not been given attention. Because no matter what happens the process is only completed by the time the cargo gets to the destination of the final consumer. The rate at which trucks are depleting from the system is alarming and if we allow it, one day vessels will come and there won’t be trucks to convey the cargoes. So our humble advice is to establish a Transport Development Bank in line with Bank of Commerce and Industry, among others. This type of intervention, the government does it in other sectors of the economy, yet none in transport. I am sure you are also aware that 80-90% of the movement of cargoes and passengers in this country is done by land transportation. So there is no moral justification why the government should not put in some level of intervention. There should be intervention to encourage truck re-fleeting. There is no way a truck embarks on a movement from Lagos to Kano that one or two tyres will not go and in the whole of these country, now we don’t have a tyre manufacturing country and one tyre is costing over a N100, 000. So in most cases, transport sector don’t even break even.
What is your take on the plan by some freight forwarders to introduce ‘Ubber’ platform to trucking sector?
Well, I have told you that the inability of the government or any other body to put some level of intervention is not helping the trucking industry and most of these trucks you see are fairly used trucks. And when they come to Nigeria the cost continues and most of these trucks would have served their active years maybe 10 or 15 years from the company they are bringing them from. So it is a problem, I have always solicited and advocated for government intervention into transportation in this country.
There are accusations of shipping companies frustrating truck drivers at the holding bays. Are there plans for something like insurance policy and health scheme by your members for truck drivers?
I just told you that the sector is not even breaking even, I have also told you that the income of a transporter is the function of his turn-around. You also know that it is possible that a truck spends 20 days in a queue, so it is not even breaking even, yet you are talking of insurance. You see the roads in this country are terribly bad. The government has no reason to be in business, we have also told them to hand over these roads to private investors so that these investors can manage and repair the roads better, provide resting places for the drivers and security apparatus. There is high rate of insecurity on our highways it has gotten to a situation where trucks are high-jacked, cargoes taken away, the drivers killed and sometimes the trucks are even burnt. So the government should be able to put structures in place, considering the fact that 80-90% of passengers in this country move by road. So the government should be able to show some level of intervention by encouraging truck financing.
Discussion about this post