Truck drivers operating along the Tin Can Island Port axis on the Apapa-Oshodi expressway have turned the newly-constructed Tin Can 2nd gate road to truck parks, despite the availability of a Truck Transit Park (TTP) in area.
Checks by Shipping Position Daily revealed that not less than 150 trucks parked on the road that leads to the Tin Can Island port second gate last week.
The road that was recently constructed to bring an end to the traffic gridlock around the axis may have failed because of the activities of truck drivers along the axis.
Speaking to Shipping Position Daily, the Public Relations Officer of the Council of Maritime Transport Union Association (COMTUA); Mr Abdullahi Mohammad-Inuwa, however blamed dislodgement of truckers from the popular Abuja Truck Park at Tin Can First Gate by the Lagos State Environmental Task-Force as the major reason for the return of trucks to the highway
Inuwa informed that the TTP at the second gate is not big enough to handle the number of trucks plying the route, even as he called for a return of the Abuja truck park which he said will help solve the problem of truckers parking on the road.
He stated that the challenges have been enormous since the truck drivers were sent packing from the Abuja truck park at Tin Can.
According to him, “the challenges have been enormous since they drove us away from here, and you know construction is ongoing, and you know Tin Can Island port has over five terminals and this is also an industrial area, and the challenge that we are having is that even though we have the truck transit park, but the space is too small and not big enough for us
“The new truck park is not accepting trucks going into Port and Cargo Terminal and Five Star Logistics Terminal and this our former park would have served that purpose, before we were evicted, the park served as a bay for some of these trucks going into those terminals.
“Some private garages are filled up too, and the task team has limitation of allowing trucks to go to the TTP, many of our private parks are filled, which has led to many of them parking on the roads.
“Also, the management of the TTP charge N5000 for the entrance, another problem is that some of the drivers don’t want to go in because of demurrage, because some of them are still expecting TDO, so while waiting for TDO, they keep paying for demurrage and I think the demurrage is N2000, so that’s why some of them prefer to park on the road”, he said.
However, speaking with the Assistant General Manager of the Tin Can Truck Park, Mr. Emmanuel Aturu explained that the trucks seen parking on the roads are trucks without call-up, stating that the management of the truck park does not give attention to trucks without call-up, even as he said the truck parks only receive trucks operating at the second gate.
He also informed that some of the trucks are not ready to pay the N5000 gate fee required before using the truck park.
“For some of those trucks you see outside, to a large extent, it’s a transit park, trucks are not expected to come and stay, in fact with a call-up system that’s working, they are expected to come in and leave within a short period; that’s why will call it a transit park,
“So they have a call-up and we have a copy of that so that same copy is what we are using at the gate; the TICT receives certain kind of trucks per time, so they use it, so for those trucks that are not on the list, we may not want to give them audience, because if they come in they will come and occupy space”.
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