Even though road users, residents and stakeholders at the Apapa area of Lagos have cried out on how activities of petroleum truckers hinder free flow of traffic, tanker drivers have said that there is no way out of the gridlock, at least in the immediate.
The tanker drivers lamented that their overall body; National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have abandoned drivers in their struggle to acquire holding bays.
Even though road users, residents and stakeholders at the Apapa area of Lagos have cried out on how activities of petroleum truckers hinder free flow of traffic, tanker drivers have said that there is no way out of the gridlock, at least in the immediate.
The tanker drivers lamented that their overall body; National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have abandoned drivers in their struggle to acquire holding bays.
A group of senior officers of NUPENG who spoke with Shipping Position Daily under anonymity lampooned executives of NUPENG saying that the body have been highly politicized.
One of the drivers told our correspondent that, "there are many things that NUPENG ought to do that they are not doing, they should be able to invest in building of truck parks for us, but rather, all their thinking is to leave NUPENG and clinch a position at the Senate"
"A few of us saw a land that we wanted to buy for purpose of truck park at Festac Town in Lagos, they called it N400million, even if 10 of us come together, we cannot gather this money, and there is no bank that can lend this kind of money, these are ventures that NUPENG as a matured organization should embark on”, he stated.
He lamented that the banks were usually not forthcoming to lend money to individuals, but that with NUPENG, it could have been much easier.
Also speaking, another truck driver at Folawiyo depot area in Apapa said that with the new moves by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to acquire truck park for all trucks; many truckers will run out of jobs, adding that the move will also lead to poor distribution of fuel.
Justifying this, he said, "there are some individuals that drive trucks privately, such person cannot be in a park and you ask him to pay N1000 daily without him getting a job, if the marketers do not see the truck first, they will not hire you, this is why we cannot stop parking on the expressway, you must be out there before you can get a job"
"If such trucks remain in the park for 20 days, that means N20,000 is gone, after this he now gets a job of N50,000, how much will be his gain?
"The way they are taking it now, it means that people like us are not yet ripe to own trucks, and this will definitely affect effective fuel distribution. This is a job that we have been doing for years to be feeding our children, but the way government is going now, it means we must go and sell our trucks"
"What government wants is that anyone going into oil and gas haulage should first acquire a space to park his truck, the way we are going, the business cannot continue the way we have been doing it" our source said.
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