GPRTU BOSS FIGHTS GOV’T

…Over road toll
STORY: ANTHONY KWESI COOMSON
The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Alhaji E. A. Tetteh, has kicked against the high increment in the road toll describing it as very disquieting and unwarranted.

According to him, it was unfortunate that government in its decision to increase road tolls did not consult the GPRTU which is a major stakeholder in the transport industry.

Alhaji Tetteh, who is also the First National Vice Chairman of GPRTU, was speaking in an exclusive interview with TODAY in Accra.

“The high increment in road tolls is too much and in fact unfair to both commuters and drivers; as a matter of fact the high increment cannot be justified in anyway,” the worried looking GPRTU boss bluntly stated.

He disclosed that the general consensus within the transport industry was that there should be a minimal upward adjustment to the previous road toll for road development and not the other way round.

He said, for inexplicable reasons, government did not consider their input as important and went ahead with the increment thereby resulting in the many problems that have arisen out of its decision.

Alhaji Tetteh argued that the increment in the road toll would bring untold economic hardships on the growing Ghanaian population, insisting that the margin of the increment has to be reviewed.

According to him, the GPRTU did not anticipate the more than five hundred per cent increment, reiterating that “something urgent needed to be done by government to cushion the ordinary Ghanaian.”

Throwing more light on the situation, he explained that unlike their counterparts plying long distance routes, short distance drivers such as tro-tro and Taxis were mostly affected as their daily sales was nothing to write home about.

He pointed out that short distance drivers made several trips to their various destinations and as a result paid more tolls than other drivers.

“Most civil servants residing outside the city might also bear the brunt of the road toll increment. Information reaching my outfit indicates that some disenchanted drivers were shying away from paying the road tolls, and what is happening is that they have discovered new routes to their destination, thereby outwitting the automated toll collection machines,” Alhaji Tetteh told TODAY.

This new development by drivers, the paper gathered, is leaving many passengers stranded at various lorry stations.

Further investigations carried out by the paper also established that some drivers on their own volition had increased their fares between 20 to 25 per cent of their approved fares.

And passengers who are hard hit by this are those who travel on the Accra-Kasoa route.

In the course of the investigations, TODAY found out that the local branch Chairman of the GPRTU at Circle, Alhaji Umoru Sullaiman, and his men have asked drivers within their jurisdiction to make an upward adjustment of their fares from 75pesewas-85pesewas instead of the over GH¢1 being charged by some of drivers at this station.

The Gye Nyame GPRTU station, a local station at Circle, also had its fair share of the ripple effects of the toll increase as the Nsawam-Suhum branch Chairman, Samuel Kwatei Quartey, had this to say: “Most of our drivers have threatened that if government does not reduce the fee they will consider diverting their routes.”

He went on to say that some of his union drivers have already deserted the station and moved on to other stations.

This, he said, had adversely impacted on the hapless commuters who had to stand in long winding queues for several hours waiting for cars to come.

When asked on what could be an ideal fee, Alhaji Tetteh suggested that government could have adopted a gradual approach and not to sharply increase the road toll to the detriment of both drivers and passengers.

“That way, it would have helped both drivers, passengers and the state,” he indicated.

However, he noted that the transport industry will come out with a statement on the matter if government is still reluctantly seen to stick to its entrenched position.

Originating at www.theghanaianjournal.com