Still on taming articulated vehicle drivers

One of such crashes is the fatal crash that claimed the lives of 11 students of the Olabisi Onabanjo, Ago Iwoye, which occurred at 12:35pm on June 26 on the Ijebu Ode/Sagamu road involving a truck which drove against traffic and a Mazda bus. In one of the more recent crashes involving a tanker laden with honey which occurred along the Benin-Ore road, a tow-truck belonging to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Edo State, and two other vehicles were burnt. The tow-truck which cost about N100 million was donated to the commission by the World Bank in 2014.
Recall that when I did the piece on the same topic which ran for two weeks, I told you that in the first week of June alone, road traffic crashes involving tankers were 16 with deaths put at 46 from the Onitsha crash alone. I equally told you that trailers and tankers may cause about 384 crashes before the end of 2015 which may translate into about 17,664 deaths, adding that if this trend was not checked, fatality from articulated vehicle crashes would be directly accountable for over 47 percent of the projected crashes for this year.
I am compelled today to share with you further developments in keeping with the pledge made by the leadership of both the commission and the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) union to shun cosmetics and be drastic. Last week, I run excerpts of the action plan agreed during the summit. It is gladdening that another interactive meeting with stakeholders in petroleum products haulage was held with the FRSC on Wednesday. This meeting brought to the table critical stakeholders on whose shoulders the responsibility of executing the action plan lies. They include NUPENG, PTD, NARTO, Petroleum Equalization Fund, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers, the petroleum ministry and IPMAN. The beauty of the summit was that almost all the stakeholders had their top leadership in attendance with NUPENG PTD blazing the trail with also representatives from Lagos, Warri, Kaduna, and Port Harcourt zones in addition to the technical consultant.
Speaker after speaker raised concern over the need to put an end to the activities of miscreants or area boys who often catch on delays in loading to vandalise trucks, especially at Idimu, Ojota and Ketu axis, noting that collaboration with the Lagos State government was key to tackling the issue, and the reintroduction of colour coded products which determine who drives the truck and the kind of training that must be given.
They pledged for training support, saying we will train the drivers and do all that is necessary. They raised concern on the training of articulated vehicle drivers who are not union members, advising that they should be organised like the PTD. They noted the need to address road conditions as one of the factors and parking area along Lagos, Mokwa and other strategic areas where we operate, and they gave support for the summit action plan to check drunk-driving and check age limit as critical issues.
The stakeholders also identified government policy mandating trucks to berth in Lagos, and stressed that we must open up the waters so that vessels can berth at other ports not just Lagos. The government’s refusal to raise their profit margin – which will affect cost of petrol – to enable them buy fairly new vehicles was also fingered as an issue, stressing that they can only operate old unsafe vehicle.
On enforcement, they noted that all uniform personnel were on the road causing delays by demanding for all sorts of things. The also noted that markets along the highways encroach on the roads, stressing that Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and council chairmen’s forum should be invited for these meetings. The issue of driver fatigue also came up with the stakeholders saying that drivers have to drive for about 12 hours without rest because of delays and insecurity.
On punishment, the meeting urged the courts to respect the rule of law and stressed the need to involve top government representatives, and security agencies such as the police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the military for quick fix. They challenged depot owners to clear their environments, noting that obstructions should be cleared urgently, adding that loading processes must be considered. They stated that we can free our roads if depot owners know their capacity and call for just the number that their tank farms can contain before calling for new trucks. We need to get in touch with infrastructure bank immediately. On age limit of truck drivers the elderly are mostly the one driving. We should encourage our youths to go into truck driving.
On the need to cut down speed, it was gladdening to know that although the approved speed limit for trucks is 75 km/per hour, the union installs a speed limiting device for tankers at 60 km/ph.
Meanwhile, the FRSC boss, Boboye Oyeyemi, told the gathering that the commission was barking and biting as it has commenced the immediate enforcement of minimum standards in tankers and other articulated vehicles, implementation of the Safe to Load Programme for safe operation of the distribution of major petroleum products. The programme seeks to ensure that only vehicles that are in good condition, driven by qualified and competent drivers are allowed to be involved in the transportation of dry and wet cargoes on Nigerian roads.
He said the FRSC has already developed a safety checklist against which vehicles that fail will not be allowed to load. Consequent upon this, the commission will begin the use of ‘off the road’ stickers on articulated vehicles that are not road worthy. Oyeyemi said that depots and tank farms will be immediately communicated and such tankers will not be allowed to load until the tanker was cleared by the designated FRSC safety officer/VIO.
The FRSC boss said the development of a robust national uniform licensing scheme with the upgraded drivers’ license and vehicle number plate  regime with unique coding specially for articulated vehicles has been done, stating that there will be the enforcement of the requirement that each articulated vehicle is fixed with three number plates.
Aggressive awareness must be a maintained while retraining of truck drivers under the drivers’ proficiency certification scheme will be enforced by the corps. He encouraged stakeholders to voluntarily use speed limiters even before the rescheduled enforcement date of September 1, noting that with the revamping of the Nigerian rail system, stakeholders may wish to consider the efficient and cost effective option of rail haulage. Other steps include the commencement of prosecution of drivers and owners of vehicles involved in road traffic crashes following concluded investigations, enforcement of the use of requests, required standard seal on tankers loaded with petroleum products, operation of dedicated four dedicated drivers licence centres for tanker drivers, FRSC academy has commenced safety officers’ training to deepen the corps professional certification of haulage transportation.