Truck owners call for restructuring of ‘call-up system’

Truck owners under the aegis of the Association of Maritime Truckers Owners, (AMATO) have called on the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to urgently restructure the call-up system designed for truck drivers going into the seaports in Lagos.

 The truck owners said that the current system had been hijacked by some powerful persons, who they alleged had exploited the current loophole in the system to enrich themselves.

They alleged that these sets of “criminally minded persons” had generated fake call-up cards, which they had been issuing to truck drivers for financial gains.

AMATO described the present call-up system as “obsolete”, which needed to be fine-tuned.

 The President of AMATO, Remi Ogungbemi, in a statement, accused some insiders as “collaborators”, who he said had been conniving with some criminals to exploit the system.

 He said, “In view of the ongoing unfair/secrecy in the manner by which trucks are being admitted into the ports via transit parks and the resultant implications, we urge the relevant government agency saddled with the responsibility to re-organize the call-up system.

 “All these are a fact that the system we are using has become obsolete due to changes that had occurred at various levels. Unfortunately, some structures or system that are supposed to change or increase have remained stagnant, hence the anomalies that beget corruption, extortion, favourism, greediness, priorities, man-know-man arrangement, etc.

 “Therefore, in the light of the above, there is the need for urgent restructuring, reformation and modernization of the system through which trucks are being admitted into various loading points, be it in the ports or factories around Apapa, and in all petroleum tank-farms.

“Beneficiaries from the rotten system will not like re-modernization, but let us remain committed to achieving sanity, orderliness and a peaceful, conducive working environment.”

Meanwhile, the immediate past Port Manager of the Tin-can Island Port, Abubakar Umar, alleged that some trucks were being released illegally, a development he described as not in line with the call-up system.

“Yes, illegal trucks coming from illegal destinations. They push them and because we do not have enough space for such trucks to turn, we have to manage them. But sometimes when we discover them early, we try to push them back to where they are coming from.

 “Look at the kind of tension, the kind of pressure that is going on. You know we always work closely with the terminal operators and the lines, and that is why we are able to coordinate it to ensure that we do not have a total lock-down. If a terminal says it can only take 100 from a particular line, we let them know, and those are the ones that are allowed in.

“The Traffic Manager is always up and doing, monitoring the whole operation together with the Port Security Officer. These are the things that do assist. The ones that we have to call the task force we do, and the ones that we have to do ourselves, we do.”