Blogger on Haulage activities in Nigeria

  During my years as an undergraduate at the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, one of the project i participated actively on achieving part of its set goals was the “ Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)” which was set to be achieved for year 2015 (then as an executive member of the “All Nigeria United Nations Students’ and Youth Association (ANUNSA)” ) but unfortunately the Nation has a whole couldn’t achieve much of the MDG’s despite all efforts by Students organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations. However, the United Nations Organization has set yet another ambitious goals to be achieved by Nations around the world and more importantly the developing countries and it was termed the “Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). However, the SDG’s will be very difficult to achieve if “ Road Safety ” is not at the core of the policy implementation. There is no better reason than the fact that it is only when humans are “safe” that development can truly occ

The number and quantity of vehicles on roads has increased due to technological and economic development in recent years. As a result of this increase, traffic has been one of the most important parts of our daily lives as people spend more time in traffic thereby forcing drivers and other road users to face a higher risk of traffic accident. Traffic congestion occurs as a result of interaction between vehicles on the road. The effect of that interaction is expressed in fundamental law of traffic, the speed flow curve (TRB, 2011). This was described by Goodwin, (1997), in his inaugural lecture at University College, London in 1997 as follows : the fundamental defining relationship of our field, the spend-flow curve shows that the more traffic uses a road, the slower it goes, the effect becoming more and more severe as the traffic flow approaches the maximum capacity of the network, until finally over load is so extreme that all vehicles are unable to move. The

I was privileged to visit the airport tower thank to a very good friend and brother. The yoruba’s have a say that “ he who has people has everything ,” that was exactly the manifestation of the saying on that beautiful day.  Let me first say that only few people in their life time get to see what really goes on in the airport tower ,not even the President. The President simply does not have the luxury of time to do so not that he does not have the authority to do so. It is a place worth visiting but unfortunately it is not open to the public because it is such a very sensitive office. It was on the 26th October , 2016 I was on a visit to see my friend at the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja. Unknowingly, it was to be the day i will be giving the rear access to this unique and historic office. My first encounter on that day was with a lady called “Chi-Chi” (the secretary) she was to lead me to my host’s office

It has being captured in various literatures that over 80% of Truck drivers in Nigeria are illiterates which is why it is reflected in their attitude and behavioral pattern while driving the vehicle in terms of maintenance culture and road safety which can be summarized as very poor.  Road accident is a serious problem throughout the world in terms of social, health and economic development. Authorities in virtually all countries of the world are concerned about the growth in the number of people killed and seriously injured on their roads. According to Anthony Albanese (2010), road trauma is one of the major public health problems facing Australia. Tutu (2007) submits that road traffic accidents kill and maim millions of people annually in African countries. He also stated that they hamper economic development of many nations and cause enormous suffering.  Furthermore, the rate of mortality in road traffic accident is very high among children and young adults in their prim

Charging for the movement of goods within the haluage industry especially in Nigeria is a very dicey financial matrix. It varies from one operator to another and from one company to the other. For instance some companies calculate their cost of transportation by “ per tonnage ” while others pay by the “ trucks’ body size carrying-capacity ”, others simply by “ discretion ” based on experience and common practice with the industry. Be it by tonnage rate, carrying-capacity indices, or by discretion, I am of the opinion that these indicators cannot all be right model to arrive at the most rational cost for transporting goods from one place to another in the haulage industry. The question to ask is what are the factors considered in arriving at the price? If the factors considered were to be right then the prices will be universal for the same trucks with the same carrying capacity, consuming same fuel volume, plying the same route “ irrespective of the nature of goods c

  On the 9th July, 2018 the Federal Government through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha took a decision to ban the importation of trailers and tankers exceeding ten years (10yrs) from the date of manufacture into the country, the ban which is to take effect from January 1, 2020 . The decision was made as part of the resolutions of the stakeholder’s forum he convened to address the menace of crashes involving haulage vehicles in Nigeria. The meeting was instructive due to the Road Traffic Crash (RTC) on Otedola bridge of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway where over 55 vehicles were burnt and multiple fatalities recorded last year. MY TAKE The motive behind the decision is very laudable considering the un-road-worthy some of the heavy duty trucks plying our roads have become. Some trucks are not worth being at the parking station let alone on the road. However, before we a place a ban on trucks that are exceeding 10 years from the da

According to a report by Premium Times online new media dated 8th February, 2018 quoted the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has saying that “Nigeria lost N39 billion to trailer/tanker crashes in 2018. This was disclosed by the Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi in a meeting with Transport Stakeholders in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Mr Oyeyemi, said that the meeting was aimed at addressing sundry issues affecting the transport sector, especially as it relates to articulated vehicles,he described the loss as ”unpleasant story.” He decried that over 90 per cent of tankers and trailers were over 30 years old, saying that maintenance was a serious matter that needed to be addressed. “It costs about N50 million to buy a new head for a tanker excluding the body, while registration and insurance would cost about N60 million to put a tanker or trailer on the highway,” he said. He also said the number of crashes which involved trailers in 2017 was 522 as

Let me first say complement of the season to my esteem readers, interestingly this is my first article for year 2019. This new year started on a good note with the signing of the Executive Order 007 of 2019 on the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme by President Muhammadu Buhari. The aim of the executive order is to provide the much-needed private capital for infrastructure development in the country. The interesting thing about the scheme is that it will not only incentivise private sector investment in Nigerian roads across key economic corridors and industrial clusters, relieving the government of the burden of funding the initial outlays for these road investments, it will also serve as the key to unlocking the potentials within the haulage industry. The genius in this executive order 007 is the fact that companies or group of companies will be exempted from corporate taxation , by way of the issuance of tax credit