Between Safety and Profit in the haulage sector

 

          

Road safety is a serious global issue. According to the United Nation’s global status report on road safety conducted in 2008, over 1.2 million people die each year on the world’s roads, and between 20 and 50 million suffer non-fatal injuries. In most regions of the world this epidemic of road traffic injuries is still increasing. Over 90% of the world’s fatalities on the roads occur in low-income and middle-income countries, which have only 48% of the world’s vehicles.


 

The haulage sector in Nigeria and indeed every part of the world is characterized by truck owners and investors who invested a lot of money to get their business running and would do anything to ensure they get back their investment and profit in the shortest possible time. It then begs the question, at what point do stakeholders in the trucking industry choose between safety and profit?

The haulage world’s success is measured in terms of capacities, mileages, rates, revenue generation and losses, cost per kilometer, return on investment etc etc Safety of the driver, vehicle and cargo has more than the economic cost implication but also environmental, psychological, biological costs etc


 Unfortunately, the Nigerian trucking industry is filled with poorly trained (or not formally trained) truck drivers with poorly maintained vehicle which has resulted into the environmental disasters that we witnessed on a daily basis on our roads. Apart from the accidents which is a loss of huge investment, majority of truck owners hardly follow the basic business practices to ensure reasonable profits are made without necessarily endangering the safety of the driver, vehicle and cargo.


How do truck owners manage their overall costs, fueling, maintenance etc It is therefore my appeal to truck owners to choose safety over profit. Profit can be made without compromising safety. Truck owners needs to understand and track both their variable and fixed costs. They need to spread their pay back period (PBP) to a reasonable time frame rather than in a very short period. They need to take the issue of drivers training very seriously because a formally trained truck driver will help to reduce cost in the area of fuel, maintenance, repair etc which is a huge saving for the owners. You can as well read my article on “cost structure for truck business in Nigeria”.

Many thanks for your time and wish you a prosperous year 2022.


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