RE: FEDERAL GOVT TO BAN IMPORTATION OF HEAVY DUTY TRUCKS EXCEEDING 10 YEARS FROM JAN 1ST 2020

 

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 date of manufacture, we must consider some factors which may hinder the seamless movement of goods in the section in the long-run if the policy is to kick start come January 1st, 2020.

By 2020 deadline invariably, it means that Trucks manufactured in year 2010 or later will be acceptable by the Government for importation.

Trucks in these categories are very appealing, comfortable and automated for easy driving however in terms of repair and maintenance it is another kettle of fish. For example the truck parts may not be readily unavailable due to the saturation of truck spare parts whose manufacturing history is dated in the 80’s or early 90’s. Trucks of these caliber are usually victims of bad diesel which could easily destroy their injectors hence frustrate the truck owners into dumping them in the short-run due to cost of replacement of such nozzles, hence will have a long-term impact in logistics if such results is spread across board is also on the high side. As we all know, the Nigerian diesel market is highly saturated with poor and extremely toxic diesel quality.

The technical know-how of majority of our truck mechanics is another factor to consider considering that their knowledge is still in the primitive stage with working tools belonging to the same era hence they will find it difficult to repair these trucks or better still may apply a trial-by-error approach which will end up damaging the truck, affect movement of goods and frustrate the operator to quitting the business.

Finally, majority of the Driver lack basic knowledge of truck maintenance and are often very greedy to make profit off diesel so therefore they feed trucks with all sorts of diesel hence for now are not fit to manage these categories of trucks except a few who are well trained by companies who undertake their logistics and also feed diesel to their trucks individually. The question to ask is that of what percentage are these companies in the industry?

The reality of Nigeria’s Haulage industry is that the informal sector actors make up over 75% of practitioners. These categories of people are individuals who have a fleet of between 2–10 trucks serving as the 3rd Party Carriers to companies. The majority of trucks in this sector are manufactured in the 80’s and 90’s. To effect change in such sector needs deliberate strategy, orientation and time.

MY ADVICE

My advice to the Federal government is to shift the date for kick starting the policy to year January 1st, 2030 so that the government can have a deliberate policy framework that will help to re-train, re-equip and re-orientate actors in the industry. The government can design a deliberate program to train our unemployed youth on repair of modern trucks, establishment of a truck driving school and truck repair corridors across the states of the federation in partnership with the state government.

The Federal government also need to ensure that most of the modern trucks’ manufacturing companies can be given the license to set-up an assembling plants here in Nigeria hence will give the trainee the avenue to understand the trucks working from top-bottom on a first hand basis. Such policy will also ensure that spare parts are available at all times and at a cheaper rate which will eventually create employment.

In conclusion, subsidy must be made available for the informal sector practitioners to embrace the use of the modern truck via an agreement with the Truck Manufacturing Companies. If the cost of the trucks is cheap and spare parts are readily available and cheap and they are certain that their truck can repaired, this will kick start a revolution of cleaning up the ugly state of our haulage industry, in the long-run will reduce road crashes due to heavy duty trucks and end the Otedola bridge accident scenario once and for all.