By Ismail Auwal
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said that 90 percent of the trucks in the country are over 30 years old.
This was disclosed by the FRSC Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, in an interactive session with the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), FRSC and Haulage operators, on Monday in Lagos.
Oyeyemi called for an improvement on the maintenance and standardisation schemes for vehicles as most of them lack safety measures like lighting, reflectors and other parts.
He stressed the need for an intervention from the Federal Government to ensure truckers had fleet renewal as vehicles that had been on the road for 30-years should be scrapped.
Oyeyemi pointed out that, “due to the age of the trucks, they frequently breakdown on the road prolonging the days goods spend on the road before getting to its destination.”
“While coming to this place, I went through the third mainland bridge and I saw trucks lining up on the bridge going toward Apapa and this is not good,” the FRCS boss lamented.
“Bridges are not meant to carry fixed trucks and when we have such scenario, we are reducing the lifespan of the bridges.
“Also, there is decay in the vehicle inspection system in the country. m
Most of the trucks are not road worthy and this poses serious threat to road users.”
“When these trucks breakdown, the goods will not get to its destination as scheduled and this affects the end users,” he said.
Oyeyemi added that as regards the Vehicle Transit Area (VTA) project, more stakeholders engagement are needed to produce results and it should not be by enforcement.
