The Nation Newspaper

Category: Transportation

  • Primero employs women-drivers

    Primero employs women-drivers

    Primero Transport Services operating on the Ikorodu-CMS corridor, has announced employment opportunities for women-drivers.

    The Managing Director, Mr Fola Tinubu, who disclosed this to newsmen during the first year anniversary last week, said women are being offered the chance to prove their mettle in driving.

    “It has been proved that women are more matured and tend to be calm behind the wheels than men and we are already shopping for women to come out and join our pool of drivers,” he said.

    Tinubu, who noted that 90 drivers are currently undergoing training by the company, added that by December, when they are injected to the pool, the company would have brought buses shuttling the Ikorodu-CMS corridor to 500.

    He said despite the harsh environment, the company had moved 34 million passengers within its first year.

    “We couldn’t expand as projected because of the very difficult environment in which we have to operate and difficulties in accessing exchange rate for our operations, which limited our capacity to bring in more vehicles or conclude plans to introduce the eCard.”

    He, however, disclosed plans by the company to increase its fleet to 900 next year and increase this to 2000 in the next two years; establish an assembly plant and venture into the property market by providing town houses around Ikorodu town.

    Tinubu further disclosed that early next year, the board would be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Chinese firm on the establishment of an assembly plant at Majidun. He said the eCard which had got to advanced stage may become operational on all its fleet before the end of second quarter next year.

    Tinubu, whose company also undertook the rehabilitation of Majidun Junior High School as part of the anniversary, said every year, Primero would be undertaking the rehabilitation of all public schools in the Ikorodu division. He added that N30 million has been voted for the rehabilitation of the Majidun school project.

    The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (LAMATA) Managing Director, Engr Abiodun Dabiri, urged the operator to improve its services in order to reduce the stress of commuters and reduce waiting time at bus stops.

    Dabiri, who was represented by the External Communications Specialist Mr Kolawole Ojelabi, disclose that , a BRT corridor would soon be introduced between Oshodi- Abule Egba to complement the ongoing flyover project which would be completed next year.

    He said the introduction of the BRT corridor in Ikorodu has lived to its billing as it has opened up economic activities in Ikorodu. He added that the government would continue to promote public transportation as the cheaper means of commuting for the people of the state.

    Speaking on behalf of other royal fathers present at the event, the Ranodu of Imota Oba Ajibade Agoro praised plans by the company to establish assembly plant in the area. He said the last one year had been a blessing to the people of Ikorodu division as the company has brought unimaginable development to the area.

    He praised the company for its rehabilitation of Majidun Junior High School. He, however, urged the company to give more employment opportunities tothe people of the area.

  • Firm unveils cab’s app in Lagos

    A technology firm that develops transportation booking Applications, IWorld Transit Services Limited, has launched the first indigenous transportation app in the country.

    The app tagged: Soole can be downloaded via Apple stores, Google playstore and the company’s website: www.soole.com.ng, and enables commuters to have access to any class of cab at their door steps.

    The Group Managing Director of the firm, Mr. Chalres Ojo, who spoke to stakeholders including representatives of the Lagos State Taxi Drivers’ Association, said that the aim was to further decongest roads in Lagos City.

    The App operates under the following categories; Taxi/Cab, Ride-sharing, Shuttle and Charter services.

    The Ride Sharing service, which is also known as Car-pooling is unique. It allows professionals in Lagos Metropolis to commute on weekdays from home to work and vice versa in a secure environment and provides the opportunity to network and form an exclusive community. The collaborative ride would also save the cost of fueling, wear and tear of vehicle and the stress of driving in the city.

    According to Ojo, this is the best thing that can happen to professionals.

    “The app is linked to over 400 trained taxi drivers in Lagos State. It is adapted to our Cab operations, It is not metered, hence no surprises. It is based on negotiation, which makes it favourable for both driver and passenger. The services are not charged per hour and all payment for now is made electronically through the app. This alone authenticates the services and the status of the driver.

    “The over 400 cabs under the Taxi/cab services can be located in any part of Lagos State. The app shows you the driver’s details. All registered drivers are screened and identified with their various parks. We are starting operations with Lagos, but in due course, the services will be extended to Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Abuja and other major cities in Nigeria.

    “The cabservice covers every Nigerian, it is offered in standard, deluxe and executive categories. Irrespective of class, the firm observes at any point in time, over 10 million Lagosians move for various reasons in the state,” he said.

     

  • Day of rage at Ikeja, Agege train stations

    Day of rage at Ikeja, Agege train stations

    The stoning to death of a baby girl by rooftop riders in Agege, has given the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) the filip to end the menace, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    ime was 7.30pm. Dateline: November 1, 2016. As usual the train was jam-packed with passengers locked in a fight for a leg room in its 16 coaches. Several miscreants were either sitting on the rooftop of the coaches or hanging  to any available space, including the locomotive engine room.

    Roof-riding has become a culture which many, especially miscreants, find attractive. It is a world where only the bold can dare. There, crime and drugs are prominent features.That Tuesday, both were not in short supply.

    When the train made a stopover at Shogunle, security operatives dislodged the “illegal riders.” The news got ahead of the train even before it reached Ikeja enroute Ijoko, where more daring  riders, armed with stones and other missiles, took over the train roofs.

    Sensing that the railway police would carry out a raid at Agege, they unleashed mayhem as the train approached the place, throwing stones and other objects. They damaged the train terminal and the police station.

    A baby strapped to her mother’s back was hit on the head. She died the next morning.

    Irate Agege youths stormed the station in anger, destroying properties and other valuables of the railway. They demanded a stop of train services until the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) eradicate rooftop riding. Four passengers  were injured in the mayhem. The corporation footed their medical bills and suspend service between Wednesday and Thursday.

    The people’s anger prompted the corporation to embark on a manhunt for the miscreants.

    Using the Lagos State Police Command, Railway Police Command, its task force and the Man-O-War gang, the NRC carried out a sting operation at dawn on its Mass Transit Shuttle Train (MTST) at Iju Station. During the exercise, 100 miscreants were arrested.

    NRC Lagos District Manager Mr. Jerry Oche said the operation would send a signal to miscreants  that their time is up.

    Speaking with The Nation, he said: “November 1 was tough for us due to the activities of miscreants.

    “The hoodlums attacked and destroyed some of our facilities in a reprisal attack. Ikeja station was seriously damaged, same also the Agege station and our police station.”

    Oche said some of those arrested entered the train with machetes, stones, sticks, knives and other harmful lethal object.

    The hoodlums, he said, perpetrate crimes on the rooftop.

    He said: “The hoodlums sell drugs and carry out other criminal activities once on the train,” adding: “The NRC as a responsible organisation cannot fold our hands to allow this to go on.”

    According to him, the death of the baby angered Agege residents, who carried out another round of attacks on the riders.

    He said the corporation has  redesigned the windows of the coaches to further ensure passengers’ safety.

    Oche, who said the raids would be continuous, added that the corporation would increase its police posts and security personnel to ensure the safety of passengers and NRC personnel.

    The violence by the hoodlums is a new twist in the war against rooftop riding which the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, last year said must be eradicated.

    The minister said he would prefer that Nigerians are allowed to ride the train free, than embark on what he called “suicide mission.”

    According to Amaechi, transportation makes no meaning if the government cannot ensure people’s right to safety.

    At home or abroad there are instances of rooftop riders being victims of train derailment. Despite the danger, many prefer the rooftop ride, which a passenger last Wednesday described as “a ride on Tiger’s tail”.

    Barely a year ago, scores of passengers plunged to death when an MTTS train collided with a truck at the Agege level crossing.

    Several rooftop riders were reportedly killed two months ago following the brake failure of a Kano-bound train at the foot of the River Niger at Jebba, in Moro Local Government area of Kwara State.

     

    Not about tickets

     

    According to Oche, poverty is not the reason for roof top ride. About 80 per cent of those caught last Monday, he said, had valid tickets, yet they made for the rooftops. The lure is the  crime and drugs that are not in short supply on the rooftops, he added.

    Oche said those caught, whether with or without a valid ticket, would pay N50,000 fine or face prosecution.

    For many, riding atop trains  has become a way of life.

    The Ijoko-Agbado-Iddo train, which leaves the Ogun State suburb, at about 6am, carries about 1,000 passengers per trip and makes 16 trips daily. Though sanity is the order of the day between 9am to 4pm, hell is let loose after 6pm, when the hoodlums climb the roofs and other spaces on their journey home.

    For them, the train is a cheaper means of transportation. That explains why the train and the one that makes a return in the evenings are usually thronging with “illegal passengers.”

    The menace is minimised in the mornings because of the fear of arrest by the police. But in the evenings, when the security agents would have “officially closed”,  scruffy-looking ‘boys’, returning from “work”, take over.

    Some of those who buy tickets blamed the derelict state of the coaches for the increasing menace of rooftop riders.

    Adamu Hassan, a mechanic, at Yaba, said the coaches were stuffy,  adding that though the train has become his saviour since moving to Abule Ijoko a few years ago, he has been forced to join others at the rooftop to enjoy fresh air.

    Muftau, another passenger, said the second class coaches are no better than “a manger,” as they are filled with all manners of passengers with disabilitities – among them beggars, the blind, the lame, the deaf and dumb, who fill the coaches with horrible stench.

    “I ride on the roof to escape the odour that comes out of the coaches at times. Though it is unsafe, I found that I could breathe better each time I ride on the rooftop of the train,” Muftau, who has been using the MTTS train since 2011 said.

    Mrs Cynthia Israel, a Lagos Island trader, who lives in Ijoko, said since she started using the train over three years ago, she discovered that many of those sitting on rooftops have tickets.

    “Many of them actually have valid tickets bought at the train stations. They prefer the roof tops to ‘catch some fun’ because the spot offers them unfettered freedom to do so many other things, such as drugs,” she said.

    She admitted the coaches are inconvenient for passengers as they are usually over-crowded and stuffy.

     

    Drugs & all

     

    Findings showed that many who do drugs on the rooftop belong to a cartel. Though it seemed so disorganised from the outside, the rooftop riders world is controlled and organised. “No ‘fresher’ can ride on the roof of a train without being introduced into the group,” according to a regular rider.

    Train rooftops are home to illicit trading in soft drugs, such as Indian hemp, and hard drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, or just the usual ‘pot’, hot drinks with a cocktail of marinated herbs and cigarettes.

    The rooftop also offers immunity against crime. It does not mean that those who sit there do not have tickets.  On most occasions, policemen and the ticketers often point to the roofs as another option for those, who either could not secure a place inside the train, or complain of stuffiness.

    Habitual rooftop riders kick against any intrusion into their “world”. Four years ago, a photo journalist, the late Tunde Ogundeji, was beaten to a pulp at the Ikeja train station. Penultimate Tuesday’s attack on NRC facilities at Ikeja and Agege because of the raid by the security operatives were among the cases that underscores the dare-the-devil spirit that rules the world of rooftop riders.

     

    Soft enforcement

     

    The NRC Police Command said, last year, 1,000 rooftop riders were prosecuted. The Command said it would not be intimidated by hoodlums in maintaining law and order on the train.

    Railway Police Chief, Pius Imue said the security agencies would do their job once the NRC gives the green light.

     

    Way out

     

    NRC’s Managing Director Fidet  Okhiria said the NRC has been battling rooftop riders since the upsurge in passenger traffic as a result of the renewed transformation of the railway.

    He said: “The NRC had in the past embarked on enlightenment campaigns to drum the awareness of the dangers inherent in rooftop riding to all its intending passengers. We would deploy more aggressive efforts into effectively securing the right of way of the trains as well of all stations, to ward off hoodlums from getting easy access to the railway tracks.”

    Okhiria said rooftop riding is prevalent especially in the popular category (second class coaches), because most of the stations on Lagos Districts are porous.

  • NTC: Roadmap for efficient transportation

    NTC: Roadmap for efficient transportation

    To experts, the National Transportation Commission (NTC) Bill, which is before the National Assembly, is the key to unlock the sector’s potential. Will it do the magic?ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE asks

    HOW can the potential of  the transport sector be unlocked? It is through the National Transportation Commission (NTC) says Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi.

    A bill for the commission’s establishment is before the National Assembly.

    The need for the establishment of the commission is not far fetched. Shorn of a regulator, the transportation has become an all comers affair, a situation that has drained the nation of huge resources being exchanged in the sector daily.

    At present, transportation contributes a paltry 1.41 percent the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and that for the Buhari government is “completely unacceptable”.

    To correct this, the government seemed committed to the birthing of  a regulator. When eventually passed, a national framework of the nation’s transportation blueprint would be established. From this, the states as well as the local governments would key in to provide the needed options and local operating environment and from these, a multi-modal system that would see to the maximisation of all forms of transportation that presently obtains at very basic levels would be maximised.

    The bill’s passage according to Amaechi will reduce the haulage of heavy cargoes by roads. This would prolong their lifespan.

    To achieve this goal, government  will revamp the railway sector in order to encourage mass transit of passengers and goods.

    “The movement of petroleum products by rail will be re-introduced in 2016. As you are aware, we have commenced and almost completed the narrow gauge rehabilitation which will be retained for the movement of cargoes.

    “At the same time, massive investments into the standard gauge to link most parts of the country with faster trains for passenger movements have begun.

    “Work will start in earnest on the standard gauge on the following routes: Calabar-Lagos line, which will transverse the following towns and cities: Obudu Cattle Ranch-Calabar-Uyo-Aba-Port Harcourt- Yenagoa-Otuoke-Yenagoa-Ughelli-Sapele-Benin-Agbor-Asaba-Onitsha-Benin-Ijebu Ode-Ore-Sagamu-Lagos Seaports; and the Lagos-Kano line that would link Lagos-Ibadan-Ilorin-Minna-Kaduna-Kano,” Amaechi said.

    According to him, the construction of new lines and rehabilitation of old railway lines will generate over 250,000 direct jobs and more indirect jobs, with a multiplier effect on economy.

    To drive the new policy direction, government seem determined to give the private sector to be at the driver’s seat. While it busied with policy formulation and regulating the process, the private sector brings in the capital badly needed to modernise the sector.

    The policy according to experts would seek to create a synergy of all forms of transportation that were at best at their very rudimetary levels in the country.

    Thus more activity is being envisaged on all modes of transportation- air, land and water. Outside Lagos, a predominantly coastal state, no other state in the remaining 36 states and Abuja, the nation’s Federal Capital Territory has a robust intergrated transportation masterplan to address mass transit challenges.

     

    The UK & US template

     

    According to Wikipedia, the British Transport Commission (BTC) was created under the Transport Act 1947 as part of Clement Attlee’s post war Labour government programme.

    The UK Transport Commission was created to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the separate Ulster Transport Authority). Its general duty was to provide “an efficient, adequate, economical and properly integrated system of public inland transport and port facilities within Great Britain for passengers and goods”, excluding transport by air.

    BTC which came into operation on January 1, 1948, was one of the largest industrial organisations in the world, at one time employing nearly 688,000 people. At first, the commission did not directly operate transport services – these were the responsibility of the commission’s executives. These were separately appointed, and operated under what were termed ‘schemes of delegation’.

    Broadly the BTC scope ranges from the handling of advertisements, vehicle and premises branding, provision of mass transit buses, film production catering and hotel management as well as museum services.

    In the United States all modes of transportation system are fully exploited and cordinated by the Department of Transportation (USDOT) . Majority of passengers travel by automobile for shorter distances, and airplane or railroad for longer distances. Most cargoes travel by train, truck, pipeline, or boat while air shipping is typically used only for perishables and premium express shipments.

    Majority of roads in the United States are owned by state and local governments. The interstate highway is partly funded by the federal government but owned by state governments. There are private highways where tolls are collected to pay for construction and maintenance. There are many local private roads, generally serving remote or insular residences.

     

    Make haste slowly

     

    According to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Land Transport Senator Gbenga Ashafa, the Senate would  consult widely on the bill.

    He said the desire to hasten slowly to avoid creating “a powerful sole regulator which  ight cause frictions with other international legal instruments and conventions on transport to which the nation is a signatory.

    He aid though the NTC bill was passed to it before the Senate went on recess, work hasnt started on it because the lawmakers had been busy trying to stabilise the economy.

    “However, like the Senate Committee on Land Transport which I chair worked on and ensured the passage of a completely overhauled Nigerian Railway Bill 2016, we would ensure that the Nigerian Transport Commission Bill is passed and that the version that will be passed would be effective and satisfactory to all operators,” Ashafa said.

    A logistics expert Edeme Kelikume said the NTC would pave the way for the deregulation of the transportation sector. “The bill when passed would be a plus to the government”.

    With a benefit of hindsight, the NTC may just be the turning point just as the establishment of the National Communication Commission (NCC) midwifed the transformation that took the nation’s communication industry by storm since  2001.

    Contrary to critics who may think the NTC could just be a drain pipe on the economy, Kelikume said the commission is “a value-adding agency. “If the NCC could become  a major net contributor to the nation’s GDP, one could see the NTC achieving same for the transportation sector.”

    Kelikume said the NTC would unlock the sector, deregulate its operations and draw fresh funds into government’s coffers.

    The expert, whose company Connect Rail Services handles some cargo services for the railway, said with a regulator in place, all the modes of transportation could begin to work in synergy providing new opportunities for private operators who are out to invest with new investment windows.

    But the founder of Safety Without Borders (SWB), Mr Patrick Adenusi, cautioned against creating a bottleneck in order to have a regulator.

    Adenusi said most commissions created by past governments have been mere conduit pipes, “sharing avenues”, to drain the nation’s resources, adding that with an economy in  recession, the nation could ill afford another drainer of its scarce resources.

    Though people might argue that it would drive employment opportunity, infrastructure development is the key to drive the growth of the sector.

    This commission is to be responsible to a ministry so why not create a department within the ministry, draft professionals from within the ministry to the department in which case the salary portfolio is not increased and we are able to get the same thing done without increasing the expenditure profile of the government.

    Hinging on bad anticipated implementation, Adenusi posits that the need for geo-political balancing may jeopardise the commission’s achievement when when  it is eventually established.

    He said if properly coordinated, the NTC could catapault transportation into a major money spinner as the various means through which it would generate fund could be exploited.

    He said the era where transportation generates less than two percent of the country’s GDP may well be over as areas such as advertisements, catering and hotel services, road tolling, museum services, centrally coordinated transportation film industry and franchising among others remain areas that the federal and state governments could exploit to generate the badly needed funds to reflate the economy.

    Adenusi said the nation is under developed because past goverments have neglected the transportation sector.

    Under the intermodality scheme that an NTC could bring to bear across the country, all modes of transportation would be maximally exploited, he said, adding that railway would be very active in passenger and cargo traffic.

    “What the cargo trains would move from Lagos to Kano would not be distributed to the stores by the trains but the trucks. So the trucks would still get busy, shuttle shorter distances and serve their owners more.”

    Adenusi noted that if properly regulated, the sector could bail the nation out of recession as huge funds exchange hands daily among the informal operators.

    “If only half of the money that accrues daily to transport unions across the country from commercial operators goes into government coffers, the government would have no need of going to the National Assembly to approve $29 billion loan,” he said.

     

    Conclusion

     

    Transportation and logistics experts agreed with the minister that the nation needs a commission to orgnise, coordinate, and regulate the  operations of all operators in the transportation sector.

    The dearth of this in the past has been responsible for the rudderless operations that has typified the nation’s transportation and staunted its growth over the years.

    Though Senator Ashafa had ruled out a rushed job of the bill by the Senate, experts said the bill with its transformation agenda is worth waiting for. The question is how longer should Nigerians wait?

  • ‘Want to arrive alive? Kill the speed’

    ‘Want to arrive alive? Kill the speed’

    The ‘ember’ months (the last four months of the year) are here again. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has, in line with its tradition, launched a campaign to reduce accidents and prevent deaths during the period. “Crash the crash, kill the speed” and “arrive alive”are its slogans, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    In the last four months of every year, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) launches a campaign to reduce accidents and prevent deaths. Last week, it unveiled this year’s theme for the ‘Ember’ months at the launch of the Don’t Drink and Drive (DDD) yearly advocacy event organised by the Nierian Breweries(NB) Plc in partnership with the corps.  Tagged “Crash the crash, kill the speed’’, the agency  underscored the need for motorists’ collaboration in ensuring that road safety becomes a culture in the country.

    Corps Marshal Dr Boboye Oyeyemi noted that the task of keeping the road safe during the Yuletide and beyond requires the support of all road users.

    “Every road user must strictly embrace the best road safety practices while using the highways,” he said, adding that killing the speed will ensure that people arrive alive at their destinations..

    He praised the NB for its consistent support for the agency towards ensuring safer roads in Nigeria through responsible drinking habits among drivers.

    According to Oyeyemi, who was represented by the Corps Public Education Officer Mr Inoh Etuk, so central is the collaboration between the brew giant and the agency because alcohol- related traffic crashes are major issues that have taken global significance over the years, adding that this is signposted by the fourth pillar of the United Nations decade of action for road safety (2011-2020) which focuses on developing comprehensive programmes to improve road users’ behaviour.

    He said the FRSC will continue to support a sustained enforcement of road safety laws and standards as well as promoting public awareness and education on the use of seat belts, and crash helmets wearing to reduce drinking and driving and over-speeding.

    According to him, alcohol when taken above the recommended basic limits reduces “our senses of judgment.” As a vehicle driver, operating under the  influence of alcohol  makes one violate  speed limits which in most cases results in road crashes”.

    The need to address the menace of speed-related road crashes, he further said, informed the FRSC’s collaboration with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Automotive Council (NAC) and other relevant stakeholders to  initiate the speed limiting device (SLD).

    Twenty-three days after it began its enforcement however, compliance to the device remains at a parlous level, Oyeyemi observed.

    According to him, compliance so far stands at a mere 5.11 per cent.

    Of the total 77,817 vehicles checked during the period, only 3, 980 vehicles were found to have installed the SLD while 73,837 others were yet to comply.

    Oyeyemi, who applauded the NB for its commitment to the campaign, said trends in the past had shown that accidents often doubled during the “Ember” months “not necessarily because of the actions of witches, but because we as cart pushers, motorcycle riders, pedestrians and vehicle owners fail to use the road responsibly.”

    He said to further make the road safer during the period, the FRSC would be deploying Special Intervention Patrols (SIP) to complement the usual special marshal during the yuletide.

    He noted that the FRSC will continue the advisory compliance of the SLD till January ending, while full enforcement of the first phase, which is the compliance by commercial vehicles will begin in February, immediately it rounds off this year’s Ember months’ campaign.

    Chidi Ogazi, a consultant, said drivers, especially commercial operators hitherto had a wrong impression about alcohol with the usual slang “one for the road” being a common refrain in many parks across the country.

    One for the road, according to Ogazi, means the driver, thinking that alcohol aids driving takes an extra alcoholic drink before sitting behind the wheel. “Unknown to them, alcohol taken up to a certain percentage is a depressant and slows down their alertness leading to weariness and in that state, impairs their judgments on the road.”

    Ogazi, who works with the NB on the DDD project, said since the campaign began eight years ago, enlightenment is higher now than hitherto.   ssw

    There has been increased awareness among drivers to reduce alcohol intake and about 60 percent of respondents of a survey carried out two years ago had indicated that they no longer drink at work, but after.

    “Commercial tricyclists, motorcyclists, bus, truck drivers, and other classes of drivers are becoming more conscious of the don’t drink and drive and those who still do now drink after work because of the adverse effect of alcohol on their efficiency,” Ogazi added.

    NB’s Corporate Affairs Adviser Kuffre Ekanem, said the company remained committed to encouraging responsible consumption of alcohol.

    Ekanem represented by the Sustainability/Regulatory Relations Manager Mr Edem Vindah, said  Ebonyi, Ekiti and Edo states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)  were selected for this year’s campaign. Their choice arises from statistics provided by the FRSC on road traffic crashes across the country.

    “In the yearly survey, Ebonyi, Ekiti and Edo as well as Abuja emerged as states with  very prevalence of road crashes and that informed why we are taking the road shows to those places this year,” Ekanem added.

    The campaign will include road shows and public enlightenment sessions at motor parks in the three states, he said.

    “Responsible consumption messages with don’t drink and drive themes would be communicated through print and electronic media during the Ember period,” Ekanem said.

    DDD, Ekanem said, is one of the ways NB gives back to the society as part of “our vision of winning with Nigeria and it involves public enlightenment campaigns, communication and capacity building workshops.

    “Since the programme’s launch in 2008, we have held 35 rallies in major cities across the country. The rallies continue to attract large turnout of stakeholders that includes commercial and private vehicle drivers, motorcycle and tricycle riders.”

    He said the event will further strengthen the MoU signed with the FRSC in 2014 and is aimed at encouraging responsible consumption of alcohol.

    Ekanem said the DDD is part of NB’s sustainability strategy. “Our brewing better world strategy helps us identify ways to contribute positively to the planet and society such as protecting water resources, reducing carbon emissions and sustainably sourcing of raw materials.

    “This is one of the ways we give back to the society and part of our vision of winning with Nigeria,” he added.

    Acknowledging the place of alcoholic intake in over speeding, Akeem Adeyemo, a commercial driver, said much of the accidents recorded during the “ember” months were as a result of factors outside drunkenness.

    Adeyemo, who has spent 15 years behind the wheels as a commercial driver, said during the period, drivers are usually eager to cash in on the passenger rush that usually attends travelling during the “Ember” months and in a bit to maximise their opportunity, compromise a number of factors coupled with the road fatigue that may also set in as the drivers over reach themselves in the bid to make more money during the period.

    Adeyemo, however, praised, the NB for its commitment to responsible consumption of alcohol, adding that with alcoholic intake addressed, some chunk of reasons for over speeding may have been addressed.

  • Corps to clear roads of impediments

    To prevent gridlock within Lagos State  during the Yuletide, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) is to   remove obstructions on the highways.

    The Corps also pledged to  improve on enforcement of traffic rules, enhance traffic control and promote its relationship with the public.

    Assistant Corps Marshall Zonal Commanding Officer, Zone 2 , Shehu Zaki said during his visit to the RS2.112 Iba unit that the Corps had developed an action plan on how to achieve the objectives.

    He said plans had been concluded to ensure that there will be no accidents during and after the Yuletide.

    The Acting Unit Commander, Uche Okolie, asked that a  head of operations, drivers, and patrolmen be posted to the unit. She also demanded allocation of new patrol vehicles to the command.

    Okolie said the unit had no  commissioned drivers and other manpower because of what she described as the unfriendliness within the command’s jurisdiction. She said the command has two operational patrol vehicles with one bike, adding that the patrol vehicle is almost grounded

    According to her, the staff strength of the command is 61 (18 officers and 43 marshalls) with 4 units of Special Marshalls

    Zaki  said he was on the visit  to identify the unit’s  constraints and proffer solution way forward. He said: “If I’m not here to listen to their challenges then I don’t think my coming has any purpose, basically, it is also for me to know what their constraints are, I have noted them”, he reassured.

    The Corps Marshall noted manpower was a general problem confronting the commission  but  reassured that  efforts would be accelerated to resolve their challenges

    “We will try as much as possible to even from within the zone get some personnel to the command to beef up strength of manpower in the command”, he added

    On speed limiter, the FRSC boss said the commission is in continuous sensitisation of both private and commercial vehicle owners on the implementation.

    He said: “We have been conducting rallies at motor parks, the speed limiter is one of those things we sensitise members of the public on”, adding it is a continuous process.

    He said from the beginning of the introduction of the speed limiter in the country, the commission has been publicising all the proceedings up to the time it went forscrutiny in the House of Assembly and approval given at the end of the day

  • Natural gas as alternative vehicular fuel

    With trillions of cubic metres of natural gas, the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as viable fuel in Nigeria can be explored, if everything is put in place to promote the distribution of the white fuel across the country, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    With the approval of the Federal Government in a letter dated March 21, 2007, by President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria joined the league of nations using natural gas to power their transportation needs.

    With a population that grew by almost 400 percent to 180 million between 1960 and 2016, with significant urban drift, the demand for transportation energy will increase.

    Despite these challenges, Nigeria continues to flare about 20 percent of associated gas in the oil exploration and production process. The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) reported that oil producers flared about 51 percent of the associated gas produced between 1990 and 2010, a volume of about 459 billion cubic metres (bcm). This volume is equivalent to 53 billion litres of gasoline, which is more than 14.5 years worth of Nigeria’s gasoline consumption.

    To address the twin challenges of gas flaring and fuel shortages, the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as an automotive fuel was proposed in the 1990s, to harness natural gas resources, but progress has been slow.

     

    A global culture

    The idea of using natural gas as fuel for vehicles is not new globally. Italy has been using it since 1930s and Iran, Pakistan, Brazil, Italy, USA, China and Egypt have unveiled programmes aimed at significantly improving the numbers of CNG vehicles in their countries.

    With approximately 25 million natural gas vehicles around the world and consuming about 1,000 Bcf of gas annually, there has been a rapid growth of the natural gas vehicles market in the last 10 years, with a projection that more than 60 million of such vehicles would be in place by 2020.

     

    Why Gas?

    The challenges of global warming have compelled the quest for cleaner, better and safer fuels that would not be injurious to the ecosystem.

    That was why when Obasanjo issued the CNG licence to NIPCO Plc, formerly Independent Petroleum Marketing Company Limited (IPMAN), experts had thought the government was desirous of positioning to effectively utilise the untapped resources hugely available in the country.

    Sulaimon Salau, a natural gas technician, said CNG is a superior auto fuel and better than liquid fuels – petrol and diesel. According to him, replacing petrol with CNG, specifically in countries like Nigeria, blessed with over 186 tcf of natural gas, would save the country the much-needed foreign exchange.

    Yet, nine years down the line, the total number of vehicles converted by NIPCO from petrol to gas is less than 4,500, with 95 percent of them commercial vehicles. Targets set by the NGC for the first two years was 50,000.

    The General Manager of Green Gas Limited (GGL), a joint venture between Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and NIPCO Plc, Mr Rajesh  Prabhu, said the government needed to do more to support the growth of the sector.

    Prabhu, whose company is the only one that has developed nine operational CNG stations, with three others about to be opened and five others under construction, said the government had not fully thrown its weight behind making natural gas available for the use of Nigerians.

    GGL started operation in Benin City, where about 4,200 vehicles run on CNG, replacing 20 million litres of petrol and saving over $9 million for the country from 2012 to 2015.

     

    The advantages

    If the Federal Government decided to replace just 20 percent of the current petrol consumption in Nigeria by switching to natural gas, Prabhu said Nigerians would not have used up to four percent of the nation’s domestic gas and less than 0.5 percent of the current gas production, thereby saving close to $2 billion yearly.

    Experts said CNG is cheaper on a mile to mile basis than petrol by as much as 50 percent and more than 80 percent compared to diesel. While the current price of PMS per litre is N145, a metric cube cost of CNG is N95 in Lagos and in Benin.

    Because it is a clean fuel which burns with low carbon deposit, natural gas leaves no lead or benzene on the engine. The lead fouling of spark plugs is also eliminated. The CNG kits and systems are sealed, which prevents any spill or evaporation. The use of natural gas eliminates the need for expensive oil refineries, improves energy choice flexibility, reduces movement of heavy tankers on roads resulting in reduced improved energy security due to local availability. Also, it reduces the importation of petroleum products, which saves  foreign exchange, stimulates local industry and create employment opportunities for the production of kits and components, such as cylinder manufacturers, conversion kits manufacturers, vehicle conversion workshops, maintenance workshops and the reduction in health hazards and improved air quality.

    Prabhu said natural gas reduces harmful vehicle emissions that pollute the atmosphere, prevents green house gas emissions, reduces global warming and is non toxic either to the soil or water. Its economic benefits, according to him, include reducing cost of running a vehicle, bi-fuel option-flexibility (as the vehicle can run on petrol and CNG with just a shift in switch on the dash board of the vehicles), reducing exhaust emissions leading to improved quality of life and reduced health cost as well as reduction in transportation cost.

    GGL in the last nine years have developed a state-of-the-art gas infrastructure in Benin, operating seven CNG stations where it serves 4000 automobiles, and three CNG kit conversion workshops which are the first of their kind in  Africa. It has also developed a 51-kilometre steel gas pipeline network which connects industries in Benin.

    The Federal Government allowed GGL to develop the CNG network on the expressways connecting Benin City to Warri, Lagos and Asaba-Onitsha, with a station at Okolovu on the Benin-Warri Expressway. Alongside three other stations ready to take off, three others at Ore, Oni Tea and Benin-Asaba Expressway are to take off between now and next year.

    The company has also opened the largest CNG station in Ibafo Ogun State along the Lagos-Benin and Ibadan expressway with an installed capacity of 200,000 scmd and can dispense over 4,000 vehicles per day.

     

    Global trend

    CNG has been adopted as transportation fuel in many countries for various reasons of which economic benefits/considerations; environmental concern/benefits, energy security, and availability of natural gas resources are the major drivers. For example, the Supreme Court of India in an effort to control vehicular emissions ordered the conversion of the city bus fleet to CNG and the USA is pursuing alternative energy for energy independence and security.

    While Iran’s crude oil reserve is the second largest globally and the country is the fourth largest producer of crude oil, over reliance on importation of petrol in satisfying domestic demand led to the adoption of CNG as transport fuel.

    In Nigeria, the need to reduce gas flaring, spiralling fuel prices and increasing environmental concerns Prabhu said, are the compelling reasons for CNG use.

    However, until 2008, when the National Domestic Gas Supply Policy and the National Domestic Gas Supply and Pricing Regulation were introduced, the focus of government was the abatement of gas flaring as seen in the provisions of the Petroleum (Drilling and Production) Regulation 1969 and the Associated Gas Re-injection Act 1979.

    Consequently, oil producers focused on gas re-injection rather than gas gathering and utilisation leading to a significant increase in the volume and percentage of associated gas re-injected, and slow adoption of gas as fuel domestically.

    As reported by the NNPC, more than 0.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of associated gas has been re-injected yearly since 2002. Incentives for gas exploration and production were only provided through the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) (Fiscal Incentives, Guarantees and Assurances) Act 1990, the Associated Gas Framework Agreement of 1992 and later through Section 39 of the Companies Income Tax Act 2007.

    Prabhu pointed out that price differential is key to the success of gas use, adding that the fastest growth is in Iran, where the price differential is the greatest, while Pakistan, having the highest saturation has CNG priced at 50% of equivalent gasoline. NGV penetration in India is less than five per cent and this could be due to the long period of subsidy for gasoline and diesel, which depressed the potential price differential. Similarly, a price gap range of six to 37 per cent between gasoline and NG in Nigeria does not appear to be compelling, as the subsidy on gasoline erodes the long-term economic benefit of CNG. Catalysts for the adoption of CNG in Nigeria are a market operator-set price per energy equivalent of a litre of gasoline, in a deliberate manner to encourage conversion, along with a dual pricing structure similar to Argentina, where credit lines cover conversion costs, to be repaid with savings from the use of CNG.

     

    High cost

    The minimum cost of conversion is N200,000 or ($1,000) and private vehicle owners are required to make a down payment of N40, 000 ($200) or 20 per cent of cost, while owners of vehicles used for commercial purposes, such as taxis, are required to make a down payment of N80,000 ($400) or 40 per cent. The loan repayment is through a price adjustment mechanism during refilling.

    Prabhu said the company was still keeping to the old rate not to de-motivate those who might want to convert their vehicles to gas. Going by the current exchange rate, the  cost of conversion, the GGL boss said, is about N500,000.

    Most users said the CNG is economical if motorists could afford the cost of conversion. Femi Adeyemi, a commercial driver who has been using a CNG commercial bus since a year ago, said it saves money and its cost effective on the long run. Outside the cost of conversion, he spends  N2,600 on gas to shuttle from Lagos to Ibadan, a distance that cost him N7,000 before. Olabisi Bakara, another commercial driver, who shuttles Lagos to Mowe, in Ogun State, would want all commercial operators to convert to gas as a cheaper alternative. For him, “CNG is a bonanza, especially for commercial motorists.”

    Oluwole Obasa, a truck driver who has been using CNG since one and half years, said he now spends N6,500 on CNG to Ibadan, from the N21,000 spent on diesel.

    Sulaiman Salawu urged the government to encourage the importation of at least 20 percent of CNG-compliant vehicles and reduce import duties of conversion kits. He said it was sad that there is no CNG content in the automotive policy launced recently by the government.

     

    Salawu also urged a slash in the wholesale and retail price of gas by the NGC, a development which is having a negative effect the operational cost of the companies like GGL which markets the CNG.

  • More firms embrace the railway

    More firms embrace the railway

    Cargo trains are gaining more attraction, with more firms opting for them to ferry their cargoes. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE lists the advantages of this new development and how it could be sustained.

    The rails have been busy in the last few weeks, with more cargo trains leaving Lagos for various parts of the country.

    From its lean profile when it started its shift to cargo business two years ago, the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s (NRC’s) cargo service is becoming a beehive with more firms turning to the railway to move their cargoes from Lagos to other parts of the country.

    The latest on the growing list of firms that have opted for the rail cargo is Dangote Flour Mills, which  ferried its flours from Lagos to Kano last Friday.

    The NRC, it was learnt, has moved 50,000 tonnes of flour, a negligible tonnage of wheat for the Nigerian Flour Mills weekly, 50,000 tonnes of cement, freighted for Lafarge Cement, large pipe cargoes from Lagos to Zaria, and 5,000 tonnes of fertiliser, which took off last month to Kano from Lagos and 5,000 tonnes of granite (ballat) for construction industry.

    Similarly, the Corporation penultimate week, undertook the second stream of its cattle and ram cargo service from Zamfara to Lagos, which took the total number of cattle moved into Lagos by rail to 3000.

    The improvements in cargo service have continued to excite logistics experts, who have for long advocated the railway option as the way to go in relieving the network of roads of the burden it continued to bear in moving goods from one part of the country to the other.

    According to experts, though the railway is not yet there in terms of capacity, yet, its rolling stock  can be built upon to relieve the roads of the burden.

    “Cargo trains have proved to be cost effective, very efficient and very safe,” Connect Rail Service Ltd Managing Director Mr Edeme Kelikume, whose company is fast emerging as the game changer in the cargo train service, observed.

    “Though we are nowhere near where we  ought to be, with the trains operating at 20 per cent capacity, there is room for additional investment, and until such a time, the government should provide enabling environment private sector investment to play in the sector,” he added.

    “Train is the way to go. It complements trailers and trucks which we use to move our cargoes to our final destinations and the warehouse. It is a complementary service,” Kelikume said.

    He said one of the major causes of the bad state of the roads was that they were not built to carry the weight they have been subjected to. Many of the roads built to carry only 30 tonnes weight have been subjected to 40-tonne vehicles, and the prolonged use of the roads by these vehicles would, ultimately, damage the roads.

    “Contrary to the misconceptions of Nigerians, the trains would not kill but complement the truck business. The trains will free up the logjams on the roads, save time and make the roads lasts longer. The railway is meant to carry heavy weights, while the roads are designed to carry lighter weights,” he said.

    Findings have shown that industrialisation without the rail is difficult.There’s no information technology that can solve the need of transporting cargo from one point to another. The railway, which is one of the oldest forms of transportation, remains the most reliable.

    Kelikume said research had shown that at 25km/hour, the rail remains the fastest, safest and cheapest means for cargo movement compared to the trucks, which average speed is about 15 km/hour.

    Kelikume praised the Federal Government for thinking of shifting the attention of cargo traffic to the railway. Citing the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who earlier declared that cargo traffic would soon be shifted to the railway, said it is the only way to go if the nation is to have a respite from the incessant damage to the roads as a result of the dead weight of the articulated vehicles.

    “Although it may take time, there must be a common agreement to move off the roads because if the roads fail, the transport business dies,” Fashola said.

    For Fashola, the way to go is for the operators in the sector to begin to look at importing train wagons, especially flat beds that would continue to sustain their haulage business. Rather than continuing to import trailers to move their cargo, they can begin to make arrangements to import train wagons, he said.

    Experts said train remain the best way to get cargoes safely from one destination to the other. The owner of any cargo is only interested in getting his goods safely to its destination and the train would not only achieve this, but offers to take it there at the cheapest cost.

    While it might take between five and seven days for trucks and tankers to move from the North to the South, it would take a train just 72 hours to cover same distance. This is because the trains would only stop at major stations mainly to refuel and change drivers after about 500 kilometres, while their counterparts are exposed to bad or collapsed roads, weariness, fatigue and attacks.

    Logisticians said no fewer than 40 tankers or trailers are usually taken off the roads with  a cargo train, with the roads being the major beneficiary as it becomes safer, better maintained with improvement in travel times by motorists.

    Kelikume said a more virile cargo train service is a win-win for all stakeholders in the transportation industry. According to him, since a train runs a truck-to-trunk destination, it makes room for trailers/tankers to move the goods away from the train stations to the various warehouses from where smaller vehicles would deliver such goods to the markets.

    This, according to him, would enable fleet owners to better monitor their vehicles, boost the health of drivers and their assistants and protect the investments as well as the roads.

    The corporation’s Acting Managing Director, Fidet Okhiria, said the it would continue to deepen its cargo business because that is the honey pot of the rail business.

    Okhiria, who said the corporation would soon be involved in agricultural produce and solid minerals movements across the country, said 150,000 tonnes of coal are being moved monthly from Igumale in Enugu to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

    Okhiria urged the Federal Government to consolidate on the tempo by constructing new rail tracks. He said the nation should construct about 100 kilometres of rail tracks to link new production centres.

    “Any country with a developed rail sector achieved it by deliberate government investment policy. South Africa added 150 coaches to its rail system last year, while Cameroon bought 56 Diesel Multiple Unit same year, same as Ethiopia which added 100 first-class coaches to its fleet. The government must be involved because the railway is capital intensive and cannot pay itself,” Okhiria said.

    He said while the government must continue to focus on direct investment, it must also continue to encourage private sector operators with track records in the sector to participate in the industry.

    But if the construction of a kilometre of track at $3.5 million, it is almost impossible to achieve any growth in the sector without private sector participation.

    Kelikume praised the Federal Government for inviting General Electric (GE) to invest in the Nigerian Railway system. According to him, if  GE was investing over $2 billion in the Railway, it meant that the nation’s rail sector may be on its road to revival.

    An agriculturist, Prof Abel Ogunwale, of the Ladoke Akintola Unversity (LAUTECH), said the railway remains the best form of moving goods, especially agricultural products from  the North to the South.

    Ogunwale, a United Nations consultant, said it was time for the nation to move away from “the way we do things and join the league of countries where the best practices abides.”

    He said with an improved cargo train system, the economy would witness a major turnaround with the the private sector becoming a major beneficiary as the railway connects all sectors of the country.

    Ogunwale praised the government for recognising the NRC, adding that such bold moves were in the right direction to reposition the railway as the engine room of transportation initiatives.

    Nigeria Agri-business Group (NABG) Coordinator Mr Emmanuel Ijewere expressed delight at the potential of the railway in moving agricultural produce and increasing other commodities transaction from the North to the seaports in the South. He said the NABG was willing to partner with the NRC to reactivate cargo train services.

    “Our rail line was built in 1900. It is a century-old line, actually 116 years old. The NRC must be praised for still using those same old tracks and moving the trains. These are the same lines that were used to move groundnuts, cocoa and coal from Enugu. If there had been continuity over the past couple of years, we would have had a more efficient rail system, and this efficiency is what we are happy to see coming back with this reactivation,” Ijewere said.

  • FRSC: Speed limiter is best antidote to accidents, deaths

    FRSC: Speed limiter is best antidote to accidents, deaths

    How do we reduce road accidents? It is by installing speed limiters in vehicles to place a cap on speeding, says Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Corps Marshal Boboye Oyeyemi. He tells ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE that the Speed Limiter Device (SLD) look s promising as more motorists embrace the device. The enforcement began penultimate Saturday.

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) kept faith with the October 1, dateline for  enforcement of speed device in vehicles across the country.

    The corps’ rank and file were on major highways on a stop-and-check of commercial vehicles in compliance with the directive.

    The Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, and other stakeholders in the transportation sector on September 26, in Abuja, resolved to begin the enforcement of speed limiters on October 1. The limiter is an antidote to road accidents, which have assumed a phenomenal dimension in the country.

    An executive summary of the first week of enfiorcement made available to The Nation by FRSC showed that 22, 908 vehicles were checked in the first week of the enforcement. Of this figure, only 1,164 vehicles had the SLD installed in their vehicles, meaning 21,744 vehicles were not with the device, the summary signed by Oyeyemi revealed.

    The FRSC chief believed the SLD remained the only tool to aid a drop in accident rate across the country.

    He said the tool would help the agency achieve the United Nations Decade of Action Against Road Accidents (2011-2020), to reduce crashes in the country by 50 per cent.

    “We have met with all the stakeholders on the issue of the installation of the speed limiter, and they all resolved to comply with the directive. They expressed their satisfaction with all the steps taken  to ensure that the device was installed on their trucks, our major concern is to ensure that as many motorists as possible comply,” he said.

    The agency according to him, would  embark on advisory compliance till next year, adding that the aim is to ensure that as many motorists, especially commercial fleet vehicle owners, comply.

    He continued: “We would be embarking only on the advisory enforcement for now. We are going to be issuing tickets for all road traffic violation law and any vehicle caught would be given two weeks final warning deadline, to get the device installed.”

    He added that all stakeholders agreed that any operator found contravening the rule after the moratorium, should be sanctioned.

    “We shall embark on advisory enforcement till the end of the year and full enforcement will commence by January 1 2017. We are on course; we are going ahead to enforce the directive by October 1,” he added.

    To Oyeyemi, the speed limiter was the path to restoring sanity to the nation’s roads.

    He carpeted those who are canvassing the adoption of spider technology, as against speed limiter in arresting speed violators, saying that the former would be vandalised in no time.

    “People should stop misleading the government and Nigerians simply because of their own personal financial gain. There is a difference between speed camera and a speed limiting device. Spider technology is just a brand name for a speed camera device like a CCTV mounted on the road to capture the speed of any vehicle on the road. It helps to monitor the speed of any vehicle and enable you to know if any particular vehicle has flouted the speed limit of that road.

    “So, many people have been extolling its benefits. For instance, when the camera picks the speed of a vehicle, a citation will be given and a ticket issued. But when you look at the level of our infrastructural development, the fact that we do not yet have regular electricity supply and the high level of vandalism of public facilities, then you might want to question the propriety of anyone thinking that speed camera is the best option at this stage of our development.

    “Right now, we are producing signage backup for all our road construction companies in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Works. So, how would you set out to install speed cameras with that background? Before you even finish the installation of one area, they would have removed the whole thing. Except if, with the new change mantra of the Federal Government, Nigerians’ orientation changes to start protecting, rather than vandalising public utilities and facilities,” he said.

    Oyeyemi said the speed limiter was to restrain the speed of the vehicle. For example, the marginal speed on the highway is 90 km, so the device will ensure that no matter how one accelerates, one will not exceed the prescribed speed.

    He said: “So, if your speed is 90, the calibration would be put at 95, to allow for an endurance or tolerance point. No matter how you accelerate, you can’t exceed the speed that has been calibrated on your vehicle. Another thing is that this device is installed once and for all, it is not something you would be renewing every year. If you buy a vehicle for about N1 million or more and you are to buy a speed limiting device for between N20 and N25,000, I think it is cost effective.

    “We are talking about safety here and it makes economic sense not only to protect your life but also your investment.The limiter will greatly help reduce the rate of accidents on our roads. The lives of 170 million Nigerians most of who need one form of public transportation or the other must be preserved. Our focus would be commercial vehicles first because they carry large volume of passengers and we tend to lose more lives through them than private car owners.”

    The FRSC, he said, has nothing to do with marketing the equipment. “Several marketers are already into it. It is not novel to us. Several major oil marketers, such as Mobil, MRS, Oando and Conoil, among others have keyed into installing speed limiters on their tankers long before now and we have gone ahead to ensure that all independent marketers also joined them. Now, it is compulsory to have speed limiting device on your tanker before you can load petroleum products at any of our major depots of the major marketers. We are going to insist also that it would be impossible for you to load at any tank farms if you don’t have this device. There is also some organised transport operators like the ABC, Peace Transit that have it on their fleet, so what the FRSC has simply done was just to escalate this to the national level and we invited the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to set the approved standard for use in Nigeria, which in agreement with all stakeholders, had been done.

    “So, we are working with SON to ensure that the right device is imported into the country. All we want is for you to cut down on your speed because we have found out that the possibility of saving more lives increases once one cuts down on speed and reckless driving. There are 38 accredited marketers and resellers certified by SON and the FRSC to sell the speed limiter so anybody can buy from any authorised sellers,” he said,

    The FRSC boss said the speed limiter was fundamental to the government on the grounds that if not installed, there was the likelihood that before the offender got his citation and ticket, he might have killed people. “That is why the speed limiter is, to us, fundamental and regarded as a fitting programme to complement its preparedness for the ‘’ ’Ember’ month’s safe road’’ campaign.

    ‘’The absence of road signage is becoming increasingly worrisome because they are a major cause of accidents on our roads, especially at night. The FRSC is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Works and state Ministries of Works to assist in designing appropriate road signs, and we are ensuring that the ones we are producing are reflective, especially at night because we have seen, especially with recent cases, that most of the accidents that occurred at night were as a result of poor visibility of impediments to smooth driving on our highways.

    “So, we are committed to saving lives by making sure that our roads are fitted with reflective road signs and our major focus for now are the federal roads and if we have access to these roads, we may install the signages and bill the Federal Ministry of Works to pay us back later. The fact remains that our highways require appropriate road furniture – road signs, road markings and other facilities and this is one of the things that guides a driver, especially at night,” he said.

    Road signs, he said, help one to know how many miles one has covered and the speed limit required on the road and, especially, they help in warning drivers of the nature of the roads and what lies ahead.

    He added: ‘’Our tracking of accidents, especially those that occurred at nights, have shown that they may have been avoided if there were illuminating road signs, especially around narrow roads or very sharp bends and turns. Driers would have taken necessary precautions that would likely prevent accidents if these were in place. Our assignment is to continue to support the Federal Ministry of Works and the states to ensure that our roads are well fitted with appropriate facilities.’’

  • FRSC: Speed limiter is best antidote to accidents, deaths

    FRSC: Speed limiter is best antidote to accidents, deaths

    How do we reduce road accidents? It is by installing speed limiters in vehicles to place a cap on speeding, says Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Corps Marshal Boboye Oyeyemi. He spoke to ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE last Wednesday, ahead of enforcement of the speed limiting device in cars on Saturday.

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) kept faith with the October 1, dateline for  enforcement of speed device in vehicles across the country.

    The corps’ rank and file were on major highways on a stop-and-check of commercial vehicles in compliance with the directive.

    The Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, and other stakeholders in the transportation sector on September 26, in Abuja, resolved to begin the enforcement of speed limiters on October 1. The limiter is an antidote to road accidents, which have assumed a phenomenal dimension in the country.

    However, the rate of accidents according to the FRSC, dropped significantly this year compared to last year. Oyeyemi said to make the roads safer, all motorists must install speed limiters in their vehicles.

    The United Nation (UN) data on road accidents showed that Nigeria is the fourth worst nation in accidents ratio yearly, due largely to poor state of roads.

    Last month, the FRSC recorded the highest casualty figure of 75 deaths from accidents across the country. One of the highest was the death of 16 people, when their bus plunged into a river on Abuja-Kaduna Road. In another accident, 18 people were burnt to death in  Oyo-Ogbomoso road. Eighteen others lost their lives on the Ife-Ilesa road. These are apart from  the trailer that fell on a commercial vehicle in Abia, killing five people.

    The FRSC chief believes the drop in accident rate across the country was “a result of the commitment of our men to ensuring that we achieve the mandate of the United Nations Decade of Action Against Road Accidents (2011-2020), to reduce crashes by 50 percent.” To improve road monitoring, about 300 vehicles, he said, were injected into the system. “We now have more Zebra (ambulance) points, from 20 to 37. So the deployment of more logistics has improved our effectiveness”.

    He said the next phase of the campaign to reduce, road carnage would be the enforcement of the speed limiter on which he had held fruitful meetings with all stakeholders.

    “We have met with all the stakeholders on the issue of the installation of the speed limiting device, and they all resolved to comply with the directive. We met the leaderships of National Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers- Petroleum Tanker Drivers (NUPENG-PTD), and they all signified interest to comply. They expressed their satisfaction with all the steps taken so far to ensure that the device is installed on their trucks, but our major concern is to ensure that as many motorists as possible comply.”

    He said the agency would  embark on punitive but advisory compliance till next year, adding that the aim is to ensure that as many motorists, especially commercial fleet vehicle owners, comply.

    “We would be embarking only on the advisory enforcement for now. We are going to be issuing tickets for any violation of the road traffic law and any vehicle caught would be given two weeks final warning deadline, to get the device installed.” He said all the stakeholders agreed that any operator found contravening the rule after the moratorium, should be sanctioned.

    He continued: “We shall embark on advisory enforcement till the end of the year and full enforcement will commence by January 1 2017. We are on course; we are going ahead to enforce the directive by October 1.

    Oyeyemi believes the speed limiter is the path to restoring sanity to the nation’s roads.

    He carpeted those who are canvassing the adoption of spider technology, as against speed limiter in arresting speed violators, insisting that the former, would be vandalised in no time.

    “People should stop misleading the government and Nigerians simply because of their own personal financial gain. There is a difference between speed camera and a speed limiting device. Spider technology is just a brand name for a speed camera device like a CCTV mounted on the road to capture the speed of any vehicle on the road. It helps to monitor the speed of any vehicle and enable you to know if any particular vehicle has flouted the speed limit of that road. So, many people have been extolling its benefits. For instance, when the camera picks the speed of a vehicle, a citation will be given and a ticket issued. But when you look at the level of our infrastructural development, the fact that we do not yet have regular electricity supply and the high level of vandalism of public facilities, then you might want to question the propriety of anyone thinking that speed camera is the best option at this stage of our development.

    “Right now, we are producing signage backup for all our road construction companies in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Works. So, how would you set out to install speed cameras with that background? Before you even finish the installation of one area, they would have removed the whole thing. Except if, with the new change mantra of the Federal Government, Nigerians’ orientation changes to start protecting, rather than vandalising public utilities and facilities.”

    Oyeyemi said the speed limiter is to restrain the speed of the vehicle. For example, the marginal speed on the highway is 90 km, so the device will ensure that no matter how you accelerate, you won’t exceed the prescribed speed. So, if your speed is 90, the calibration would be put at 95, to allow for an endurance or tolerance point. No matter how you accelerate, you can’t exceed the speed that has been calibrated on your vehicle. Another thing is that this device is installed once and for all, it is not something you would be renewing every year. If you buy a vehicle for about N1 million or more and you are to buy a speed limiting device for between N20 and N25,000, I think it is cost effective. We are talking about safety here and it makes economic sense not only to protect your life but also your investment.The limiter will greatly help reduce the rate of accidents on our roads. The lives of 170 million Nigerians most of who need one form of public transportation or the other must be preserved. Our focus would be commercial vehicles first because they carry large volume of passengers and we tend to lose more lives through them than private car owners.”

    He said FRSC has nothing to do with marketing the equipment. Several marketers are already into it. It is not novel to us. Several major oil marketers, such as Mobil, MRS, Oando and Conoil, among others have keyed into installing speed limiters on their tankers long before now and we have gone ahead to ensure that all independent marketers also joined them. Now it is compulsory to have speed limiting device on your tanker before you can load petroleum products at any of our major depots of the major marketers. We are going to insist also that it would be impossible for you to load at any tank farms if you don’t have this device. There is also some organised transport operators like the ABC, Peace Transit that have it on their fleet, so what the FRSC has simply done was just to escalate this to the national level and we invited the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to set the approved standard for use in Nigeria, which in agreement with all stakeholders, had been done. So, we are working with SON to ensure that the right device is imported into the country. All we want is for you to cut down on your speed because we have found out that the possibility of saving more lives increases once one cuts down on speed and reckless driving. There are 38 accredited marketers and resellers certified by SON and the FRSC to sell the speed limiter so anybody can buy from any authorised sellers.

    The FRSC boss said the speed limiter is fundamental to the government on the grounds that if it is not installed, there is the likelihood that before the offender gets his citation and ticket, he may have killed people. That is why the speed limiter is, to us, fundamental and regarded as a fitting programme to complement its preparedness for the ‘’ ’Ember’ month’s safe road’’ campaign.

    ‘’The absence of road signage is becoming increasingly worrisome because they are a major cause of accidents on our roads, especially at night. The FRSC is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Works and state Ministries of Works to assist in designing appropriate road signs, and we are ensuring that the ones we are producing are reflective, especially at night because we have seen, especially with recent cases, that most of the terrible accidents that occurred at night were as a result of poor visibility of impediments to smooth driving on our highways. So, we are committed to saving lives by making sure that our roads are fitted with reflective road signs and our major focus for now are the federal roads and if we have access to these roads, we may install the signages and bill the Federal Ministry of Works to pay us back later. The fact remains that our highways require appropriate road furniture – road signs, road markings and other facilities and this is one of the things that guides a driver, especially at night. Road signs help you to know how many miles you have covered and the speed limit required on the road and, especially, they help in warning drivers of the nature of the roads and what lies ahead.

    He added: ‘’Our tracking of accidents, especially those that occurred at night, have shown that they may have been avoided if there illuminating road signs, especially around narrow roads or very sharp bends, corners and turns. Driers would have taken necessary precaution that would likely prevent accidents if these are in place. Our own assignment is to continue to support the Federal Ministry of Works and the states to ensure that our roads are well fitted with appropriate facilities.’’