The Federal Road Safety Corps has suggested that government at local levels take responsibility and provide modern parks for commercial drivers in their locality.
Speaking to journalists on Friday, the FRSC corps marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, said, “The local government is a critical factor, it is the responsibility of the local governments to provide parks as per the
constitution, the 774 LG authorities must be ready; it is another source of revenue for them.” He added that the councils “must provide modern parks and if they cannot fund it, they can go on Public Private Partnership arrangement to provide parks where the tanker, trailers and other vehicle can park and rest for a while.” Mr. Oyeyemi had in the past week said that tanker drivers will be subjected to a 30 minutes rest after each four-hour driving session in order to help reduce fatigue, a factor in most tanker crashes in Nigeria. The corps marshal said that implementation of new plates for commercial drivers will commence soon in line with an agreement between major stakeholders in the industry during a just concluded national summit. “The implementations is commencing. One of the critical issue is the retraining of all the NUPENG drivers. We have commenced the implementation of the new number plates for NUPENG and we had a meeting few days ago where we introduced the plates to all the states and from July 1, the new plates will be administered by the states,” he said. The new plates he said will give a unique identity for all the tanker trucks and trailer vehicles for easy identification. The process, he said, is no different from that for the commercial vehicle drivers done at no extra cost. The corps marshal added that the FRSC has observed that 35 per cent of the tankers used are old and most of the users say they cannot afford the cost of new ones. Mr. Oyeyemi said in view of this, a proposal is being developed to engage the government for assistance “A new tanker costs about N30 million, the head alone is N21 million and the body about N7 million plus the registration and insurance. So they need government. “We are going to work with Vehicle Inspection Officers to ensure strict compliance to the vehicle inspection. We are working already with them and they are fine tuning the drivers retraining programme,” he said. Mr. Oyeyemi said the FRSC will re-train all NUPENG drivers as well as set up four specialized driver’s license centres in Suleja, Kaduna, Warri and Lagos – for the commercial NUPENG drivers. He said the process to obtain a commercial driver’s license includes a full medical check-up including a psychiatric test. He said that at the end of the process, the corps will have the specific number and details of tanker drivers in Nigeria. “I want to tell the nation that within the next few months, we are going to see a kind of change; and we are also working from the resolution in Sokoto, we are targeting zero crash and I believe it is workable. We have resolved now that the drivers subject themselves to checks at the designated places,” he said. Mr. Oyeyemi said there will be a joint task force consisting of officials of the FRSC, NUPENG, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, Vehicle Inspection Officers, among others, to ensure compliance with its directive. The corps marshal said any tanker not installed with the speed limiting device by September 1 will not be allowed to load at any of the depots.
constitution, the 774 LG authorities must be ready; it is another source of revenue for them.” He added that the councils “must provide modern parks and if they cannot fund it, they can go on Public Private Partnership arrangement to provide parks where the tanker, trailers and other vehicle can park and rest for a while.” Mr. Oyeyemi had in the past week said that tanker drivers will be subjected to a 30 minutes rest after each four-hour driving session in order to help reduce fatigue, a factor in most tanker crashes in Nigeria. The corps marshal said that implementation of new plates for commercial drivers will commence soon in line with an agreement between major stakeholders in the industry during a just concluded national summit. “The implementations is commencing. One of the critical issue is the retraining of all the NUPENG drivers. We have commenced the implementation of the new number plates for NUPENG and we had a meeting few days ago where we introduced the plates to all the states and from July 1, the new plates will be administered by the states,” he said. The new plates he said will give a unique identity for all the tanker trucks and trailer vehicles for easy identification. The process, he said, is no different from that for the commercial vehicle drivers done at no extra cost. The corps marshal added that the FRSC has observed that 35 per cent of the tankers used are old and most of the users say they cannot afford the cost of new ones. Mr. Oyeyemi said in view of this, a proposal is being developed to engage the government for assistance “A new tanker costs about N30 million, the head alone is N21 million and the body about N7 million plus the registration and insurance. So they need government. “We are going to work with Vehicle Inspection Officers to ensure strict compliance to the vehicle inspection. We are working already with them and they are fine tuning the drivers retraining programme,” he said. Mr. Oyeyemi said the FRSC will re-train all NUPENG drivers as well as set up four specialized driver’s license centres in Suleja, Kaduna, Warri and Lagos – for the commercial NUPENG drivers. He said the process to obtain a commercial driver’s license includes a full medical check-up including a psychiatric test. He said that at the end of the process, the corps will have the specific number and details of tanker drivers in Nigeria. “I want to tell the nation that within the next few months, we are going to see a kind of change; and we are also working from the resolution in Sokoto, we are targeting zero crash and I believe it is workable. We have resolved now that the drivers subject themselves to checks at the designated places,” he said. Mr. Oyeyemi said there will be a joint task force consisting of officials of the FRSC, NUPENG, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, Vehicle Inspection Officers, among others, to ensure compliance with its directive. The corps marshal said any tanker not installed with the speed limiting device by September 1 will not be allowed to load at any of the depots.
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