President Akufo-Addo has lifted restrictions in the transport sector by allowing commercial vehicles to revert to full capacity intake of passengers.
He made this announcement during his 14th address to the nation on measures taken against the spread of coronavirus by his administration.
According to the president, the decision was arrived at after being in consultation with the Ministries of Transport and Aviation and the leadership of transport operators. President Akufo-Addo’s decision also includes domestic airplanes.
He however iterated the significance in maintaining all precautionary and adherence to safety protocols by all and sundry.
“The wearing of masks in vehicles and aircraft, and the maintenance of enhanced hygiene protocols, remain mandatory”.
Akufo-Addo
Background
President Akufo-Addo in March announced in March revised the full intake of passengers in commercial vehicles as a precautionary measure in preventing the spread of the virus.
In accordance with the directive, transport operator after deliberations with the Ghana Private Transport Union (GPRTU), in March, announced some measures to ensure social distancing among passengers in commercial vehicles.
Commercial vehicle operators were subsequently asked to reduce the number of passengers they carry in March after consultations with their unions.
Complaints about transport fares
Commercial drivers lamented over their inability to make sales as a result of the reduction in passengers and as a result transport fare were later increased to help mitigate the loss incurred by transport operators.
The national vice-chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Mr.Robert Sarbah subsequently appealed to the transport minister to either revise the transportation fares or allow drivers to resume with the normal intake of passengers in a vehicle, as the policy is causing undue financial strain on them.
“We think that we should appeal to the minister for us to pick the complete number of passengers so that we take maybe the old fare. In the absence of this, we cannot continue to be losing”.
Robert Sarbah
“We must petition the transport minister, our members are seriously agitating that they want to increase the lorry fare by themselves. We’ve been able to prevail upon them to suspend that in view of we getting a petition to the minister and see what the minister can do. We have given a timeline up to Wednesday, in case we do not hear anything, and we’ve done what we could do by also assisting to ensure that this COVID do not spread”.
He intimated that, the elimination of a passenger affects them in an enormous way, as the policy has changed everything, he said, “we are greatly losing …the lorry fare came with the number of passengers that we were taking previously and the number has reduced, and therefore by simple calculation everybody will know that we are losing, we cannot break even and this is why we said we need to increase the lorry fare”.
Transport fare increment
On Saturday, July 11, following an agreement between the government and transport operators in respect of the reduction of passengers in public transport a 15 percent increase in transport fares was agreed on.
The transport operators had proposed an increment of 50 percent with the explanation that they were making losses. But following a meeting with the government on Tuesday, a 15 percent increment was approved.
