The Deputy Transport Minister, Daniel Titus-Glover has described the increment in transport fares pegged at 30% by some section of the drivers’ union as illegal.
According the deputy minister, the Ministry wants drivers indulging in the charging of the 30 percent increment to desist from the extra charges as there hasn’t been any conclusive agreement on it.
He said, “It is illegal because any time they want this increment, it is in this room, in this Transport Ministry, that all parties come to sit and we agree on new fares”.
Daniel Titus-Glover
The Concerned Drivers Union on Monday, July 6, 202 increased its transport fares by 30 percent, following the increase in fuel prices. However, a day after the 30% increment in transport fares, the government approved a proposal from transport operators to increase transport fares by 15 percent.
In commenting on the approved transport rates Mr. Titus-Glover indicated that his outfit considers “all the indicators and see whether the request that they are making is legit or not.”
Ignoring the Ministry’s position on the transport increment issue, the leadership of the Concerned Drivers Union remains defiant by sticking to the 30 percent increment.
The Vice-Chairman of the group, David Agboado said, “we will take our 30 percent that we have already set and nothing but the 30 percent because when you see the number of passengers we are taking, we are losing and prices of spare parts are up and fuel prices are up.”
Increase fare or resume normal intake of passengers
Meanwhile, on July 2, 2020, the national vice-chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Mr.Robert Sarbah 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.
Speaking in an interview, the vice-chairman of the transport union said, “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”.
The appeal follows demands by drivers for fares to be adjusted to cater for revenue loss due to a slash in passenger numbers, and in compliance with social distancing protocol.
He argued that, drivers commuting from Kaneshie to Takoradi are experiencing the pain of loss as the stress of vehicle maintenance compounds the already dire situation of these drivers.
“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”.
Mr.Robert Sarbah
