Our Business Is Collapsing - Committed Drivers Association
As commercial drivers, we were very instrumental in bringing the current NDC government into power in the year 2008, when we were convinced that the erstwhile NPP administration had not handled issues bordering on our welfare, in the best of way.
The issues about unwarranted arrest, trials and speedy punitive punishments meted to our members, under the motor court system, was a great source of worry to us, and serious setback to our trade.
For that reason, we bought into promises made to us by then opposition NDC, in respect of fair treatment, and therefore voted for the party massively. We were even incensed by then NPP government’s decision to release our members from prisons, when it became clear they had lost the first round of voting and were on their way out.
But after buying into promises made to us by the NDC, we are now being treated worse than what we experienced under the NPP.For the last eight [8] that NDC has been in power, our plight have worsened and most of us have been virtually rendered jobless. The price of a gallon of petrol which was Ghc5 under the NPPadministration which we complained about, now sells at Gh17, prices of spare parts have shot through the roof, with general cost of operation beyond our reach.
For example, regulation 12 of road transport regulation act LI-218 which governs renewal of registration of vehicles, now mandates owners to do so every 6months for taxi/trotro, and 1year for private. Failure to do this will result in 12-penalty units or 1month in prison.
This indeed is the law and we do not have qualms about it.However, the mode of testing the road-worthiness of vehicles at DVLA is what we detest; in our view, it is just an avenue which has been created to extort money from vehicle owners.
Again, regulation 57 of RTRA act stipulates that Taxi and ‘Trotro’ cars fitted with LPG as source of fuel, if not originally done, but installed in Ghana, must be arrested.meanwhile,there are well-qualified and authorized installers in Ghana who render these services.
Now, most of the roads on which we apply our trade are no better; and this tend to destroy our car parts and increase our operational costs.it is particularly in this vein that we have decided to throw the spotlight on the matter today.
The president will be coming to the Ashaiman constituency and for that reason, theKlagon-Ashaiman stretch of road whose atrocious nature we have complained about for years, is now going to be graded. For all this years, our appeal for this stretch to be fixed have fallen on deaf-ears, with vital parts of our vehicles being damaged. So for this hurried attempt to be made to partially fix the road just because the president is coming to the area on a campaign tour, is a move we find completely unacceptable.
In effect, our plight under the NPP which we considered as difficult, have now become completely unbearable under the 8years of the NDC.Cost of operations have shot through the window and many of us have had our businesses totally grounded.
The decision we took in 2008 to massively vote for ndc,have now turned out to be a total disaster, and for that reason, we owe it as a duty to businesses, in particular, and socioeconomic advancements of our country in general, to make the right choice on 7th December,2016.
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