The Federal Government’s plan to ban 60,000-litre capacity tankers from highways because of the rising cases of accidents involving fuel tankers could cost tanker owners N300 billion investments, the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) has warned.
NARTO President, Yusuf Othman, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday, blamed bad road conditions and driver-related factors for the accidents. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) announced last week that the government was considering restricting the capacity of every fuel truck to 45,000 litres to reduce cases of explosions.
The NMDPRA had put in place other safety measures, including the installation of anti-spill safety valves in tanker trucks, public sensitisation against scooping at accident scenes, and regular stakeholders’ meetings, among others. However, Othman explained that some of these investments were being financed by the commercial banks, while some were personal investments of the tanker owners.
He said: “Every truck owner is an investor and every investment is done with a view to getting a return. “We have about 2,000 trucks worth about N150 million each, which is about N300 billion. “It will not be fair for them to go down the drain; we are trying to see if there is a winwin situation.
“We all are not happy with the recent development that led to loss of lives and we pray that it will not be repeated. It’s a monumental loss, as well as a monumental loss of investments. “However, as much as we appreciate the concern of the public and government in this respect, we believe that the 60,000-litre tanker capacity is not the cause of the accidents because the weight is on the back axle.
In such an accident, people rush to start scooping and in the process of doing that an explosion occurs.” The group appealed to the government to consider a buyback policy to help the investors, if it wishes to phase out completely the usage of 60,000 litres tanker capacity in the distribution of petroleum products.
