Despite the plan to commence the use of a digital call-up system to admit trucks into the Apapa ports, the corridor has been overtaken by heavy-duty trucks queuing up along to the corridor as at Friday morning.
The truck drivers blamed the traffic, which stretched from as far as Ijora through Flour Mills down to the ports, on the slow operations at the ports.
Some also say the security officers who are ‘managing’ the situation are not letting them pass as fast as they would want to.
A Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) security officer found at Area B Police Command Headquarters, explaining the reason for the traffic, said the trucks were not moving because they have to intermittently stop them to allow private vehicles to move.
The officer was inspecting the call-up paper slip of truck drivers at the time of speaking with our correspondent on condition of anonymity.
In a move to proffer a lasting solution to the menace of trucks causing gridlocks in Apapa, the Lagos State government and the leadership of the NPA planned to introduce a digital call-up platform for admitting trucks into the ports.
More succinctly put, from next Saturday, February 27, movement of trucks in and out of the Lagos seaports will now be organised through a transparent electronic call-up system that will be based on first-come-first-serve basis.
This means that with the new system, no container-laden truck is expected to go on Apapa corridor without clearance from the call-up platform. Any truck that flouts the electronic roster and park along Apapa corridor will be impounded by the Taskforce already set up by the Lagos State Government.
The development was disclosed, on Tuesday, when Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu received the NPA managing director, Hadiza Bala Usman, in audience at the State House, Alausa.
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But the truck drivers who are still at the Apapa corridor say they are not aware of the state’s plan.
“I am not aware of the call-up.” said a truck driver identified as Ifeanyi, from Emma Dunamix Investment Concept. “As of yesterday, my manager said we had a meeting with the police and NPA. But I don’t know if the meeting was related to the government’s plan.”
He said the traffic is also caused by the police from Barracks to Eleganza who intentionally who keep them there in a bid to extort money from them.
Lamenting about the traffic, Ifeanyi, 37, said he has been queuing up at the since yesterday, hence, for him, the electronic could be helpful.
“If they can do it, it will favour us because there many truck drivers who are not supposed to be here on this road, but they come and stay and cause traffic. So, I think it would help us reduce traffic,” the Rivers State-born said.
Ola, a staff of HOD Standard Logistics, who said he only heard about the digital platform this morning, from a colleague that the government does not want to see any truck on the road.
He said areas disturb them a lot and rob them of their possessions, while complaining that he has been in the traffic for three weeks without going home.
“I think it’s good because we can have time to rest,” he said, feeling optimistic.
Ola, however, added that the system may not be sustainable due as some people might try to circumvent it through bribery and corruption.
Though claiming not to be aware, another truck driver told BusinessDay that he is okay with the electronic plan because he is also feeling the traffic as he has been experiencing the traffic for four since he started coming to the port.
An officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps who confirmed the plan to introduce an electronic call-up system said they are working to help get the trucks off the roads before 4pm.
The NPA officer who spoke earlier said many of the drivers should be aware, because the owners of the trucks have been having meetings.
He also said the authorities have been creating awareness and by 4pm, they will start calling them. But on the impact the electronic call-up will have, he said:
“It’s a new system, we’ve not used it before. But I believe it will be better and we’re expecting good results from it.
