Abbas Imoro, a spokesman for the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, believes the recent 20 percent increase in lorry fees across the country is long overdue.
Given the recent increase in gasoline costs and the rising cost of living, he believes it is only right that commercial drivers, who have carried much of the financial load over the years, be partially alleviated by the increase in fees.
He pointed out that the Union had only considered the increase in petroleum product prices to make the adjustment, even though the cost of replacement parts and lubricants had also skyrocketed in recent months.
Abbas Imoro, speaking on JoyNews' PM Express, indicated that the Union had anticipated the government to do more to halt the increase in petroleum product prices, but that they had no alternative but to apply their upward adjustment due to recent price increases, particularly in diesel.
He stated that previous attempts to convince the administration to sit down for talks had failed, prompting them to take action now.
"If my memory serves me well, we came up with a 15% upward adjustment on the 12th of February, and in the communiqué that came out, we mentioned over there in the second line that the threshold of 10% on fuel, if it hits 10%, we'll come up with another upward adjustment."
We mentioned 8.8, which means that if it increases from 7.99 to 8.8, we'll make another upward adjustment.
"I believe it was in March that the threshold reached 10.80, and on the 17th of March we wrote to the Transport Ministry stating our intention of coming up with another upward adjustment, and in that letter, we stated a meeting between GPRTU and the Transport Ministry, which as of now has received no response," he said.
Despite the radio silence on the letters addressed to the Ministry requesting a stakeholders meeting, he stated that the Union has been in contact with several important individuals within the Ministry to ensure that the meeting takes place.
He is sure, however, that the GPRTU will reverse its upward adjustment. According to him, the situation has reached a point where the Ministry has no choice but to act.
"If you look at managerial decisions or the way the system works, they could have at least acknowledged receipt of that letter," says the author. "But behind the letter, we've been communicating with them, trying to make sure we sit down and solve that problem because we felt it was even overdue for us to come up with an upward adjustment, and each time we agree on a date and time, it's being postponed."
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