Workplace safety:‎ NUPENG PTD assures minimal road accidents

Sequel to the 5-week intensive training of tanker drivers‎ by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), The National Chairman, Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) Branch, Comrade Sulaimon.A.Oladiti has assured road users that there will be a significant reduction of tanker accidents in the country.

Speaking to journalists‎ after the training, Oladiti confirmed that the union has been able to train1500 drivers in Lagos and 4500 nationwide‎.

“The intention of the union is to reduce tanker accident in Nigeria, we are Aiming a zero accident campaign because we want to save lives and property.”

“For the drivers, apart from their business which is driving, what can help them is their family in staying alive. Our members are very dedicated to their job.”

Oladiti also confirmed that talks are ongoing to ensure an improved welfare package for tanker drivers.

“The salary review for tanker drivers is different from the national minimum wage‎. We have a collective agreement with tanker owners under the umbrella of NATO. We are working interwovenly.

“Let’s not forget the issue of freight rate, if there is no increase, I’m telling you that most tanker owners will abandon their trucks. As we speak, a tanker tyre is now 110,000 naira‎. How can the owner make his money if there is no review of freight rate? It is a matter of must if government wants the products to be available everywhere.”

Chairman, NUPENG, Lagos Chapter‎, Comrade Tokunbo Korodo, ‎said, “The primary objective of this exercise is to ensure a reduction in tanker acidents on the highway to the bearest minimum so that the era of accidents and carnages that claim lives and property will be a thing of the past. We want to maintain a zero accident level for tanker drivers. We have achieved a lot with this training; the drivers now know that they have to give right of way to other road users so they won’t be seen as the king of the rod at all time. They shouldn’t be intimidating other road users.”

“So far, we have been able to impact some level of discipline into the activities of some tanker drivers especially those that have attended the training. We have a very large number of tanker drivers in the system. For this first quarter of the year, we have been able to train 4500 tanker drivers while in Lagos zone, we have trained 1500.

“These are part of training impacted on them by the federal road safety corps, vehicle inspection officers and other relevant government agencies.

Korodo, futher stressed that, “We are in a good relationship with FRSC, Lastma, VIO nationwide and they are part of the team that have trained the tanker drivers. Before now, some of the officers see tanker drivers as enemies but with this training, we have been able to build a synergy between concerned parties.

“The challenges we face is our large organisation‎. With the number of tanker drivers we have in the system, it will take us a long time before we are able to train them all. The number of drivers we have trained in lagos zone, last year we trained 900. This year, we have increased it to 1500 making a total of 2400. If you look at the number of tanker drivers in lagos zone alone, they are more than that. After this set, we will go on a short break, return and assemble another new sets of tanker drivers. When a tanker driver is trained once, he cannot be trained again so we can be able to effectively train and enlighten all drivers.”

“Time is also a challenge and the current economic recession but we shall overcome.”Korodo said.