Following the astronomical increase in road toll by the government, commercial drivers plying along the Accra-Tema motorway and the Accra-Kasoa road have resorted to increasing the passenger fares, TODAY can report.
The paper gathered that the drivers charge as high as GH¢1.20p to GH¢1.50p in an effort to make profit in getting alternative monies to pay for the new road levies.
The situation is creating tension and squabbles among passengers and drivers who argue for long hours, sometimes resulting in skirmishes in the cars, and creating unnecessary traffic.
Some of the drivers who spoke to TODAY were not hesitant to confirm and emphatically held that they had to adopt alternative means of paying for the road tolls hence the need for the increment in the lorry fares.
“Madam, the road tolls are killing us; we cannot even break even for the day because we make more than 15 rounds within a day and during every run, we have to pay road tolls. We therefore decided to increase the passenger fares to make profit for our sales,” one of the drivers who gave his name as Paapa Kofi Adane told TODAY.
“The high increment in the road tolls has compelled us to charge extra fares so that we can also pay for the tolls as we move around town. Honestly it is too much for us; so we feel that we should also put part of the burden on the passengers,” Kwabena Charles, another tro-tro driver explained.
“Anything that goes on in the road and transport sector definitely affects transportation and vehicular movements so we think that passengers should help us pay our daily road tolls. That is all that we ask from passengers, as simple as that,” Kofi Adu, a taxi driver said.
“If the passengers want us to stop charging high lorry fares then they should tell the government to reduce the road tolls drastically or else we will also charge them exorbitant fares because this road toll has deepened our woes,” another driver lamented.
“Madam I am asking you to publish this in red ink that we are not going to reduce our passenger fares because we also need money for car maintenance and chop money,” Kwesi Asante, a tro-tro driver furiously submitted.
Some of the passengers in an interview with TODAY decried the situation and blamed government for the attendant effects of the increased road toll.
A passenger who gave his name as Richard Sarfo recalled one of such grubby circumstances between them and a driver when they were travelling from Circle to Tema.
He said: “On the 6th February, 2010, confusion broke out in one of these 207 Benz buses of which I was travelling to Tema. I was asked to pay GH¢1.00 when as a matter of fact they should be charging 80p. So we the passengers in the bus objected to that so at a point the driver had to park somewhere for the matter to be resolved before we continued our journey.”
The passenger, Mr Amoah Kofi noted, was just coming from Tema and the fare he paid was 95 pesewas, and that he could not understand why he should be paying GH¢1 since the driver was going to use the same route.
The drivers’ mate refused to agree and told the latter that that was a different vehicle he boarded, adding that the extra 5 pesewas he is charging was what will enable them pay the toll.
However, the explanation the mate gave irritated the rest of the passengers who had to physically attack him for their change.
STORY: EMELIA N. A. ARYEE, INTERN, PIJ