Comply To Towing Services To Prevent Accidents – Transport Operators told

The deputy General Secretary in charge of Operations at the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Mr. Yaw Amankwah, has advised transport operators to comply with the new towing policy, which is supposed to commence on October 17, 2022. 

The Road Safety Management Services implemented the towing service’s policy in partnership with GPRTU in August 2022.

According to Mr Amankwah, the initiative will save lives since the tow will be used to clear vehicles at fault on the roads.

The sensitisation was aimed at ensuring the smooth implementation of the policy in the Northern Region.

According to Mr. Amankwah, “all transport operators, especially GPRTU members, must abide by the laws and embrace the road towing service and passenger manifest regime to ensure safety”.

He added that “vehicles that break down on the roads would, thus, be towed to a safe place to ensure sanity and clarity of the roads”.

“As we speak, we have signed an agreement with a company to supply us with the equipment that we will use for the project,” Mr. Amankwah said, and that all was set for the exercise to take off.

At the meeting also was the Northern Regional Industrial Relations Officer of GPRTU, Alhaji Salifu Mashud, who also described the sensitisation exercise as “laudable as the towing services would be beneficial to drivers”.

He said the “leadership of the GPRTU would move to the various lorry hubs to create awareness on the exercise to ensure all drivers understood it for a successful implementation”.

Background

It will be recalled that in August 2022, there was a notification by the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) indicating that all vehicles under the union will be mandated to subscribe to a towing system to enable the management of GPRTU to clear their disabled cars from the roads.

In the statement, the GPRTU indicated that this intervention policy is being done in collaboration with the Road Safety Management Services (RSMS) to help drivers and to save the lives of drivers and passengers.

It has been noted that the unusable vehicles on the roads sometimes contribute to accidents on the road.

Again, payment for the service will benefit the car owners since it saves them time and the cost of going for help to clear their vehicles on the roads themselves.