Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Stop issuing threats, hasten process of fixing fares

Of late, there have been reports of the intentions of transport operators to increase fares, and the whole country is awaiting that.

However, reports reaching the Ghanaian Times have it that some commercial vehicle drivers in Accra (both trotro and taxi) have started charging new fares from the centre of the city to some of its suburbs.

Meanwhile, long-distance drivers are waiting for the process of increasing fares to end before introducing new fares.

The problem now is that the charging of the unapproved fares has resulted in confusion between the ‘erring’ drivers and their mates on one side and passengers on the other.

While the drivers insist on doing everything possible to collect the new fares, whether approved or not, some passengers are refusing to pay the fares because they have not been made official by way of approval from the appropriate authorities in the transport sector.

Much as the Ghanaian Times is not against an increase in fares, it is worried about the annual chaos associated with the increase, both before and immediately after it.

That means the front-liners in the matter have failed to learn lessons from the happenings regarding an increase in fares over the years.

There is no way even the government can stop the increase in fares since it has not been able to stop the hikes in the prices of vehicles and the inputs used in operating them.

Therefore, the best thing to do is to start planning for the increase in fares long before any groups of drivers or drivers’ unions start any move that can be counted against them.

Let everyone be honest and say that the delay in addressing issues that directly affect ordinary citizens, such as fixing transport fares, is unacceptable.

Besides, the show of power and authority in such matters must be discarded because it is provocative.

The Ghanaian Times thinks, for instance, that the Ministry of Transport should rather help to hasten the negotiation to increase fares than en-treat­ing the Ghana Police Service and other security agencies to be on the lookout for the arrest of any driver who flouts a directive to drivers not to increase fares, jointly issued by the Ministry of Transport, Ghana Private Road Transport Union, and Ghana Road Transport Coordinat­ing Council, which form the tripartite committee in the transport sector.

Statements like this tend to make those directed at them as well as others display some impunity or raise objections to taunt the power bearers, and this is exactly what is happening now.

The Concerned Drivers Association of Ghana (C-DAG) has called the bluff of the Ministry of Transport over its directive, insisting its members will charge their new fares because transport operators are not “charity organizations.”

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has also chided the Ministry over its directive, maintaining that the Ministry has no power to determine transport fares.

In addition, a former Department of Transport Minister, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, has challenged the Ministry’s authority to order the arrest of private transport drivers for increasing their fares because it lacks the mandate to do so.

It is about time principal stakeholders in the transport sector, particularly the Ministry of Transport did the needful about fixing transport fares to forestall chaos involving drivers, their mates, and passengers rather than issuing threats.