Enforce ban on sale of alcohol at stations - unions

Cape Coast, Jan. 11, GNA - Mr Robert Mensah, Station Master of the Tantri branch Number One Station in Cape Coast, on Thursday appealed to the Cape Coast Municipal Assembly to empower the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to ban the operation of drinking bars in and around lorry stations in the municipality.

Mr Mensah, who made the appeal in an interview with the GNA at Cape Coast, said the GPRTU and the various stationmasters had not been given any mandate to enforce the law banning the operation of drinking bars around the stations.

He said his outfit only heard an announcement about the ban but that no official from the Assembly had come to enforce it and hinted that executive members of the GPRTU and the stationmasters at Tantri Station would be meeting on Friday January 12, to discuss the issue. Mr Mensah said currently there were five drinking bars operating around the station including one inside the station and stressed that the operations of the bars was hampering their work since some drivers sneak there to drink.

He said, however, that a number of measures including outright dismissal had been put in place to deter drivers from drink-driving, adding that if a driver was caught drinking, he would not be allowed to load from the station and that in some cases the driver could be suspended for three months or more.

The unions at Abura, Pedu and Kotokuraba stations have, however, banned the sale of alcoholic beverages at the lorry stations to help stem drink driving and its consequences.

A visit to those stations revealed that most of them had no drinking spots operating.

When contacted the Abura GPRTU local secretary, Mr Zack Afful said the various unions had met and resolved to disallow the sale of alcoholic drinks at the stations and therefore even though they had been approached several times by some people to operate such businesses at the stations they did not allow them.

He said occasionally the Motor Traffic and Transport Union (MTTU) of the Police Service also met them to educate them on the issue and that they were now very alert on transport rules and regulations and were doing their best to enforce them, adding that as a human institution, there were some recalcitrant drivers who still flouted the rules.

Mr Afful said such drivers were disciplined when caught and those who refused to budge were expelled from the stations. At Pedu, the chairman of the Cooperative Transport Union, Mr Emmanuel Ghartey also said the union had discouraged the sale of alcohol at the station and would continue to ensure that their drivers were disciplined.

He said the drivers were educated on neatness, traffic laws and the effects of overloading and said the education was impacting positively on them and expressed the hope that very soon things would change in the transport business for the better.