The Aayalolo buses will continue to record more losses and will for a long while continue not to be a profitable venture for all who have invested money in this ‘square peg’ in a ‘round hole’.
Those who implemented this system of transportation really did not understand the Ghana we live in. They think life is just about having nice things. In case they are not aware let me remind them of many nice things that we ‘successfully’ didn’t take care of after they were put up.
Talk of the ‘Asumdwe’ Gardens where Atta Mills was buried to rest in peace; the Accra Sports Stadium after it was rehabilitated for CAN 2008; abandoned market centres that have been turned into naturally ventilated defecating zones.
And of cause in every region, there is the presence of a project that has been abandoned, nicely, and its documents are gathering dust on the shelves…and oh…not leaving out some 80 vehicles brought into the country close 20years ago and have not been used since.
These are just examples I’m giving of our ‘attitude’ but now permit me to move on to the meat of the matter.
The operators of the Aayalolo sort to implement a ‘time conscious’ system in a country that has no respect for time even when they are conscious. A country that has successfully invented its own way of time telling known as the Ghana Man Time.
A country that when someone tells you a programme begins 8 am, he means to say that, it will begin around 8; 8:30, getting to 9 by 10; 10:30 and latest by 11; 11:30 thereabout.
My point is, when your commuters, or in this case, your market base, are most likely to be among majority of the people who fail to tell the time although they wear watches and possess smartphones like some treasure they discovered on a mystery island, then it becomes a big problem for you to introduce a ‘time conscious’ system without first making the people conscious of it.
It seems whoever conducted the market survey, didn’t inform them that, many people tend to leave home two hours early just to reach work. Something that on a normal day can be completed in thirty minutes without traffic. That person would have told them that, aside traffic, the trotro drivers will park at very available bus stop along the way to ‘load’ more passengers.
The reason I have spent two paragraphs writing about time is that, if you design a system that is time dependent, then you must first have a stock of consumers that will use your product and pay for it (prepaid will be better, with limited time to use it) so that even when they do not make it in time, you still get your money.
As a result, it doesn’t become your headache if they make it or not. Also, another factor that contributes to making Aayalolo buses being unprofitable is that, the buses can only be assessed on major roads.
Meanwhile, the majority of their potential customers happen to commute from locations far from these areas and mostly get there already in a bus and will not find it economically beneficial to switch buses. In effect, there is a need for them to widen their market base, by reaching out to more areas.
By addressing this and many other things, the operators of Aayalolo can begin to see some net gain in their business for further expansion if they so wish.
It is also fair to state that, the Aayalolo buses offer some good services that if properly structured to fit into the system they find themselves, will be one of the most profitable transport systems in the country.
It is estimated that 70% of Ghanaians use trotro daily, and they are missing out on what could be a monopoly for them.
But before I end, let me ask this question: “Who at all at DVLA has been issuing Roadworthy Certificates to our trotro drivers?”
