MTTU advise Car Rentals Association not to abuse number plates

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - The Police Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) on Friday advised members of the Car Rentals Association of Ghana (CRAG) not to misuse trade number plates assigned to them by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Samuel Odame of the MTTU who gave the advice noted that the trade number plates in Ghana are the licence vehicle number plates usually labelled DV or DP issued temporarily to vehicle owners before they are offered licenses. He said the regulations guiding the use of the number plates bar vehicles carrying them from weddings or funerals and asked executives and members of CRAG to ensure compliance with the directives. ASP Odame gave the advice during a handing over and swearing-in ceremony of the executives of the Association in Accra. "The MTTU arrested a couple last month for using a rented vehicle with a trade number plate for their wedding," he said. He said the road and traffic regulations were there to protect Ghanaians from avoidable road accidents and recalled the worst road accidents during the first quarter of the year as compared to the records of the whole of last year.

"There were 516 deaths due to road accidents in the first quarter of the year and 332 deaths in the second quarter, while the country recorded 1,520 deaths the whole of last year."

ASP Odame also advised the association to educate their members to have the right road worthy certificate, explaining that while private vehicles were required to renew their certificate once a year, car rental business owners were obligated to do so twice a year. Mr Kofi Ghansah, the new President of CRAG, said the association would create a platform to make it easy for members to access information about their business and stressed that training would be the focus of the new executive in the coming years.

"My immediate vision is to search for new opportunities that will be beneficial to our members and to advocate improved or sustainable high standards of professionalism in the tourism industry."

Mr Ghansah promised to continue with the work of his predecessors to place CRAG at a level that the tourism industry would see as a force to reckon with.

Mrs Bridget Katsriku, Vice Chairman of the Public Services Commission, who chaired the ceremony, expressed the hope that the new executives would consolidate the gains already achieved by the past executives.

She said tourism was a combination of services like restaurants, car rentals and hotels and called for collaboration among all sectors of the tourism industry.

Mrs Katsriku lauded the smooth transition from one set of executive members to the other and said that was an example of democracy. "Democracy gives opportunity for everybody to participate in decision that affects him or her," she said. Mr David Nana Anim, past president of CRAG, promised to offer advice to the new executive members to ensure that the association continued to grow in strength and number.