The NEWS (Monrovia)
11 November 2008
editorial
Last Wednesday, the government announced a reduction in transport fares following consultations with the transport union.
The reduction in transport fares was necessitated by the fall in petroleum price.
But there are indications that commercial drivers are stepping out of line by creating artificial scarcity of vehicles along certain routes thereby unnecessarily stranding commuters for hours.
In many instances, commuters would stand in queues for three to four hours without access to a bus or taxi.
Most drivers are refusing to ply certain routes because they feel that the readjusted fares along these routes are very low; as such, they are cutting short these routes in halves thereby inconveniently forcing commuters to make two journeys along a one journey route.
Commuters in the outskirts or suburbs of Monrovia are the hardest hit.
Such behavior by commercial drivers is unfair to commuters and an outright disregard for government's regulation and, therefore, unacceptable.
Drivers must understand that whenever petroleum price is increased commuters always take their share of the burden by paying increased transport fares. It is therefore fair that fares are reduced when petroleum price falls.
It should also be pointed out that the reduction in transport fares as we are informed was not done overnight in isolation, rather, the government approached the situation cautiously in partnership with the Transport Union to ensure that all stakeholders were satisfactorily onboard with the readjusted fares.
It is therefore morally wrong for drivers to create artificial scarcity of vehicles by refusing to ply certain routes after a consensus had been derived at over the fares.
We urge the Transport Union to taken note and advise their members accordingly.
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