Truckers under the aegis of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) have declared full support for the renewal of the contract of Truck and Transit Park Limited (TTP), the operator of the electronic call-up system (ETO), insisting that its continuation is crucial for sustaining sanity, transparency and dignity in port logistics operations.

In a letter addressed to the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, AMATO opposed recent calls to terminate TTP’s contract.

The truck owners alleged that such agitation is being driven by promoters of the former manual call-up regime and beneficiaries of the notorious Apapa–Tin Can gridlock, who profited from disorder and extortion along port corridors.

According to the letter signed by the association’s Secretary General, Mohammed Bala, Apapa and Tin Can were previously characterised by chaotic traffic before the introduction of the ETO system.

Truckers reportedly paid up to N350,000 to access the ports and spent weeks or even months in queues to complete a single trip. The association added that drivers suffered severe exhaustion, with some reportedly dying behind the wheel due to the harsh and chaotic environment.

“Apapa became a ghost town, with businesses collapsing under the weight of the gridlock. The ports suffered extreme congestion and unacceptable cargo dwell time compared to global standards. Access roads became refuse dumps and open spaces for bathing and defecation due to truckers trapped endlessly in traffic. This shameful situation enriched a few powerful actors who thrived on chaos,” the letter stated.

AMATO stressed that the introduction of the electronic call-up system by the NPA and operated by TTP has significantly improved port logistics, emphasising that access to Apapa and Tin Can ports now occurs within days at affordable rates, while gridlock has largely disappeared, and businesses are recovering.

The group highlighted that turnaround time has improved, cargo dwell time has been reduced, while drivers no longer sleep on bridges and roads, with truckers also booking call-up slots conveniently from their homes or offices.

AMATO urged the NPA to ignore calls discouraging contract renewal and instead strengthen the ETO system by integrating e-tags into the platform, adopting the Truck Manifest Scheduler System to regulate truck movement between the pregates and port terminals without trucks spilling over on port access roads, improve terminal operational efficiency and eliminate extortion and multiple checkpoints that create artificial traffic bottlenecks.

“We consider correspondence to end the ETO system contract of TTP as self-serving, detrimental to national economic interest, and a direct threat to the progress recorded in port access management,” the truckers stated.