Dr Alban Igwe, Member, United Nations Committee on Trade and Transport Location, has described as not feasible, nationwide ban on movement of articulated vehicles at daytime.

Igwe made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.

NAN reports that the Senate recently began a legislative action on a bill seeking to ban movement of lorries, tankers and trailers during daytime.

The Bill for an Act to Amend the Federal Road Safety Commission (Establishment) Act, 2007, to Restrict the Daytime Movement of Heavy-Duty Vehicles and for Related Matters was sponsored by Sen. Ned Nwoko (Delta North).

If the bill is passed into law and assented to, there will be nationwide ban on movement of articulated vehicles from 6.00 a.m. to midnight, except in emergencies.

Igwe said that the bill, if passed into law, would destroy businesses.

He said that Nigeria did not need that kind of bill yet.

“This bill is not feasible. We should ask ourselves where the trucks will come from.

“If it is coming from a seaport, it means it will take at least two hours to leave the port, and at midnight, the port would have closed.

“If eventually it leaves the port at night, what happens to the safety and security of the truck, goods and the driver, considering the state of our roads,” he asked.

He added that, with poor state of some roads and port access roads not properly lit, movements at that time could lead to fall of trucks.

He said that the fall would cause road blocks for a period because transport managers and towing vans did not operate by midnight.

“If we assume the road is smooth and everything is working, it will take many hours for the truck to get to its destination.

“ If it is going to Owerri, for instance, it means the vehicle will stop somewhere, and if it stops, on whose account.

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“ The cost of doing business will be very high because the truck that will do a job for one day will now do it for three days.

“There will also be an idle time – the 18 hours the truck is not allowed to work. Then, the driver is hanging somewhere, maybe drinking.

“All this will be charged on the shipper – the time wasted and any incident on the road,” he said.

According to Igwe, before such a bill can be introduced, rail lines and roads have to be properly fixed.

“If the rail is fixed and it picks it from Lagos and drops it in Port Harcourt, for instance, maybe the truck can do the last leg of the job,” he said.

Igwe said that lawmakers should rather enact a bill to make it illegal for the federal and state governments to subject people’s lives to danger by not fixing roads.

“They should ensure that drivers do not take alcohol so they can drive normally.

“They should also say that every truck must be fit to ply the roads.

“All these are ways to prevent fall of trucks,” Igwe told NAN.

He added that there should be a regulation on container strapping.

“All the environmental pollution and the risk to the masses should be regulated.

“There should be strict regulations on transport,” he urged.

He called for a national policy on transport to facilitate the development of the sector.