Chief Cyprian Arinze is Chairman/Chief Executive, Eagle Haulage Nigeria Limited, a major hauler. He speaks on the pros and cons of the haulage business in a recent interview:

Is haulage business regulated?

Haulage business is supposed to be a regulated business in the sense that there are bodies responsible for this regulation. We have the Nigerian Shippers’ Council; we have NARTO, and other several unions. But the outcome of these meetings has not been yielding the required dividends. Elsewhere, there are bodies that also regulate the operators and things work.

So, how then do operators manage to get things done?

The thing is that most people that make up these unions are not themselves operators in the true sense of the word and so they are not receiving the pains as it were.

I also want to heap part of the blames on the owner-operators themselves. This sounds self-indicting, but I must admit that the exposure among many of us as far as the business is concerned is still very low.

There are a few things that should naturally accrue to us as stakeholders in this sector because this is the whole essence of paying taxes and other such levies to the different agencies of government at all levels, but since we don’t seem to be organised as a union, we are not accessing these.

I strongly agree that it is only through the umbrella of a body that we can get these things. So, lack of effective leadership at the level of the union is affecting us.

Could you be more specific?

I’m not just talking as a fleet owner. I have been privileged to represent the country at truck conventions abroad, at Networking USA (NUSA), which holds in Dallas, USA, every first week in August. It is usually three days of intensive symposium, where we learn about corporate haulage, good road networks, maintenance culture, insurance, Goods In transit (GIT) to cover their goods, drivers’ attitude, etc.

We also visit big transporters abroad to see how things work. When we came back in 2007, we started sensitizing people on the benefits of taking an insurance policy and all that. When you contracted your policy in Nigeria, it is hard to make claims but I was able to sensitize other stakeholders.

With the best practice in USA, Canada and elsewhere one has been opportune to see, today, I’m very glad to tell you that 80 per cent of the major truckers I know now have GTI, unlike in the recent past.

When you get a contract to haul goods, what you do is that you go to the manufacturers who will customise the appropriate one for you. For instance, if the tonnage you require is 20, they won’t give you 40 and so on.

As long as they certify that contract, the manufacturers sell the vehicles to you on credit for you to be paying back gradually.

Here, it is not just possible because of a number of factors. There are no good roads anywhere. Unlike elsewhere, you can buy a brand new truck and expect it to remain in top shape for at least 15-20 years. But here, a brand new truck, if you are lucky, can serve only you for a maximum of three-four years because there are no adequately trained drivers. Kudos to Lagos State government, that has started training drivers now. But they are just pooling resources together as individuals unlike what obtains abroad where operators can readily access facility as and when due to drive their business.

What about the capital outlay to start a new haulage business?

It depends. But I believe that there must be days of little beginning. It depends on the vision of the operator. Like me, I started off with one truck but today we have over 200 and we have even diversified to clearing and forwarding and the rest of them just to be a one-stop shop for everything that has to do with haulage right from the port to your destination.

To start a haulage business, you need at least 10 trucks. You need to have trained drivers and you have to give your drivers customised training that suits the peculiarities of the business because in haulage business each client is different and as such should be treated on a case-by-case basis. You cannot therefore adopt a one-size fits all formula.

On steps owners can take to safeguard their investment

There are quite a few numbers of steps to take to curtail incidence of theft. What some of the major haulers do is to customise their tyres so that it cannot be sold elsewhere. Before you employ any driver, ensure to run a proper check on them and try to get a guarantor who can be held liable should anything untoward happen. And a guarantor, who doesn’t want his or her name to be tarnished, would ensure that the driver he or she is guaranteeing behaves above board.

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