The Federal Road Safety Corps has announced that it will begin the enforcement of minimum standards for petroleum tankers and trucks as from September 1, 2015.

It said after the deadline, all fuel tankers found not to have met the minimum safety standards would be prevented from loading petroleum products at depots.

The Corps Marshall, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi, said this in Lagos after a meeting with petroleum marketers, depot owners and petroleum tanker drivers associations.

He said, “Since May 31st, there have been unfortunate incidents all over the country involving petroleum tankers and trucks. This is why we engaged all stakeholders in a series of discussions towards a safe road culture.”

Oyeyemi identified a number of factors as responsible for accidents involving petroleum tankers and cargo trucks.

According to him, many petroleum tankers in Nigeria lack safety valves and as a result are prone to spill petroleum products whenever the tankers fall or overturn, resulting in loss of lives and property.

He recalled that the nation recorded about 16 tanker crashes last month; all due to brake failure.

He said about 90 per cent of the petroleum tankers and trucks on the road were over-aged and needed to be replaced.

Oyeyemi said, “If nothing is done urgently to address the current situation, there would be more crashes before the end of the year. To check the trend, we began the retraining of commercial drivers. This, we have almost completed. We are also opening licensing centres in Warri, Kaduna, Lagos and Suleja for the processing of commercial drivers’ licences. It would be the responsibility of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers to secure these licensing centres.”

Oyeyemi also called on all tank farm owners in the country to adopt a programming schedule for tankers so that they would not all go to Apapa at the same time to load petroleum products.

Other standards stakeholders were expected to adhere to were listed as the tagging and batching of trucks at loading points to avoid congestion on port access roads; the eradication of old and substandard trucks from the roads and the fixing of safety valves on petroleum tankers at the points of loading and discharge.

The Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, Mr. Olufemi Adewole, said the plan to install safety valves on petroleum tankers was initiated years ago but dropped because of the cost.

He however added that the Nigeria Association of Road Transport Owners would bear the cost of installing the safety valves on tankers in the country.

He said, “When a tanker is found to be substandard at a depot, it should be communicated to other depots electronically so that that same tanker doesn’t go to another depot to load products.

“The PTD should also ensure that tankers that are not scheduled to lift petroleum products for the day don’t come into Apapa.”

The Secretary, Depot Owners Ibafon/Apapa axis, Mr. Victor Enebeli, called on the government to repair the bad roads in Apapa.

He said accidents involving tankers and trucks were not usually caused by over speeding but bad roads.

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