This news came at a time when most commuters in the Kombos have long cried over unjustified exploitation by greedy drivers on our roads. While fare increment is the talk of the town, it would be amazing as the price for litre of both Petrol and Diesel have dropped recently.
Most commuters struggle to get transport to and from work on a daily basis. Some even suffer a great deal, as going to work has become a nightmare for them in view of the difficulty associated with it.
According to the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure following consultations among various stakeholders, an agreement has been reached to increase the transport fares for all official routes across the country, effective 20 January 2023.
In the same vein, an agreement has been reached to adopt a new tariff for the transportation of containers across the country. This gesture is in fulfilment of the agreement reached with the General Transport Union and the Port Transporters Association, it stated.
However, this fare increment would impact negatively on many people, as salaries and wages in The Gambia are very low and too little to even support workers. It is unlikely that this increase, like the ones that have preceded it, will do nothing to improve either efficiency or service on our roads.
The high the cost of transportion in the country in the recent past leaves much to be desired. Some of this increment is fuelled by greedy drivers even though the pump price for both fuel and diesel has dropped in the country.
However, the statement added that as a condition for the implementation of transport fare increment and the new tariffs, route licensing will be introduced for various destinations across the country. This route licensing is a scheme that allows vehicles to register and ply a particular route. However, the Route License Scheme, which if implemented is intended to ease the burden of transportation on commuters as it will help abolish the payment of multiple fares by commuters. But, we’ve seen in the past how some drivers defied rules that don't favour them.
The Government through the Ministry should take a firm stance to end this unnecessary exploitation of commuters.
Lest we forget that effective transport infrastructure is critical to the overall development of nations. And free movement of people is a key in that regard.
For far too long, commuters in urban Gambia have been yearning and continue to face endless hardships and exploitation at the hands of greedy and merciless private drivers on our roads. Government should look into the difficulties commuters face for God's sake.