Tanker Drivers Union at the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) depot at Buipe in the Savannah Region have embarked on a sit-down-strike indefinitely.
This was made known on 7th September, 2020 at a press conference by the union at the BOST depot over what its members described as “inconsistent loading metres”.
According to the secretary of the tanker drivers union, Mr. Mohammed Aziz, the loading metres do not give accurate figures or measurements of the product lifted by the drivers, which results in mistrust between them and owners of tankers.
“In fact, the issue we are facing here is about loading metres. The loading metres are not consistent. I mean they flactuate. It does not give accurate figures or measurements. So anytime we have problem at our delivery point. Because anytime a truck is loading, you will only get product not up to the capacity you are expected”, the secretary said.
He added;
“We are telling the authority, whoever is responsible to come and fix the metres. Several letters have been written. The operations manager was here last year. But, nothing has happened. They only give us promises upon promises. We want them to change the metres”.
The Drivers believe the only way to resolve this problem is to fix the problem or replace the obsolete metres with new ones, adding this can only lead to “fair play”.
“So that we don’t cheat the depot, neither will the depot cheat us who are here to lift the product. That is why we are on sit down strike today”, Mr. Aziz stated.
The Buipe depot is the central fuel holding point of BOST serving the Savana, Northern, North-East, Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana.
It receives products through river barges (via the Volta Lake) and through Bulk Road Vehicles, BRVs loaded from the Accra Plains depot of BOST.
If the strike by the drivers continue till next week, fuel shortage will hit the five (5) northern regions.
Meanwhile, a close source at the BOST office in Accra available to indicates that the metres are being fixed at all BOST depots across the country.
But, terminal manager of BOST, Mr. Frank Ameyibor, who was at the Buipe depot at the time of press conference by the tanker drivers told the journalists his office will react to the concerns by the drivers at the appropriate time.
Source: nkilgifmonline.com
