The Road Safety Management Service Limited (RSMSL) in partnership with the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) of the Trade Union Congress has sensitized transport owners in the Tamale metropolis on the mandatory national towing service.
The exercise was to create the awareness of transport owners and professional drivers in the northern region and educate them on the punitive sanctions for disobedient individuals.
The Road Traffic Regulation, L.I 2180, stipulate the establishment of a national towing service to promptly remove breakdown vehicles on the country’s major roads.
The Industrial Relations Officer of GPRTU, Alhaji Salifu Mashud in an interview told the CUSTODIAN Online any transporter who refuses to register his or her vehicle would be prosecuted when found.
He stated all vehicle owners are to register their vehicles at their respective branches, locals and regional secretariats throughout the country.
THE CUSTODIAN has learned Taxi cabs will be towed at GHS50, mini buses at GHS80, 33 to 52-seater buses at GHS300 and articulator trucks GHS500 per annum.
Alhaji Mashud disclosed the GPRTU in addition to the towing service will be training about three thousand of its members nationwide on driver emergency response to manage injuries and accidents as part of efforts to reduce the risk of accidents.
He noted the union would engage accredited training institutions to deliver the required training for the members and maintained this will go a long way to reduce or minimize road accidents in Ghana.
Whilst addressing members of GPRTU on Monday, October 17, 2022, the Industrial Relations Officer added, “We are here today to sensitize you on how to go through the short codes so that after registering, you will then come to the regional secretariat for a sticker to put on your vehicle, so that on the highway, nobody will try to intimidate or harass you but without the sticker, they can effectively arrest you and prosecute you for refusing to do the mandatory towing service levy.”
Background
The Road Safety Management Service Limited (RSMSL) in 2013 signed an agreement with the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) pursuant to L.I 2180 to tow broken down vehicles while motorists paid a mandatory levy.
However, the move to operationalize the contract generated a public outcry compelling the RSMSL to suspend its activities despite that at the moment the company had imported 118 towing trucks into the country.
