By Fasipe Sadiq Akinseku
The densely populated city of Lagos with one of the smallest landscapes in the country some years back find solace in bike hailing as a means of reaching a destination quickly thereby saving time, and stress but not resources because it cost more in most cases to move on the bike. One major setback was the crime rate and life-consuming accidents that came with that unregulated sector. When Gokada and other companies came in with the aim of solving the problem of regulation through a platform where riders can be traced, prices can be regulated, behavior (alcoholism) of riders can be monitored, Lagosians heaved a sigh of relieve. When in the year 2022, the Lagos State Government and its stakeholders decided to ban bikes, many of these companies bite their fingers because of the resources and investment at stake not to talk of thousands of breadwinners who will lose their jobs.
Lagos as a state of commerce, in most cases, human vehicular movement is necessitated by the need to move goods, when most of these companies realized this, they moved into logistics delivery, to transport goods rather than humans but with the same safe way and procedure especially as laid down by the government. Businesses have thrived with these model; the bikes have served as the middleman between buyers and purchasers.
One other thing that hailing companies escaped from during operation was incessant harassment and double taxation by the louts, code name “local govt boys” or “Lagos State task force “. The unconventional riders have had to deal with this. Since bikes were banned and logistic companies came into operation, they have now become the new green pasture for these boys.
It’s noteworthy to say that evidence provides that bikes now have more paper than cars, which literally means that logistic deliveries company pays more for their bikes to ply on the road. A typical rider in Lagos for example needs: I) a Riders card ii) a Driver’s license iii) Road worthiness iv) Hackney permit v) LG Paper vi) MOT vii) LASSA viii) mid-year ix) JTB and many more they are introducing on a regular basis. Ikorodu also stops riders for Goods Only and Bye Pass when bikes are not bypassing to other states and necessary need not use Ikorodu or any border local govt to access streets for the delivery operations.
Last mile bike deliveries company eyes have seen “Shege pro max” in this Lagos most especially in the hand of area boys being used as an enforcement agent who cannot even read or write, they stop bikes to ask for unnecessary papers even outside their scope just to extort rider.
As a fleet management professional with vast experience in land, rail, and waterways logistics and transport management, I joined a last-mile delivery company last year and going through the fleet running expenses, I was able to discover that the cost of documentation in putting a commercial bike on the road is higher than commercial buses, trucks, vans, cars, etc and this is killing the business.
It’s high time that professional bodies like CIOTA, CILT, or the Ministry of Transport look critically into the bike delivery regulations because there are no regulatory bodies controlling or setting standards on the documents needed by a bike delivery company to run or operate.
Fasipe Sadiq Akinseku, Aciota,Mnim, writes from Ogijo.
