THE IMPERATIVES OF STRATEGIC TANKER FLEET STANDARDISATION

Maintaining a large fleet of commercial vehicles may no longer be sexy among the National Association of Road Transport Owners; NARTO as was the case prior to 28 July 2008, when it was the dominant goal of virtually all road transport service providers. Following the relapse of the Nigerian railways and the failure of successive administrations to revive it, the road mode was seen as the only option available for mass transit and haulage. Nigerians expected the road transport units to perfectly replace the railway units in terms of capacity, cheapness, and availability and at the same time surpass it in terms of speed and flexibility. Considering the traditionally high demand for transport in Africa and the lack of preparedness on the part of the Nigerian road sector to accommodate this surge in passenger and freight traffic, the existing facilities were literally over-stretched.

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As a response to this pressure, the federal and state governments engaged in extensive road construction projects and provision of mass transit vehicles, while the private sector who are the major stakeholders in the industry engaged in the procurement of fleets of vehicles both for mass transit and for haulage. This development was hailed among gullible transport operators and transport service consumers as the best approach to putting the nation on wheels.

The large fleet syndrome rhymed with normalization for the masses of the people who subscribed to the variety of services and opportunities it provided: urban mass transit, inter-state and long distance passenger and freight transport, employment opportunities, and perceived economic well-being. The eagerness of road transport operators to pursue the goal of providing various combinations of these service options was predicated on the hope that they, for the first time, would decide the fate of this nation as far as mobility is concerned.

In the past, long distance travels by road suffered very low patronage because of the overwhelming advantages of rail transport. By the late 1970s, the travails of Nigerian railways began. As the fortunes of the railways dwindled, the road alternative with its resultant large fleet suddenly became appealing. Among its features were flexibility, speed, reduction in the excess capacity consistent with the railways, growth in entrepreneurship, and rapid development of allied industries.

About thirty years on, maintenance of large fleet of commercial vehicles, particularly of Tankers and Trailers, has gradually lost its appeal in Nigeria. Obviously it has failed to deliver the goods. Service standards have neither improved nor the people’s demand for efficiency, safety, and environmental performance been satisfied. As reported at the Stakeholders’ meeting on Safety of Tankers and Trailers in Nigeria organized by the Federal Road Safety Commission on 28 July 2008, the inordinate desire for large fleet of tankers and trailers has encouraged the manufacture of tanker and trailer units which fall below the approved standards of the Nigerian Industrial Standard; NIS. It has also promoted the lack of compliance process to certify imported or manufactured trailers and fuel tankers to NIS approved standard. The neglect for regular re-certification process, precisely of fuel tankers after deployment for operational use, coupled with high equipment failure, and high fatalities and injuries was also traced to this misguided demand for more of these articulated vehicles.

Besides the corner-cutting tendencies of our road hauliers, the failure of standardization in the manufacture of tanker and trailer units has other causes. The number of manufacturing outfits for tanker and trailer units in Nigeria is uncountable. There is a high concentration of these fabricators along the roadsides of our major highways. Anyone who has traveled along the Lagos-Ibadan, Aba-Port Harcourt, Onitsha-Owerri, Asaba- Benin, Kano-Kaduna, and other Expressways in Nigeria can attest to the fact that these welders, who manufacture the tankers that wobble along our highways conveying several thousand litres of highly flammable cargo, carry out their nefarious operations with facilities that rank among the poorest in quality control standards. The fact that they have continued to flood the tanker market with their substandard products and have become brazen about the whole affair, means that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria; SON has been asleep.

It is pertinent to note here that the NIS529: 2006 is a Reference Standard Specification for bulk road vehicles. Bulk road vehicles comprise vehicles for carrying petroleum products such as Premium Motor Spirit; PMS, Automotive Gas Oil; AGO, Dual Purpose Kerosene; DPK, and other bulk cargo. The role of the SON here begins with Inspection of in-coming raw materials for tanker and trailer manufacturing, followed by Enforcement of design specification, In-process inspection, Final inspection and Testing, and ends with Marking and Certification. It has been observed globally that tanker manufacturers when restricted to standard design specifications come out with tankers that rank among the best in terms of tank gravity, tank shapes, tank compartments, tank manholes, piping system, foot valves, overfill protection, tank interlocks, delivery couplings and all that has to do with best practices in tanker manufacturing and safety. It is very unfortunate that SON should play the big culprit in an area as sensitive as this.

The operators of the oil industry in Nigeria are outstanding in their efforts to uphold safety standards, at least, within their working environment. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; NNPC, the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company; PPMC, and the Directorate of Petroleum Resources; DPR are, no doubt, leaders in the industry. Is it possible then that the NNPC, PPMC, and the DPR are ignorant of the global best practices for tanker operations? For them to prove that they are aware of these standards, they should quickly withdraw the licenses of these substandard tankers that load from their depots. A documentary on standard Hatch and Dome Cover for tankers shows that if the standard locking devices and latches on dome cover lids, and other features that support and protect the upper portion of tanks are engaged, the maximum spill out, every 24 hours, in the event of a rollover is usually 4 litres out of the average 33,000 litre cargo. Incidentally, in most cases of tanker accidents in Nigeria, spill outs precede rollovers, indicating a widespread use of substandard tank facilities and a subsequent neglect of standards on the part of the authorities that issue the licenses.

Besides the menace of the manufacture of substandard tankers, another cause for concern for the tanker industry is that of aging fleet. Worldwide, too many old tankers and tanker tractive units ply the roads. A good number of these are more than 30 years old and have depreciated considerably. Although the manufacturers of most of these old tankers turned out well-built products and many fleets have been doing an excellent job of maintaining them, when tankers wear out over time, they present serious traffic problems. Most cases of traffic hold ups along major roads have been traced to the low speed and frequent breakdowns of these aging vehicles. Also motorists have often complained of visual intrusion caused by smoking old tanker and trailer tractive units as they drag their rickety bodies along the highways.

On a global scale, maintenance of aging fleet is worrisome. It is obvious that tankers and trailers are not designed for infinite life, yet nobody recommends that old tankers and trailers should be consigned to the scrap heap. The question now is, how old is too old?

The average age of tanker and trailer tractive units in the US as at 2001 was 11.45 years, with 16% in excess of 20 years. Dry bulkers averaged 10.64 years, and 14% were more than 20 years old. Based on this statistics, Hauliers were advised to renew their fleets.

In Nigeria, there is no limit to the age of tankers and trailers that enter our ports just as there is no limit to the market from which they can be procured. Undoubtedly, most of the tankers and trailers that find their way into Nigeria as grade ‘A’ are among the officially over-aged fleet from the US and other parts of America and Europe. Suffice it to say that Nigeria is among the countries that host the oldest and most substandard tankers and trailers in the world.

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For a fact, improved profitability enables companies to renew their fleets on a large scale. A situation where demand for new or standard tankers is at an all time low indicates that profitability has been poor among tanker fleet operators. To remedy the situation, carrier profitability must be improved. Rates must be raised and taxes must be reduced enough to cover fleet renewal.

Fleet consolidation must be encouraged in the truck equipment industry. This could be done in terms of scrapping seemingly unserviceable trucks and investing the funds in upfitting of the bodies of promising ones. Consolidation can also be achieved by maximizing vehicle capacity to reduce the total number of trucks needed.

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria; SON must wake up from her slumber and save Nigeria from this roving conflagration. Nigerians must understand that the Federal Road Safety Commission; FRSC, is a traffic law enforcement agency and not a standards organization. As such, the role of the commission in road safety administration is secondary in relation to that of SON, which sets the standards, the Vehicle Inspection Officers; VIO, and the DPR that licenses the tankers to set people ablaze.

Following the Trailer and Tanker Safety Implementation Plan initiated by Osita Chidoka; Corp Marshall of the FRSC, Nigerians hope to get the best of a nationally consistent road safety reform. But the crux of the matter still remains that the FRSC cannot go very far, if other relevant agencies fail to live up to their obligations.

Chigozie Chikere,

Traffic Data Analyst,

7 Samuel Ladoke Akintola Boulevard,

Garki II, Abuja.

E-mail: grandefather@yahoo.com.