The Council of Maritime Transport Unions and Associations has launched an insurance scheme for truck drivers as part of efforts to boost their welfare packages.
It also disclosed plans to engage the services of a reputable hospital in Apapa to provide health services for sick drivers and their assistants.
The Board of Trustees Chairman of COMTUA, Aloga Ogbogo, said the board would ensure the maritime sector was protected from any form of collapse.
Ogbogo maintained that the welfare of truckers especially the drivers and dockworkers was paramount to the new COMTUA responsibilities, noting that lives of the drivers were equally important more than the trucks.
He said, “The component of what we aimed to achieve is to source for a hospital in Apapa, whereby if the drivers are sick as a result of mosquito bites due to longer period spent along the port corridors and other illnesses that may arise, we can refer them to that hospital and when we get the bill we take responsibility.”
He added, “Another component of the insurance packages is that most drivers travel far and wide as a result, an accident might occur which may lead to disability or permanent disability.
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“Though we don’t pray for such to happen to our drivers but these are unforeseen circumstances.
However, the insurance packages we are looking at will take care of both disability and permanent disability situation.”
The BOT Co-Chairman called on truck drivers to embrace discipline in the line of duty, while lamenting that disorderliness on the part of the truckers contributed to the current traffic situation along the port corridors.
The President, COMTUA, Olaleye Thompson, also disclosed that plans were also ongoing to engage the services of mobile toilet operators to assist in the area of sanitary for the truckers along the corridors.
Thompson affirmed that COMTUA had engaged the services of Lagos State Waste Management to assist in the clearance of refuse and human waste along the port corridors.
He reiterated the need to prioritise the living and health conditions of the drivers and motor boys along the port corridors pointing out human waste along the port corridors.
