Driveco Ghana, an organization interested in providing better conditions of service for drivers, has launched its new Brilliance saloon cars to furnish the company’s effort in supplying drivers with enough vehicles to facilitate their work. The Brilliance Saloon Cars are part of the product line of BMW with an Italian design. Driveco also aims to eradicate poverty among drivers and empower them to improve their status in society through interventions such as pension schemes, scholarships for driver’s wards as well as the registration of families of drivers with the National Health Insurance Scheme. Speaking at a ceremony to launch the vehicles Thursday at the Neoplan Station in Accra, Mr Wilberforce Essuman, Chief Executive Officer of the company explained that Driveco, under its policy dubbed ‘Vehicle For Work and Pay’, would ensure that drivers of the company are provided with vehicles on work and pay basis. The payment, he said, would be done in installment on an agreed period of time. Again, the company would provide allowances to drivers who lose their cars either through damage or sale which may render them unproductive for about a whole month. “Driveco Ghana, through its policy dubbed ‘Driving After Sixty (60) Allowances (DASA), will provide any driver who is sixty and above and is still driving a monthly allowance till he is paid his professional Drivers’ End of Service Benefit (ProDESD),” claimed the CEO. He also added that the company’s ‘Leave with Pay’ policy “will ensure that every commercial driver will be given some days off as an annual leave as stipulated by the labour act of Ghana.” Chief Director of the Transport Ministry, Lawrence Kumi who spoke on behalf of the Deputy Minister for Transport, stated that investment in the sector was a major priority for the government but conceded that the provision of transport infrastructure and services was capital intensive and that government alone could not afford it. Therefore, government was seeking private investment in the provision of transport infrastructure and services, he stated. The minister promised that the government would ensure that the initiative by Driveco becomes successful. “Challenges such as payment of school fees of children, payment of rent, how to cater for the family and many others; continue to agitate the minds of drivers as they undertake their daily activities of moving the economy. “Therefore, a way must be found to assure the driver of a regular source of income, not only during his working life but also on retirement … [to] enable [him] concentrate on his duty of carrying his passengers to their destination peacefully.” Mr Kumi maintained that the project by Driveco must be “nurtured to provide drivers with the security of work that is crucial to the driving profession.” On his part, the National Vice Chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Alhaji Tetteh advised drivers who would benefit from the scheme to follow the payment schedule to enable others to also benefit from it. National Chairman of the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), Ben Peprah Amoabin, highlighted the importance of maintenance, pleading that Driveco should import the spare parts of their fleet of vehicles since it is difficult for mechanics to find them on the market.