A group of long-distance drivers have thrown support behind the Road Safety Management Limited (RSML), the company appointed to tow disabled vehicles from the road.

According to the Concerned Long Journey Drivers of Ghana, the RSML is better placed to deliver the service after it demonstrated the capacity to remove broken down vehicles from the highways within a short time.

Government has put on hold, implementation of the mandatory towing levy which was supposed to take effect from July after the public kicked against it partly due to low awareness creation. Others also criticized the decision by the National Road safety Commission (NRSC) to award the contract to RSML, a private company operated by the Jospong Group of Companies.

Those kicking against the policy want the levy- pegged between GHȻ10 and GHȻ100- to be added to insurance charges so that the insurance companies take lead in providing the service rather than the RSML.

But a statement issued Wednesday by the long journey drivers said: “...that argument is untenable and doesn’t rest well with us because the insurance companies do not have the capacity to rapidly move our broken down vehicles off the road in order to ensure safety for ourselves and other motorists.” 

The statement, signed jointly by the Chairman, Nana Yaw Nkwan, aka, Mayaki  and Organiser, Desmond Kofi Agbezude claimed: “it is such a herculean task getting insurance claims from our insurance providers and it takes months, how these same insurance providers can promise us that they can deliver quickly on this.” 

“We are well convinced that the company that has been given the contract to execute this project has the capacity to do so but to we are by this notice sending a strong message to them that if we pay, we will demand value for money and will not compromise on our demands. 

“For us, it is about lives and Safety of ourselves and our passengers and that is why we are supporting this initiative,” the long distant drivers maintained. 

The statement, therefore, appealed to the President, Nana Akufo-Addo to “ignore the calls for the halt of this project and kindly give approval to the recommendation from the Parliamentary committee on Transport.” 

“The committee consulted our union leaders and all of us are in support of this towing services charge,” it said, while advising “Politicians who are running around pretending to be speaking for us to desist from it.”