LAGBUS trains over 1,000 drivers

 Apparently trying to save life of commuters and protect their hard earned buses that ply Lagos roads so as to equip their drivers with best driving skills, road use skills, accident-free and culture of civility on wheels, they decided to train their staffs as it’s done in other countries.

This is what the LAGBUS Asset Management Company just did recently in Lagos State.

Since the inception of the Bus Rapid Transport, BRT, system in Lagos State in the state’s effort to create mega-city enviroment and join the global world organised society where sanity rules in all facets of the state’s life, the BRT came up with conducive and civil culture of transportation that witnessed rapid development in the transportation system in the state.

But it has not been only a successful story, as the other side of it conjure pains and deaths.

Before now, it’s a common place to see the recklessness of the LAGBUS drivers without civility on the road apparently because they see themselves as government owned drivers and sees nothing wrong in their practices while delivering their services.

The LAGBUS driver were doing so with absolute impunity derived from perceived sense of immunity because the vehicle belongs to government and so cannot be impounded by law enforcement agents.

In 2007, the Lagos State Government introduced the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) scheme, and Lagos residents cheered the policy with hope that the recklessness of the NURTW’s beast of the roads are over, especially the activities of the untrained  Danfo and Molue drivers, who graduates from conductor to driving causing more pains to commuters.

But joy of the Lagos dwellers was that LAGBUS would be operated largely by government certified drivers, and that the recklessness associated with bus drivers in the city would be greatly reduced.

But few months into the introduction of the LAGBUS, Lagos people couldn’t differentiate between Danfo drivers and LAGBUS; as the certified drivers now become worse than the dreaded Molues and Danfo drivers.

Obviously due to reoccurring avoidable accidents and manslaughters associated with the drivers of LAGBUS, The LAGBUS Asset Management Company, operators of Lagos metropolitan ‘Red buses, trained no fewer than 1,000 drivers on best performance and practices of transportation.

Last week in Lagos State, after the sensitisation and training of the programme tagged: “Sustaining the Red Brand through Service Improvement’’,  Mr Babatunde Disu, the LAGBUS Managing Director said in Lagos that the exercise was to further increase the drivers’ skills so as to enhance their operations when on the road.

Disu said that the management would continue to train its captains and franchise operators saying this had helped to reduce crashes involving LAGBUS operators on the roads.

He also appealed to other road users to always report any of their operators found wanting in the performance of their duties to LAGBUS management.

The managing director said that LAGBUS management did not give a target to any of its drivers to be met, but that the company only introduced what he called “performance-pay incentive”, to enhance their productivity.

“We have not imposed any target on any of our staff; what we have in place is a performance-pay incentive. The performance-pay incentive is based on how much work they do. So, we have a pay structure where our bus captains get a certain amount of money which can be referred to as attendant pay,” he added.

“We also get another portion of money as performance pay which is based on four per cent of the total revenue they make during their shift. So the more money you make during your shift, the more you are likely to earn. It is not a target. It is a way of ensuring bus captains work efficiently.”

Also, Mr Femi Olusheyi, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Transport, said that the training was to update the drivers in terms of driving carefully and maintaining good relationship with the passengers. Olusheyi urged the drivers to put in their best and apply the knowledge gained from the training during their daily work on the road.

“Government is working to make sure that the comfort of the passengers is guaranteed. People should give us feedback so that government can correct the drivers on what to do and what they have done wrongly,’’ Olusheyi said.

Mr Abdulhafiz Toriola, the Chief Vehicle Inspection Service, Lagos State, who was represented by Mr Adebayo Olusoji, urged the drivers to always cultivate good human relations toward their customers. Toriola said that all LAGBUS drivers should conduct a thorough check on their buses before rolling out on daily basis.

“All the functional systems in the buses must be checked and they must report their findings to the management to act upon to ensure that the buses are road worthy before rolling out. This attitude will not only reduce accidents on our roads but will also reduce untimely rickety of buses,” Toriola said.

It was also learnt that the management also engaged medical experts who conducted check-ups on the drivers while the LAGBUS management presented certificates to the participants.

Last year, following the complaints by Lagos residents of the recklessness of some LAGBUS drivers, the management of the public intra-city mass transit company tasked the residents to always report any perceived dangerous driving to the head office.

According to the LAGBUS Asset Management Limited, which manages the buses, reckless driving is an intolerable act and should not be encouraged. Disu, urged residents to always report any Lagbus driver found to have contravened the traffic regulations and laws, saying that was the only way to assist the company improves on its services.

Disu said the LAGBUS management had begun a holistic re-training of over 996 drivers in order to improve on service delivery, as well as address some of the complaints of the residents.

“That is one of the reasons for the training. Let the people of Lagos never get tired of reporting such incident of reckless driving. That is how we can continuously improve,” he stated

“I’m sure if people look at the way our captains have been driving in the last six months and compare it with their experiences a year ago, they would see the improvement. We will continuously improve”.”