Commercial buses have decided to reduce the number of passengers they carry per row, by one from tomorrow, Thursday, 26 March as part of efforts to ensure social distancing in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
This means commercial buses that carry three on normal days will now carry two per row while those who take four per row will do three.
Since Ghana recorded cases of the pandemic, there have been calls for sweeping reforms in various sectors of the country’s economy.
Prominent among the calls is the reduction of the number of passengers that commercial buses (trotro) carry per row in order to observe the social distancing policy in public vehicles.
President Akufo-Addo, thus, on Tuesday, 24 March 2020, met transport operators and owners to find ways by which they can modify the existing public transport policy.
Speaking in an interview with Accra based radio station, Class FM, the Industrial Relations Officer of the Greater Accra branch of the GPRTU, Mr Abass Ibrahim Moro, said the number of passengers can be reduced if the government will put in place measures to assist drivers and transport owners.
He said: “We are worried about the coronavirus and the way we load our vehicles – shoulder-by-shoulder – and we’ve come out with a suggestion that the government should see what it can do [to help us].
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“On our own, we’ve asked our drivers to effective from tomorrow [Thursday, 26 March], the three sitting capacity should be reduced to two while the four sitting capacity should be reduced to three.”
However, the Ghana Private Road Transport Union is, however, on the government to reduce fuel prices for commercial drivers to enable them continue with the new policy until normal times return.
According to transport union, if this is done without any compensation from the government, the drivers will stop working and there will be no cars available on the streets to transport Ghanaians.
