By Lamin Njie
The Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure together with stakeholders have been making efforts for commercial drivers to comply with the new tariffs and route licensing scheme introduced for the first time by the government on January 20th, 2023.
The officials of the Ministry have reported that over 300 stickers have so far been issued to commercial divers within the Greater Banjul Area and the West Coast Region from January to date.
The Gambia Daily learned that the issuing of stickers to commercial drivers will continue for now and that so far, most of the drivers are now complying gradually even though some drivers are not keen in following the new system. “This will continue and we will target as many commercial drivers as possible throughout the Greater Banjul Area and the West Coast Region,” said an official from the Ministry.
Since the commencement of the scheme in January, The Gambia Transport Union and the Gambia Police Force were working in tandem with the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure to ensuring that commercial drivers are complying with the new scheme.
The route licensing scheme was mainly introduced by the government to discourage the doubling or tripling of fares by commercial drivers, leaving many passengers with no option but to pay high transport fares, to reach their destinations.
