The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA) has begun a process to register road transport service providers as part of its mandate to regulate the road transport sector with a special focus on road transport service providers.
Beginning in March 2024, road transport service providers including transport companies, unions, transport departments of all State Agencies, school bus services, tyre service centres and garages are mandated to register with the Authority as required by law.
The law mandates all road transport service providers to be registered or risk sanctions from the Authority.
The exercise, according to the NRSA, is part of efforts to ensure continuous improvement of road safety and quality of service in the road transport sector.
Kwame Koduah Atuahene, Director of Regulations, Inspections & Compliance of the Authority, announced during a working visit to the North East and Savannah Regions.
In a meeting with the leadership of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union branch in Damango and the Nazori Transport in Nalerigu, he explained that the registration process has been digitalized to allow target organizations to follow very easy and simple steps on an electronic platform known as TransportGhana. TransportGhana according to him is a seamless technology or ICT interface that allows for the registration, and licensing of road transport service providers, compliance monitoring of road safety standards, e-ticketing, e-passenger manifest, vehicle tracking and service locator app for accredited services among others and it is aimed at ensuring a safer, convenient, and properly regulated road transport system.
He mentioned that currently, the focus of the authority is to get all service providers especially transport operators, unions, school bus operators and Tyre Centers to voluntarily register on the platform by the close of 2024 after which stringent measures will be enforced to ensure compliance.
He said the Authority may also deploy some of its staff to assist service providers who may have any challenges with the system.
Giving a background to the directive, Mr. Koduah Atuahene said in addition to NRSA’s traditional duties, parliament has since 2023 approved the National Road Safety Regulations, 2022 (L.I.2468) that designates the Authority as the lead Regulatory Authority for Road Safety and Road Transport services.
The Director of Regulations and Inspections of the Authority explained that the purpose of L.I.2468 is to entrust the Authority with the responsibility of regulating services within the road transport sector to ensure that customers are not only safe but satisfied with the quality of service from road transport service providers.
He further stated that the National Road Safety Authority in exercising its mandate wears two caps, which is to ensure that all categories of road users are safe from road traffic crashes, injuries and deaths through research and campaigns, whilst, on the other hand, it has the responsibility to ensure the improvement of service quality within the road transport sector. He added that the role starts with building a database of road transport service providers through registration, licensing and permitting and one of the key conditions for registration is proof of the requisite competencies for the target service as prescribed by law.
According to him, Transport Operators must have transport heads or safety officers, whilst State transport departments must assign qualified transport officers/managers to manage their fleet.
He said it is a must for Tyre technicians to understand the impact of their service on road safety with importers also expected to import standard or approved equipment only.