MMT will not increase fares despite fuel price increases
The increases in fuel prices will in no way affect the operations of the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) Company Limited, the Managing Director of the company, Mr John Noble Appiah, has said.
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For that reason, he said, the company had decided not to increase its fares, in spite of the 15 per cent upward adjustment in transport fares by the Ghana Private Road Transport Co-ordinating Council (GRTCC).
ICT System
Mr Appiah explained that the company had instituted an Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-based fuel-monitoring and vehicle-tracking systems that would help reduce fuel leakage.
“For a quantity of fuel that would have been used for 50,000 kilometres, a lesser amount could be used to achieve the same distance and, therefore, we are able to contain the situation,” he said.
Mr Appiah, who was speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, said apart from the intervention in ICT, the MMT was also a social-oriented organisation.
“We are not 100 per cent commercial-oriented and, yes, we need profit to sustain our business, that is not to the disadvantage of our customers,” he said.
He said, however, that if the increases in fuel prices had gone above 30 per cent, the company would have reconsidered its decision.
Fuel price increases
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the GRTCC announced increases in fuel prices and transport fares over the weekend.
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Transport fares have gave up by 15 per cent, while fuel prices have been adjusted upwards by 23.08 per cent.
The last time the GRTCC effected a 10 per cent upward adjustment in road transport fares was in April 2014, following an increase in fuel prices by seven per cent.
Broken vehicles
On the issue of broken down MMT buses, Mr Appiah said out of the 100 buses identified, 82 had so far been repaired and were in good working condition.
He said in order to monitor the situation, a team of engineers was deployed every year to constantly monitor the conditions of the vehicles and also assess the buses that should be used on the road.
The move, he said, was to ensure the safety of its passengers and also provide the safest and most reliable and affordable means of transport across the length and breadth of the country.
He noted that a fleet of 100 buses was earmarked to arrive in the country by September this year to help provide services for its clients.
Mr Appiah said in order for the MMT to continue to serve its customers and the country better, there was the need for the public to join in the effort to achieve that target.
“We have over 4,000 workers and we don't expect everything to be accurate, but when there are some shortcomings, we want our customers to report the issues to enable us to address them,” he said.
He advised the public to insist on their tickets anytime they boarded the MMT buses, so that the revenues collected would be brought to the company to help improve on services.
Mr Appiah said the doors of the company were always opened for suggestions that would help improve the services of the organisation.