Some commercial transport operators at Tech Junction in the Oforikrom Municipality of the Ashanti Region have started charging passengers an additional one Ghana cedi, blaming the increase on rising fuel prices.
The drivers said the extra charge is meant to help them deal with the high cost of fuel and continue operating their vehicles.
Speaking to AdomNews, Kwaku Baafi said drivers under the PROTOA group, together with their station masters, agreed to add the one cedi to help cushion them against the rising fuel prices.
“The fuel price is high, and we cannot borrow money to buy fuel and work. At the end of the day, we hardly make any income because of the high fuel prices. We are appealing to the government to do something about it,” he said.
The drivers said they would remove the additional charge if fuel prices come down.
However, the Protoa Station Master, Alhaji Hassan Yusuf Sadick, said there has been no official fare increase from the transport operators’ leadership.
He explained that the additional charge was introduced because of the high cost of fuel, which he said had made some drivers unwilling to work, especially in the evenings.
“When it gets to the evening, passengers are stranded here because they cannot get cars to their various destinations. Some of our drivers refuse to work because of the high fuel prices. So, to ease the burden on passengers, we added the additional charge to encourage the drivers to work and transport passengers to their destinations,” he said.
Alhaji Hassan said many passengers have accepted the extra charge because they understand the challenges facing the drivers.
Some passengers, however, appealed to the government to take urgent steps to reduce fuel prices.
They said reducing fuel prices could help bring down transport fares, adding that although they did not support the additional charge, they understood the effect of rising fuel prices on drivers.
