Workers in banks and insurance companies on Wednesday urged law enforcers to demand insurance documents for articulated vehicles as a strategy to develop insurance industry and ensure healthy truck on the roads.
The workers made the call under the aegis of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSIBIFI).
The President of ASSIBIFI, Mrs Oyinkan Olasanoye, spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on the failure of truck owners to insure their vehicles.
Olasanoye was reacting to a report that the insurance industry might have abandoned a huge business segment holding an estimated annual revenue of N30 billion.
According to her, unless enforcement agents arrest tanker and trailer drivers who fail to provide insurance papers, truck owners would not insure their vehicles.
She said that insurance companies would want to insure articulated haulage vehicles but were hindered by many factors.
“Some of the owners do not give complete information on the state of their vehicles.
“ The state of the roads is bad which leads to frequent accidents,’’ she said.
According to the unionists, no insurance company will insure a vehicle when the indemnity is higher than the amount paid as premium.
“Property in Nigeria is inadequately insured and it is a key problem,’’ the ASSIBIFI president said.
She said that governments should ensure enforcement of laws on vehicle operations to ensure standards.
“If a tanker or truck driver is arrested for not having an insurance document, he will have no choice but give the right information to insure that vehicle,’’ she said.
The union leader urged insurance companies to partner with haulage drivers to repair some roads that could cause havoc, as part of their social responsibilities.
Some stakeholders had indentified challenges to insuring articulated haulage vehicles to include poor state of the vehicles, poor state of roads and lack of adherence to standard operational safety measures by truck operators.
Data from the Federal Road Safety Corps showed that about 62 road accidents involving 65 tankers were recorded in the first quarter of 2017 with several lives and N3.2 billion lost to the accidents
Leave a Reply