High costs of tricycles pose challenges to our operations, says association

Tricycles Owners and Drivers Association (TODAL), Lagos State chapter, has said that the high costs of the tricycles were posing great challenges to their operations in the state.

Its chairman, Mr Adebowale Kuboye, said this in an interview with Newsverge on Wednesday.

Kuboye said that the constant increase in the prices of tricycles had continued to hinder his members from meeting up with their monthly payments.

“And we have several of them here that are due for replacement,’’ he said.

According to him, a tricycle now costs between N700, 000 and N750, 000 as against N300, 000 and N350, 000 two years ago.

The chairman appealed to the state government to assist his members to procure new tricycles at subsidised rates.

He said that it was through subsidised prices that majority of the tricycle drivers returned to the business.

Some of them had, however, been rendered jobless for the past one year because they could not afford the costs of new tricycles on their own, he said.

Kuboye also said that over 300 tricycles had been abandoned due to lack of spare parts to maintain them.

“We face many challenges in this business; some of the tricycles are imported from China, India and other countries without spare parts accompanying theme.

“These have also made their maintenance difficult for the operators after some time.

“Government should come to our assistance because some of our members are becoming jobless on a daily basis as a result of the hike in price of the tricycles.

“Also, we are appealing to the government because we have families and children we are catering for from whatever we make from the business,’’ Kuboye said.