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By Adewale Sanyaolu
Consumers and marketers of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol have expressed concern over the man-hour losses at filling stations and petroleum products depots across the country.
Petrol consumers and marketers who spoke to Daily Sun in separate interviews at the weekend said the turnaround time to purchase and load petrol at both filling stations and depots hurts the economy.
They argued that the time that ought to have been used in other productive venture, were mostly spent in queues which in no way adds value.
A marketer at the Apapa depot, Mr. Kabiru Morgan, said to load a 33,000 litres truck of petrol takes about three days, saying the turnaround time was not favorable to trucks owners, drivers, motor boys and all other ancillary workers.
He said that 3 days was enough time to do 2 trips to Ibadan under the old other, saying the more time drivers and trucks stay on the road, the more cost you incur.
‘‘You know apart, from salaries paid to truck drivers, we pay them allowances as well. So the more days they spend at depots, the more cost you incur.
The views of Morgan were equally corroborated by another marketer, Mr.Akeem Adetiba, saying they now spend more time outside their homes because of the hiccups in supply.
He said trucks now spend longer days at the depot because of the shortage in supply,calling on the government to resolve this disruption as soon as possible.
‘‘This development doesn’t help anyone, including the economy. The more time we spend at depots, the more the economy because depressed .
At the NNPC filling station on Charity Road, a motorist, Mr.Niyi Adebisi, said he spent over three hours at the Mobil filling station on Awolowo road, Ikoyi last week.
He said that three hours ought to have been put to productive use in his office but because hwe was running low on petrol, he had to endure the queue.
Adebisi, argued that if the number of hours spent at filling stations across the country by commuters was aggregated, the economy is the ultimate loser.
Also at the NNPC filling station on Charity road in Abule Egba, some of the motorists told Daily Sun yesterday, that the man-hour loss since the fuel scarcity started would have run into several billions of Naira.
They said rather than plan for the working day of the week which starts today (Monday), there were at the filling station queuing for fuel that they are not sure of getting at the end of the day.
President, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Mr. Billy Harry, said the current challenge was more of disruption in the supply chain.
He said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) should free up the space to allow more players participate in the importation of petroleum products.
He said the current monopoly being enjoyed by NNPCL was no longer sustainable, hence the call for full deregulation of the industry.
Harry said all stakeholders in the petroleum downstream sector are working to ensure that the disruption in the supply chain was resolved as soon as possible.
