Ho: Tricycle fares go up amidst fuel prices hikes

Tricycle riders and owners in the Ho Municipality of the Volta region have announced an upward adjustment in their fares amidst the recent fuel price hikes.

At a meeting held in Ho on Wednesday, leadership of the group indicated that the new fares will take effect on Saturday, 26th February 2022 in line with the directives of the other Transport Unions.

Wednesday’s stand-up was purposely conveyed to address the concerns of riders within the Municipality regarding their service charges.

Some of the riders who spoke to Starr News indicated that the call for an upward adjustment in their prices is necessitated by what they term as incessant fuel price hikes and also the cost of spare parts on market.

“If you look at fuel prices and then, we call something filter; filter now is GHS10 and the engine oil, two bottles now is almost GHS62 and that is hurting our operations. We have families to feed and the only way we can stay in business is to increase our fares,” a rider told Starr News.

Knowledge, another rider said, “These days the price for spare parts is very high. For me, the last time, I worked for the whole day and what was left was GHS67 and once I paid GHS60 to my master, all I had left was GHS7 yet we have families to feed.”

After several disagreements over how much to add and when that should take effect, the group finally agreed to add 50ps to each of the existing fares starting from Saturday, 26th February 2022.

The new increment is a further 33.3 per cent addition to the existing prices for both short and long distances.

“Current fuel prices, cost of spare parts and exchange rate has affected our business negatively and we cannot continue to keep our prices at the same level. Today, we are announcing to the public an upward adjustment. We would now take GHS2 for short distances which used to be GHS1.50p and GHS2.50p for a long distance which used to be GHS2,” Gershon Adeklo, Patron of the group and CEO of Loggu Motors Ghana Ltd told the media.

Chairman of the Ho Municipal Tricycle Riders and Owners Association , Francis Selasi Alaga took the opportunity to further caution the members to strictly adhere to road safety regulations as they ply their trade across the Municipality.

The tricycles popularly known as MahamaCando or Keke is the most patronised means of transport within the Municipality but the operators say the new prices would not affect their business since their prices still remain relatively cheaper than that of a taxi.

Their operations in the Ho Municipality started in 2018 with a price of GHS1. This price lasted for about 3-years until it was adjusted to GHS1.50 in 2021.

  Source: Theherald.com