The Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) in the FCT, says it will apply stiffer penalties on any dispatch rider for violating traffic rules and regulations in the territory.
The Spokesman of the service, Kalu Emetu stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Emetu said the development had become imperative having realised that all the measures put in place, such as fine did not yield the desired result.
He said that the development informed the establishment of driving school where they are trained when caught for non-compliance.
“There is no day we don’t correct up to at least 50 riders as a result of one offence or the other.
“This has also prompted the service to stop registering more of the riders because of the nuisance they are constituting to the city,” he said.
The spokesman said that this was one of the measures the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) through the service, was putting in place to ease ways of doing business in the FCT.
“It is a known fact that a delivery that ought to have taken 30 minutes or so to be delivered, will take some of them if not all, at most 10 minutes to do so.
“But the question is, as much as they are trying to move any item from point A to B as quickly as possible, they should also obey traffic rules and regulations.
“This development usually leads to outright arrest by our men on patrol within the city.
“Immediately they are caught, they are immediately sent to the driving school for training and at the end of the day, they would have missed virtually everything they are pursuing for that day,” he said.
He explained that whenever any of them is caught, the service writes to the company because the bike is not registered in their names with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Emetu explained that it is left for the company to check whether the rider was still fit to continue to work with them or not.
“We have what is called a Riders Certification Card (RCC).
“So, once in a year, they are expected to come for training and after the training, we give them the certificate to show that they undergo the correctional riding skill.”
The spokesman added that all these measures were put in place to ensure that they do the right thing by obeying traffic rules and regulations.
“No speeding, no wrong overtaking, no riding against traffic and whatever they are carrying should be inside the box attached to their bikes.
“There are certain measurements for the boxes, meaning they should not carry anything that will not be inside the boxes.
“No carrying of passengers among other things. But yet we still see them doing it in some locations and when caught, we fine them heavly than before to avoid a repeat,”he said.
Emetu said that all these measures were to prove to them that it was no longer business as usual.