It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
A classic example of that wise saying is the outcry by the motoring public against being compelled to pay an annual fee for vehicle towing services in the event of breakdowns on public highways.
That such a good idea has resulted in widespread condemnation and caused such outrage across the country, obviously results from the lack of proper prior consultation with all stakeholders by officialdom, when the idea was first mooted.
Clearly, most Ghanaians resent the socialisation of private risk that the current public private partnership (PPP) business model adopted for a laudable road safety initiative amounts to, in their view.
Many feel that the power of the Leviathan that is the Ghanaian nation-state is being abused to rip them off - and that is proof positive that prior consultation with stakeholders by officialdfom wasn't nearly comprehensive enough.
This blog's humble view, is that the private sector entities contracted to implement the initiative, should go back to the drawing board and design a detailed package of additional useful services provided for those paying the mandatory fees annually.
To help them see the kind of additional services they can provide to give value for money to motorists paying the annual towing service fees, we have culled a webpage from the website of the Automobile Association of the UK (AA), as a business model companies such as Road Safety Management Services Limited can replicate in Ghana too.
The clincher is to offer 24/7 roadside repairs as part of the bouquet of services the compulsory annual fee buys for motorists.
Then the public will see that compulsory annual fee as good value for money - as it provides peace of mind knowing that if they should suffer a breakdown during a long journey, regardless of the time of day, it will be fixed for them: having paid the now much-resented annual towing fee.
Above all, we do hope it will help the motoring public to see the advantages of paying an annual fee not only for towing services, but for the availability of round-the-clock roadside vehicle repairs nationwide, should their vehicle suffer a breakdown during a long journey, at a point nowhere near their final destination.
In any case this is our widow's mite contribution to kick-starting a national conversation about private-sector entities offering the motoring public a bouquet of services like those offered by the Automobile Association of the UK, in return for payments of mandatory annual fees for same.
Please read on:
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The AA uses a fleet of dedicated vehicles – which means we own them and manage all their dispatches, and they are staffed by our own patrols. These include breakdown vans, recovery trucks and other specialist vehicles to support a wide range of breakdown situations our members find themselves in.
The AA is the largest UK breakdown provider, with over 2,700 patrols compared to approximately 1,500 patrols for the second largest provider in the UK. Other breakdown providers use a majority of third-party suppliers with limited dedicated fleets, which are usually third-party vehicles in the breakdown provider's livery.
Source – MINTEL report: Vehicle Recovery – UK, September 2014. The website of the second largest provider stated that they had 'approximately 1,500 patrols' on 8 October 2015.
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