Yuletide: Road transporters hike fares by over 100%

Inter-state transporters in Nigeria have hiked their fares by over 100 percent due to increase in the number of travellers to various destinations for the Christmas celebration.
Libra Motors is charging N9,500 as of yesterday against N3,500 earlier in the year from Lagos to Eastern part of Nigeria. GUO Motors is also charging the same fee. BusinessDay gathers that there is collective arrangement on the fare by the big-time transporters.
Young Shall Grow also charges N9,500 from Lagos to Abuja, Port Harcourt, and South East against N3,100 while F.G. Onyenwe Motors charges almost the same to Abuja and over N6,500 to the South East and 7,500 to Port Harcourt against 3,100, 3,500 and 3,700, respectively, earlier.
On the other hand, Iyare Motors charges N4,050 to Benin City from Lagos, GEM charges, as of yesterday, N4,100 against N2,500 and N2,700, respectively.
Every year-end, many of the transporters increase fares, especially from city to the hinterland as a result of the increase in the number of travellers within the period.
Before this time, inter-state transporters have hiked fares due to the increase in pump price of petrol and other operational costs.
Within the year, Association of Private Transport Companies of Nigeria (APTCON) had noted that road transportation remained the most visible and effective means of moving people and goods within the Nigerian economy.
It said the road transport sector had, over the years, suffered severe neglect with poor attention paid by successive governments to the development of appropriate infrastructure.
It also noted that the absence of decent infrastructure had been a major setback for efficient delivery of service and value in the road transport sector and that, being in the throes of economic recession, road transport operators had seen their little margins completely wiped away by inflation, rising cost of funds, double taxation, unstable value of the naira as well as unnecessary harassments and extortion by security operatives.