AFRICAN PLANTS AND EQUIPMENT DIGEST:
New Vogue in Lagos Sand Haulage:
BIG MACKS TO THE RESCUE
The shift in the dredging sites at the Lekki peninsula in Lagos has introduced a new dispensation in the regime of haulage trucks that haul sand from stockpile site to construction sites all over the city. Now very big trucks that can haul 50 tons or 70 tons or more at a go is the vogue, as sand dealers maximize fuel and manpower costs. The Lekki-Epe expressway which is the principal highway for these large movements now sees hundreds of these trucks with very fast speeds scores of runs on a daily basis.
At the other side of town, Ikorodu where other sand dredging firms have taken up abode, the traffic is also not letting up. In fact, the Ibeshe road is now in such a critical stage that the communities are bewailing their fate. Reports have it that at some of the huge sand stockpile sites, a daily throughput of 500 trucks per site is normal. And this traffic must use the substandard road now leading to Ibeshe and similar environs where sand stockpile is on. All said however, the conventional wisdom seems to be that the bigger the truck the better the overall performance at the end of the day. These days, only few trucks get bigger than the Mack trucks!
But the origins of this trend can be traced back to the problems created when the Lagos State Government began a clampdown on further dredging activities along the Aja-Badoreh road, allegedly due to claims and counterclaims of damages coming on the road from the activities of haulage trucks. In the ensuing policy shift wherein the government banned further dredging activities along that stretch of the river, dredging contractors and sand dealers searched for new locations. Now most of them are operating further down the expressway around Awoyaya, Lamgbasa, Okegun and neighbouring communities with waterfront accesses on the river downstream. In many cases the distance from the expressway is a matter of a few kilometers and gives the truck drivers no problems at all as their trucks possess heavy-duty engines made for off-road work.
A dealer in equipment and dry plants who spoke with DDH on this new vogue said it is the ultimate in economic planning and profit maximization in view that more sand or aggregate is being hauled over the same distance at the same time. Thus, operating costs are slashed for fuel and manpower while yielding even bigger performance targets.
DDH’s quick sampling of user opinions at the large truck park in Aja Lagos revealed that Mack Trucks are popular because they are believed to be less complex to maneuver and having less complex engines to contend with. Moreover, the trucks were said to be easier to maintain, have available and cheaper spare parts and can still serve even if the truck develops minor faults. This last point goes down well with a people known for very poor maintenance culture…those trucks may be lucky if they ever get maintained when they are still moving!
Otherwise, at most times along the Epe Expressway, these gigantic trucks could be seen under the hands of hardened drivers racing them at speeds obviously above the permitted limit. They readily quip that ‘these American trucks can run’! The relatively freer thoroughfare between Aja and Epe could be mistaken for a race track when these mega trucks come bearing down on the rest of the traffic. Coincidentally, almost all the new sand dredging sites in this part of Lagos are springing up along these axes.
Are they also moving into the PH and Niger Delta areas? The answer is yes, though to a less popular extent. The difference is that Lagos’ romance with sand is special due to the feverish housing and civil construction boom. But surely in PH these trucks are also coming in as we have observed in recent observations in the city.
On the best brand, users spoken to insisted that the 24-valve engine-types were the best because they were rugged. They said the 12-valve variant were less attractive comparatively because they were more manual in operation. However, the dreaded model in the whole lot seemed to be the CHI model which some concluded easily develops faults due to the connection of its operation with a brain-box. These Lagos users of the vehicle have made up their minds that this computerized brain-box is too advanced for Nigerian users. DDH was informed that the N150,000.00 price tag for a spare brain box contributes to the wide berth which most owners would give the CHI.
But the brain-box complaint did not reduce the heavy cost of the CHI, at between N6m to N7m in Lagos. The 24-valve or 12-valve engine Mack truck will set you back between N3m to N4m to acquire for your fleet, all depending on various factors like age, previous use and therefore perceived secondhand value, etc.
