The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has called for a review of a provision in the Road Traffic Regulations, 2026 (L.I. 2519), which allows authorities to auction broken-down vehicles that remain at designated holding areas for 21 days.
According to GPRTU, while it supports the immediate removal of broken-down vehicles from roads, auctioning the vehicles after 21 days could cause significant financial losses to commercial transport operators.
Speaking to Citi News, Deputy Public Relations Officer of the GPRTU, Samuel Amoah, said vehicle owners should instead be allowed to reclaim their vehicles after paying the relevant towing and storage fees.
He argued that no vehicle owner would deliberately abandon a broken-down vehicle on the road, particularly after it has been towed to a safer location.
“In the previous LI, it was stated that when your vehicle breaks down in the city, you have 30 minutes to tow it, and when it breaks down on the highway, you have one hour to tow it off the road. Now they said immediately, yes, we agree with that. But one area we don’t support is auctioning the vehicle after 21 days,” he said.
Mr Amoah urged the authorities to reconsider the use of auction as a penalty, saying operators should rather be given more time to retrieve their vehicles subject to the payment of applicable charges.
“We think they have to take a second look at the word auction because nobody will intentionally decide to leave his vehicle on the road. If it is being towed to a safer place, we think that the number of days the vehicle will spend there, if you have a fee that the owner will pay, that is fine. But to auction the vehicle, we think that will not help our business,” he added.
The GPRTU maintains that the objective of keeping roads clear of broken-down vehicles can be achieved without exposing transport operators to the risk of losing their vehicles through auction.
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