Overloading on Mbengwi-Bamenda Road: Passengers Cry Foul, Drivers Justify

The practice of overloading is back on the Bamenda-Mbengwi road. For over a month now, drivers have gone back into carrying two passengers in front and at times three, a style that's known as "armpiting" and four behind. The decision has taken many passengers aback considering that the fare has remained the same, 1.000F and they weren't informed to expect such.

Before the coming of COVID-19, this was the normal loading style but the fare by then used to be 700 or 800F. When it became compulsory for all to respect barrier measures like physical distancing, the drivers were compelled to start carrying just three passengers behind and one in front. They will then increase the fare to 1000F and it turned out that all the passengers were okay with this, considering the rapidity and comfort in travelling. Unfortunately, this lasted just for some months as they soon started adding one behind to make it four. As if testing the waters, since one could be added behind with no major resistance, then why not try additional one or two in front and that's what they've successfully done now.  

Mbon Motor Park, Mile 18 Mbengwi

With these recent additions, a lot of passengers have been castigating the move. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, they have no choice than to dance according to the tune being played by the drivers. Some have been proposing the transport fare is reduced back to 700 or 800F while others prefer it should rather be added and then the number of passengers loaded in a car reduced to 3 behind and one in front so that they seat comfortably and loading cars quickly take off.

Was the decision to begin overloading arrived at by all the drivers? If yes, for what reasons? Mbengwi Online went finding out at the Mbon motor park. Here, we met some of the drivers and some executive members of the Mbengwi Driver's Union to hear from them. Beginning with the Vice President, he said "We used to carry 1 in front, 4 behind, that gives us 5.000F. Based on the nature of the road by then, our cars used to consume 4 litres of fuel per trip (to and fro). We could use 15 minutes by then and reach Bamenda but now it's close to an hour and we now use close to 6 litres of fuel. Calculate that out of 5.000F, 3.500F goes for fuel, you settle control with 2.000F, that is Ngyen-Mbo 1000, Bamenda (Nitop 1) 1000. So you see that you can't make up to 4.000F per trip (allez-retour)."

Mbengwi Online also spoke to the Secretary General of the union independently. He admitted they know many passengers don't feel comfortable with the overloading but they just can't help it. Furthermore he wondered why the same passengers will never complain about fuel vendors when they add prices or go to ask the uniform officers why they're collecting 1.000 from them but instead tend to put all the blame on the drivers. "We also feel the impact of this because our families are using this road too. So it's not like we are not wearing the shoes of the passengers to feel where it pinches" he explained. 

Hospital Roundabout (Mbengwi) Park, Bamenda

The number of cars plying the said stretch of road hasn't really increased that much but the number of passengers that travel daily has drastically dropped and this is as a result of the crisis. The drivers claim before, they could make two or four rounds per day but now, to make just a round is so hard. They also blame the deplorable nature of the road and insecurity as some of the factors that necessitated the overloading. They observed that many road users in Mbengwi that own private cars drive to Mbon park, park their vehicles somewhere nearby and then come to use but public transport, why? So that their cars shouldn't get bad, they wont settle any control and in case of any unforseen, the driver will be the one to face it, not them the passengers. 

"Hardly does a week go by without us going to the garage for repairs" a driver lamented. "Imagine me going to give my 'patrong' 2.000F as 'check' after a full day of work. What an embarrassment" he added.  He too advanced the same points like his colleague and added that at the park, they pay 400F per loading to the loaders. Some of the drivers said the issue of overloading isn't peculiar only to Mbengwi. They proposed that those complaining should find out about Bamenda-Bali, Bamenda-Santa, Bamenda-Bafut etc, that it's same practice every where and they of Mbengwi were the only ones still carrying just one passenger in front. 

Some passengers have however rebuked this, saying the drivers can't use the wrong being done by their colleagues elsewhere to justify theirs for what's wrong is wrong, period. Statistics gotten from the Mbengwi Driver's Union indicate that at least 80 passenger vehicles ply the Mbengwi-Bamenda road daily. So at least 480 passengers must use the road per day for every driver to leave Mbengwi to Bamenda or Bamenda to Mbengwi and if they have to return fully loaded, then it means  at least 960 people should travel every working day and by evening every driver ought to return home with at most 5000F gain.  Now the question is what can such an amount do to someone that's a breadwinner having a wife, children, family, bills and rents to pay, "njangis" to play, cloths, food, medication yo buy and what have you. 

Considering this crisis period in which we are, this is practically impracticable. To overcome this, some drivers have resorted to specialising only in the transportation of goods for business persons and running of other errands than depending on passengers. The union executive from reports has educated its  members to politely speak to customers when they ask to know why the overloading rather than just quarreling them or giving no reasonable response. They've been cautioned to school their passengers to see reason with them considering that everyone is struggling to put bread and butter on his table. What we don't comprehend is why despite all these complains from the drivers about road, "settlement", no passengers, crisis etc, non is leaving the road to look for something else to do in life. With this, we can conclude that at the end of the day, it's not really that bad for no reasonable someone will stay in a profession that's not yielding him income for personal upkeep and that of their family.