The road freight industry in Nigeria: new challenges in an era of structural adjustment

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Abstract
The downturn in the Nigerian economy since the eighties poses a lot of challenges to her haulage industry. In the face of a sharp decline in the volume of imported freight which was for many years the mainstay of the industry, costs of operation and maintenance have risen drastically, resulting in a fast rate of depletion of stock. Since current problems are similar in some ways to the situation in the industry before the oil boom years (1973–80), this paper holds the view that a re‐examination of the structure and operational practices in the industry in the pre‐boom years puts into perspective the current problems and possible ways of solving them. Whilst road haulage secured much of its business in the past from the import and export trade, future demands for the industry lie in internally generated freight, especially agricultural products and domestic manufactures. However, the industry is currently ill‐suited to this kind of traffic, as it apparently does not have the capacity to match the areal flexibility that the moving of these products demand. A number of operational modifications that need to be made are discussed.

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