Railway Transport: Prioritizing Customers’ Welfare  For Effective Service Delivery

By Oyeniyi Iwakun

The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) is undoubtedly one of the oldest government’s institutions in Nigeria. Notable among the qualities of railway transport system all over the world is its capacity to move bulk of goods and passengers with ease. This unique capacity and rare safety features have been a source of attraction to travelers and businessmen who prefer to travel or move their freights with the train.

What makes the railway transport system outstanding among other means of transportation which often projects it as people’s preference is the ability of customers to predict the duration of their movements, travel with utmost sense of comfort, safety and relaxation.

Aside the facts that extremely low accidents are recorded on the train; it is the cheapest means of transportation. This often places it at advantage over other means of transportation in an ideal and functional railway system like it was in the early days of colonial rule and fifties in Nigeria when the railway was operating at a satisfactory level until it began to drop in standard and quality of services later.

However, with the renewed vigor by the Federal Government and other stakeholders to revitalize the railways, huge investments on massive infrastructural upgrades and construction have been put in place thereby seeing the railway transportation system in Nigeria coming back on foot and so many Nigerians are now interested in patronizing the railway in terms of passengers and freight movements.

In fact, the NRC Director of Operations, Mr. Niyi Alli and the Lagos Railway District Manager (RDM), Mr. Jerry Oche recently remarked in a chat with MMS Plus that the railway is now more popular among Nigerians who prefer it to other means of transportation.

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“In fact we cannot meet up with customers demand in terms of passengers and freight services because we have a lot to carry between Lagos to Kano, Kaduna, Ilorin and others.” Jerry Oche said.

Nonetheless, there seem to be a gap in the mode of operations and customers’ relations at NRC as there were series of reports by some customers on poor handling of their welfare by the NRC management. MMS Plus received some complaints on missing goods, indiscriminate delay and cancellation of trips without passengers’ prior notifications.

For instance, the CEO Naija Pride, Mrs. Nwaneri Olubukola complained of the loss of goods worth about 2million naira late last year while trying to move some goods from Kano to Lagos.

She said “In trying to explore all avenues to bring goods into Lagos, we used the railway system to bring out tomatoes but we never knew that they never had wagons dedicated for vegetables, tomatoes and other perishables. That story was a very bitter one because we lost our money. In fact, we did it twice because we were trying to see how we could ventilate the wagons on the second occasion but the result was still the same, so we had to stop using the railway. The reason we went for the railway was because the transportation cost is cheaper; secondly, there is no risk of losing goods to accidents and thirdly, it can accommodate more goods in a coach than the truck and we also see it as a way of preserving our roads because the more trailers and heavy duty vehicles you take-off the roads the more the lifespan of our roads. In doing that, we realized that the railway system in Nigeria is not built for perishable items and foods like rice, beans and others.”

When quizzed on how the issue was resolved, she said “The management of Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), and Comet Rail services were aware because we wrote them official letters and emails and we were hoping that something like rebate or compensation would come in but nothing like that happened  at the end of the day. The loss was about 75% worth N2million and there was no compensation at all. All loses was borne by us”

In a related scenario late last year, a man identified as Mr. Segun Baruwa Omolola who is a regular NRC customer had complained of a missing carton of torchlight among the nine sent from Minna on 19th October, 2106 at the Ebute Metta Junction (EBJ) Station in Lagos, where upon several visits he was referred to Iddo and subsequently the Assistant Director Marketing’s office at NRC headquarters without any solution. He said the price of the goods as at the time it got missing was over N100,000 but with the current inflation rate in Nigeria now, it would have gone thrice higher than its initial price.

“I don’t know why they are tossing me around like a dice but I am ready to go to any length to recover my goods” Mr Baruwa threatened.

When contacted on the issue, Mr. Jerry Oche said he wasn’t aware of such issue as none came to lodge any related complaints to him. He explained that his district can only take delivery of goods sent from the North and payments are made through the districts where the goods are coming from. Mr. Oche clarified that NRC has a way of handling customers’ complaints effectively even as he assured that every complaints on such issues shall be properly handled.

He said “payments for goods going out of Lagos can only be made through my district but tell whoever has such issues to come and report to me officially and I assure you that I will take it up immediately. The legal department is there to handle such issues. My office is easy to locate and I am very accessible. We don’t joke with our customers’ welfare.”

Mr. Oche advised people to desist from entrusting their transactions with persons, agencies or organizations not trusted. He explained that NRC would only deal with people that make direct transactions with her not those whose transactions were done on their behalf. This he explained as the rationale behind some challenges where people deliberately hike the normal fare for personal gains at the detriment of the customers.

“Come to NRC directly and do your business, our process is transparent. We only deal with those that paid to us directly and they are the ones that can lodge complaints. So, if you have any problem, you should simply approach the place where you paid or the person who received the payment from you. It would then be quite easy to trace.” He said

MMS Plus observed gap in communication between NRC management and the customers who often do not know the right places to lodge their complaints when the need arises and in most cases when these complaints are lodged, there is little or no attention given to it by the receivers of the  complaints.

It is important for NRC to prioritize the welfare of their customers most especially at this critical stage that there is massive rehabilitation of the railway transport system in the country.

The image of the corporation has to be reshaped and protected via impressive customers’ relations mechanisms.

NRC should look into ways of managing the ugly situation where customers bear the burden of all losses emanating from accidents or other technical issues during their patronage of the railway transport system.

Strategies for adequate sensitization on how and where customers can lodge complaints and have issues addressed expediently and efficiently should be deployed.
SERVICOM and Consumers Protection Council (CPC) should wake up from their slumber and protect the people’s right.