They say saloon car drivers are notorious for overlapping and sometimes blocking their movement.
Between Mombasa and Nairobi trucks can travel 650 kilometres instead of the normal 500 on the highway.
Long distance truck drivers transporting heavy loads along the Northern Corridor say they want other motorists forced to adhere to road traffic rules to avoid accidents.
They say private car motorists are notorious for overlapping and sometimes blocking their movement.
“These motorists don’t have courtesy because they can see the load is wide but they get into the way of the escort vehicles forcing us to stop,” said John Njoroge, who has been on the road since December 13 last year.
He is transporting a beer tank from Mombasa to Mbarara in Uganda, which was offloaded at the port of Mombasa on October 19 last year but could not leave the city due to political uncertainty.
“Some motorists are just stubborn and they don’t care that we have been on the road for months. We also experience a lot of challenges and once I am done with this trip I want to talk to my bosses and convince them to give me a bonus,” said Ngugi Maingi, another driver who had taken a rest in Eldoret and expects to arrive in Mbarara mid February.
While there are barriers including electricity lines, billboards and road signage which have to be removed to give way, the driver detours to avoid overpasses and underpasses making the route longer.
Between Mombasa and Nairobi, for instance, the truck travels 650 kilometres instead of the normal 500 on the highway.
Before transport of abnormal loads, the transporter has to seek permits from the Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha), the various Counties traversed and Kenya Power #ticker:KPLC besides mobilising a security team.
Heavy Commercial Vehicles Union secretary, John Muite, said the drivers go through more hardships than those carrying normal loads and called on employers to address their plight.
“Transporters and importers of such cargo should agree on how better to remunerate our drivers because it has become an issue of concern,” he said Monday.
