Road Haulage Constraints in the Transportation of Petroleum Products in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria, about 80% of petroleum movements are done on the road and there has been a steady growth in number of road tanker vehicles. This study examines road haulage constraints in the transportation of petroleum products. The study relied on primary data obtained through systematic administration of questionnaire to truck drivers at the point of waiting to load petroleum products in Kaduna Refinery. In all, 182 respondents were sampled. These problems were rank-ordered, the result of the study reveals that the major constraint confronting tanker drivers in conveying petroleum products to the selected locations is delay at police and military check points (mean= 1.72), followed by mechanical problems (mean=2.17), using K-W non parametric test. Furthermore, the correlation matrix of the trucking problem result reveals that five pairs of the constraints were significant with the strongest positive correlation being that of bad roads and delay in offloading, r=0.81, p< 0.001. These results are fundamental for the prioritization of palliative measures to improve the constraints of road haulage of petroleum products in northern Nigeria.