STC partners DVLA to establish testing Centre

The Intercity State Transport Company Limited (STC) is to collaborate with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to establish a new vehicle testing and examination centre within its yard in Accra.

The facility, if established, would help provide services on day and night basis to customers to reduce traffic and pressure at the DVLA Offices, Mr. Samuel Nuamah Donkoh, Managing Director of the Company said at a press conference in Accra on Thursday.

Outlining the vision of the company, he said, queuing for tickets would be stopped as customers can now purchase their tickets online, the company’s parcel services would also be re-branded and the STC would enhance its role maintain an effective time management.

Mr. Donkoh said his administration would promote mental transformation of the staff, and initiate training and re-training as a tool to enhance efficiency in all units of the company, as well as provide some packages for drivers and mechanics to sharpen their skills to maintain enviable position in the industry.

The Managing Director announced that with immediate effect, all STC drivers would undergo a compulsory medical screening to assess and determine their status for the tasks ahead.

Mr. Donkoh said a special training package for managers, in modern management and customer care, to address the skills gap of the front desk staff would be initiated.

He said the company was considering the options of bringing in new fleet of buses but contended that it would for the meantime make do with the 39 buses it currently has, which would be put on routes that would give maximum impact.

Mr. Donkoh urged Ghanaians to change the negative perception that anything owned by government was less productive, and pointed out that the ineffectiveness in managing the affairs of state owned enterprises must give way to quality management.

He said many people had proposed the complete privatisation of the company, yet the government had kept faith with its operations with the hope of transforming it into a viable and vibrant one to complement other private transport companies to provide quality services to the people.

The answer to why the company would not join the already tall list of state owned enterprises in the business cemetery Is that I see the passion and willingness of the company’s staff wanting to change to prove skeptics wrong and make themselves proud, Mr. Donkoh said.

He gave the assurance that he was going to run an open administration, ready to listen to the workers to effect quality change, but would resist any individual view having the tendency of collapsing the company.

We are looking for a new vision that would inspire and influence an attitudinal change of all staff and we are also interested in getting strategic partners to invest in the company so that we can reconstruct and get in new buses, Mr. Donkoh said.