CHALLENGES OF RUNNING A TROTRO BUSINESS AS A CAR OWNER

Trotros are privately owned vehicles which ply every route in the country. Though loosing flavour nowadays, this industry still performs well. The trotro business is a lucrative business but has alot of challenges. It was business of choice for many investors who wanted to try their hand in business.

The search for a trustworthy and experienced driver is one huge hurdle one has to surmount in this business. Some drivers are tricky and may run down your business if much attention is not paid to it. So therefore, the search for a good driver is off importance. One trick is that, trotro drivers work till about noon and call the owner that the car has broken down and need repairs. This implies that the little money the trotro driver made will be used to pay for repairs and therefore there will be no sales for the day.

Very Often, the owners get a call from their drivers that the car is involved in an accident. It is also normal for the owners to get a call that their driver is behind bus or has been detained or stand by him in a court for some violation of traffic rules.

I had a chat with Mr. Offei, who uses to own a trotro narrated his story : I use to own one, thank God I gave it out on time. From experience, only 30% of investors make anything out of this business, and it fails are : greedy drivers, greedy policemen. I then asked if the business is that bad, how come we have so many buses on the road, and he said "to succeed in this business, one must get a trustworthy driver. The driver must be a married man with children. He needs the income much more than you do, so if he misbehaviours and you withdraw the bus from him for a week, he will never mess up again.

Another person who was in the business also has this to say "I got frustrated after earnings sometiems dropped to 30GH a day. I loose huge amount amount of money to the police. To imagine that, people who never owned a trotro earned more than the owner. It was too much to take. After I finished servicing the loan from my financier, I sold it off says Aboagye.