The cooperative of 60 truck drivers situated in Remera, Rukili I started its activities in 2008 and had a mission to regroup drivers of small and medium trucks into an umbrella that would serve their interests.
The trucks transport mainly construction materials and give other transport services such as moving goods from wholesalers to retailers.
Niyonshuti Jean d`Amour the president of the cooperative says that trucks park inside the cooperative premises and wait for customers.
He told IGIHE that every car that gets a deal has to pay between RwF 500 and 1000 according to its size. This income goes into the account of the cooperative.
In addition, every member has to pay a monthly contribution of Rwf 12,000.
The cooperative generates a monthly income of Rwf 800,000 up to 1,200,000. Members of the cooperative are happy about many benefits obtained from their membership despite challenges.
Ngoga François is a truck driver and has been a member for the last 3 years. He says being a member of this cooperative had been beneficial to him as it help members to pull resources together and support each other.
He said that members of this cooperative help each other when one of them is building a house, they help him to deliver bricks to construction site.
Ntabara Emmanuel the general secretary of the cooperative told IGIHE that there are drivers who are not members of this cooperative and who bring their trucks outside its premises to lure customers coming to get services from the cooperative.
He pointed out that these drivers don`t pay taxes and sometimes cheat customers. This affects negatively on the income the cooperative should get as it has to pay taxes, a monthly rent of Rwf 500,000 and other costs they incur.
Niyonshuti Jean d`Amour told IGIHE that authorities should help them to deal with this problem as they have repeatedly addressed it without much success.
He said that another hindrance they face is that of being stopped by the traffic police as they transport goods around the city.
Niyonshuti asks traffic police to ease their job by precisely telling them which way to use so that they can easily reach all corners of the city.
The cooperative has so far benefited the community by training young people in mechanics.
More than 30 young men who used to be street children had been trained to repair cars and are now working inside the cooperative premises to repair trucks and earn their living from it.
Niyonshunti urges more drivers to join them instead of using malpractices to lure customers, practices that end up discouraging cooperative members as it affects their income.
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