After it’s near demise, the State Transport Company, popularly known as Intercity STC will soon take delivery of new fleets to ply major local routes within the country.The new buses are expected to arrive in two months’ time.
The company came back unto the local transport scene with a series of strategic awareness and visibility activities which has kept them still on the minds of its cherished customers.
Moving forward into the future, the state owned Transport Companywill take delivery of a number of new fleets in the coming months to augment their rebranding process and also to continue in their delivery of safe driving, comfort and reliable services.
Under a new management led by Mr. Samuel Nuamah Donkor, STC will soon be a force to reckon with on the local transport industry.
Private owned transport companies operating especially within the capital will in the coming months have to brace themselves for a stiff competition from the one time industry leader.
In an interview with the head of public affairs of the state owned transport company, Nana Ama Asafo Boakye, she reiterated the company’s resolve to take their rightful spot in the local transport industry.
Asked about the public’s response after their rebranding process, she was quick to express that the company didn’t really rebrand but actually embarked on a strategic process to “create awareness and visibility” which has been successful so far.
STC is still on the minds of many Ghanaians, thanks to this process and moreover many of their customers can testify to their impeccable safe driving which gave them high patronage a few years back.
Again quizzed on what caused the near demise of STC, the head of public affairs responded by saying that, the company had a few challenges with their fleets coupled with emerging competition and also confessed that the brand reached its point of saturation.
Despite these problems the company faced on the local scene, its dominance in the sub-region has never been in question. For some good reasons the state owned transport company have maintained its unmatched services to neighbouring countries such as, Togo, Cote D’voire and Burkina Faso and is planning a new route to Niger. Most of the STC buses ply the sub-region and it has cemented its customer base on the international scene and is very much alive.
STC’s attention will now be to capture the local scene and they have promised to take control of local routes again. Some local routes which they will want to take dominance over is the popular Accra-Kumasi and Accra-Takoradi routes which are some of the busiest routes in the country. In a few months, Ghanaians should expect safe and reliable services from STC when it takes delivery of its new fleet.
Questioned on what the company is doing to make sure that they remain the pace setters in the transport industry, Madam Asafo Boakye responded that the company is going to continue providing unmatched customer services at their terminals and within their fleet, also the comfort of customers will not be compromised and that they also intend to maintain their high standards of safe driving.
Despite the major changes and shifts on-going at STC, they remain focused on giving the best of services to the Ghanaian public. STC will remain at their Accra terminal in Kaneshie and will continue to offer transit services across the country.
According to the head of public affairs of the state transport company, they are critically addressing all challenges that may arise after they take delivery of their new fleet and also making sure that they seal all loop holes that may cause future challenges.
Staff at the state transport company are very active and on top of their business, the terminal is very busy especially in the morning and also at night especially for buses transiting from Lomé to Abidjan and other neighbouring countries. It will be recalled that workers of STC had to willingly forego two month’s salary to help purchase some buses to keep them in business. That was a very bold step these men and women took and hopefully will be rewarded for their actions in the near future.The on-going changes and re-structuring could possibly open doors for employment according to Madam Asafo Boakye.
“We are here to serve the public and it is because of them we are getting these new buses so they should come and join us as they have always done” she said in her final words.
HISTORY OF STC
The idea of setting up a national bus carrier goes as far back as 1909 when a government transport department was set up to cater for the central government. On March 9, 1965 this became a corporate body following its backing by a legislative instrument to manage a commercial transport service. This was followed up with a haulage division which was also established in 1968 and handed over to then STC to manage in addition to the passenger segment they were already handling. Intercity then STC became fully incorporated in 1995. In the year 2000 a private company VANEF took over following its acquisition of shares and that was when it became VANEF STC.
By David Acquah
