SBS Transit's Actions Contradicts Government Policy
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No drivers, so SBS Transit turns to China
By Mindy Tan
March 11, 2008
FEWER Singaporeans and Malaysians want to drive public buses.
So SBS Transit has hired its first batch of 20 drivers from China.The company confirmed that the new bus captains have been sourced from its subsidiary bus company in China, and it is in the process of bringing them in.
It also said that a two-year attachment has been worked out for these drivers.
The New Paper checked with the company after reader Paul Antony Fernandez, a security project officer, 42, called us on hearing of the employment of the Chinese drivers.
He asked: 'Isn't this a total contradiction to our Government policy of providing our people with employment and bringing down the unemployment rate?'
In an e-mail reply to The New Paper, Ms Tammy Tan, SBS Transit's corporate communications director, said that over the years, the company has found it increasingly difficult to get people to join the profession.
It does not help that the demand for bus captains is growing as more bus services are rolled out.
Even the SBS Transit New Bus Captain Scheme, launched in 2005, has lost its shine.
That year, enhanced salary structures drove a bus driver's basic entry salary up from $936 to $1,200 per month for Singaporeans.
Bus drivers also became known as bus captains, providing an essential service.
SBS Transit then announced that it received three times more job applications from Singaporeans in the first month of the scheme's inception, three times more than the previous average of 60 applications a month.
But now, it seems that foreign workers from China may be the way to go.
Ms Tan said: 'Thanks to a recent relaxation by the Ministry of Manpower on non-traditional sources of manpower, we are now looking at supplementing our current bus captain pool with those from China.'
Are Singaporeans apprehensive about driving public buses? Or is a foreigner's willingness to accept lower wages the reason for the switch?
SBS Transit now has 5,200 bus captains under its wing - 75 per cent of whom are Singaporeans or permanent residents.
Malaysian drivers make up the remaining 25 per cent. Bus captains earn between $1,600 and $3,500 a month.
The average gross for most is about $2,300 a month, excluding an annual wage supplement and bonuses.
The company said that the new Chinese bus captains' salaries have not been decided.
'We are still in the process of negotiating the terms,' Ms Tan said.
Mr Fernandez feels that SBS Transit has found the easy way out.
The concerned commuter spoke to more than 10 bus captains during his frequent rides, and concluded that better work welfare can solve the employment problem.
Mr Fernandez said: 'Upon hearing their woes, I feel the turnover rate can be reduced and good employers retained if better work welfare is provided.'
SBS bus captains work six days a week. On average, they clock nine hours a day.
Ms Tan said that 12 per cent of a work day is spent on breaks in between trips.
But traffic congestion often deprives drivers of that rest period.
Mr Fernandez said: 'Bus captains have told me that when they are held up by bad traffic, they return back to base later than scheduled and their rest times are shortened.
'While at the Toa Payoh bus interchange, I saw a bus captain drive Service 143 into the bus bay, run to the toilet, clocked in and out, and in less than five minutes, he was back in the driver's seat preparing for the next trip.
'When I boarded the bus, I asked him why he did not take a drink or a meal.
'He replied, 'No choice, due to adverse traffic conditions'.'
Bus captains have to begin their next trip fairly quickly to minimise further inconvenience caused to commuters waiting at the bus stops.
BAD TRAFFIC SHORTENS BREAKS
SBS Transit acknowledged this problem.
Ms Tan said: 'In cases of extreme traffic congestion, where buses are caught in a bad jam, bus captains do return to the interchanges very late, thus affecting their trip schedule.'
She added: 'This is one of the many challenges that we deal with in our bus operations and we appreciate the dedication of our bus captains.'
SBS Transit said that the Chinese New Year celebrations at Chinatown last month caused a traffic build-up, from Eu Tong Sen Street tailing to North Bridge Road on some days.
Buses arrived at the interchanges late, some by as much as 45 minutes, it said.
Mr Fernandez's parting shot: 'Bus captains are also ordinary human beings like all of us, who need ample rest to recharge and be alert and stay healthy while on the road.
'Please look into this management area first, before looking for other solutions.'
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erm
they have difficulty finding ppl who want to drive the bus.
you cannot "steal" jobs from locals if the locals don't want them.
duh
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Locals dun want to work due to long shift work, somemore Singaporeans love to complain here complain there for no reasons, somemore gotta fear of getting assaulted...
Somemore ppl want more bus svs, better frequency... with labour shortage, who is going to fill it up?
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if u think dat polytechnic diploma holders and university degree holders will drive a bus..........
with pay of $1600 to $3500 (3500 is if u hav worked for many years), u think uni holders will work as bus drivers (dun forget, uni graduates' starting salary for a job is abt $3000)? even polytechnic diploma holders will think twice. Adding on that it is quite a huge stress to be on the road for the most of the time in the day, with long hours and maybe 5 minutes break only, it is no wonder dat dip and deg holders will not take this job.
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what the different? blue colour NTUC 44 seater buses? can pick up bangala on Sunday, along the road, can board bus at any road junction, bus even can wait for passenger, and most importance collection mostly enter into driver & fare collector pocket.
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Aiyah... there are already so many prc chinese in sg working in different industries. There's no big deal to employ bus drivers from china.
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The problem is that if the authorities do not tackle the problem of cheap foreign labour flooding our country, they will continue to keep the salaries of such jobs low. Singaporeans who are not qualified to have better paying jobs (low academic qualifications etc.) will suffer from this. Not everyone is born to have diplomas or degrees... why are we so agreeable to companies making more money by hiring cheap foreign labour, but so reluctant to empathise with fellow Singaporeans... sigh
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Originally posted by holygoh:
The problem is that if the authorities do not tackle the problem of cheap foreign labour flooding our country, they will continue to keep the salaries of such jobs low. Singaporeans who are not qualified to have better paying jobs (low academic qualifications etc.) will suffer from this. Not everyone is born to have diplomas or degrees... why are we so agreeable to companies making more money by hiring cheap foreign labour, but so reluctant to empathise with fellow Singaporeans... sigh
Even if wages goes upYou wanna do shift work?
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Originally posted by hiphop2009:
if u think dat polytechnic diploma holders and university degree holders will drive a bus..........
with pay of $1600 to $3500 (3500 is if u hav worked for many years), u think uni holders will work as bus drivers (dun forget, uni graduates' starting salary for a job is abt $3000)? even polytechnic diploma holders will think twice. Adding on that it is quite a huge stress to be on the road for the most of the time in the day, with long hours and maybe 5 minutes break only, it is no wonder dat dip and deg holders will not take this job.
dunno how they come out wif $3500/mth income???
my in law be a bus driver for 27 yrs, never reach 2.8k before!!
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Originally posted by holygoh:
The problem is that if the authorities do not tackle the problem of cheap foreign labour flooding our country, they will continue to keep the salaries of such jobs low. Singaporeans who are not qualified to have better paying jobs (low academic qualifications etc.) will suffer from this. Not everyone is born to have diplomas or degrees... why are we so agreeable to companies making more money by hiring cheap foreign labour, but so reluctant to empathise with fellow Singaporeans... sigh
simple logic!!the board of director of sg company will never think of they are making enough....although they might making million a yr....
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Originally posted by baby hunter:
dunno how they come out wif $3500/mth income???
my in law be a bus driver for 27 yrs, never reach 2.8k before!!
His boss never recommend more increase for him lor...
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Originally posted by holygoh:
The problem is that if the authorities do not tackle the problem of cheap foreign labour flooding our country, they will continue to keep the salaries of such jobs low. Singaporeans who are not qualified to have better paying jobs (low academic qualifications etc.) will suffer from this. Not everyone is born to have diplomas or degrees... why are we so agreeable to companies making more money by hiring cheap foreign labour, but so reluctant to empathise with fellow Singaporeans... sigh
So it's ok to raise bus fares since their cost goes up? -
Originally posted by holygoh:
The problem is that if the authorities do not tackle the problem of cheap foreign labour flooding our country, they will continue to keep the salaries of such jobs low. Singaporeans who are not qualified to have better paying jobs (low academic qualifications etc.) will suffer from this. Not everyone is born to have diplomas or degrees... why are we so agreeable to companies making more money by hiring cheap foreign labour, but so reluctant to empathise with fellow Singaporeans... sigh
Just two questions:
If you can earn 1k to 1.2k by being a sales person at a departmental store from 10am to 9pm, would you prefer to earn 1.6k by driving constantly on the road in a big and bulky vehicle?Or if your daily net income is around $50 to be a taxi driver, also driving on the road the whole day like the bus driver, would you want to be a bus driver?
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Originally posted by eagle:
Just two questions:
If you can earn 1k to 1.2k by being a sales person at a departmental store from 10am to 9pm, would you prefer to earn 1.6k by driving constantly on the road in a big and bulky vehicle?Or if your daily net income is around $50 to be a taxi driver, also driving on the road the whole day like the bus driver, would you want to be a bus driver?
so it mean is not only the pay play the part. is other welfare & pressure..... -
Perhaps we should just double or even triple the wages of bus drivers.
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Originally posted by onlooker123:
Perhaps we should just double or even triple the wages of bus drivers.
I realised that most of the employer in sg will never realise or admit that is their problems for unable to get enough workers.....if the income of being a bus driver can reach as high as 3k a mth, sure will be able to get Malaysian or even s'porean to work for them. why not the case??? obviously, is not becos only the salary that ppl are looking for....
either is too much of pressure or the welfare is suck!
or.....buses company is working the easier way out...dun even bother to think how to attract ppl, or even making of the excuses to hire china ppl....so that can further lower now the wages...so that the bosses will make even more money....
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They rather squeeze their bus drivers than work out a scheme which allows the drivers to drive for less hours (which might mean employ more drivers)
In any case, they are still profit driven, even though they are serving the public.
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that is a sign... raising their own salaries and bringing in FT to lower our salaries through completing factors...
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Originally posted by eagle:
They rather squeeze their bus drivers than work out a scheme which allows the drivers to drive for less hours (which might mean employ more drivers)
In any case, they are still profit driven, even though they are serving the public.
is no longer a public transport
is a must transport to make public money.....large sum of money
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Not contradicting official policy what.
Policy is to increase the population without regard to social well being and to squeeze more money out from these new residents.
No?
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So much of becoming a '1st world country' I think we will be back to a '3rd world' soon.
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Originally posted by hiphop2009:
if u think dat polytechnic diploma holders and university degree holders will drive a bus..........
with pay of $1600 to $3500 (3500 is if u hav worked for many years), u think uni holders will work as bus drivers (dun forget, uni graduates' starting salary for a job is abt $3000)? even polytechnic diploma holders will think twice. Adding on that it is quite a huge stress to be on the road for the most of the time in the day, with long hours and maybe 5 minutes break only, it is no wonder dat dip and deg holders will not take this job.
You think Singapore only has poly and degree holders? What about those less educated ones? SBS Transit should do more to attach people in this area.
In the article, didn't it mentioned that after some previous attempt, "SBS Transit then announced that it received three times more job applications from Singaporeans in the first month of the scheme's inception, three times more than the previous average of 60 applications a month."? This show that Singaporean and PR are still willing to take up the job.
As pointed out by Mr Fernandez, the management should look into improving the welfare of its employee before looking oversea.
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if this chinamen drives like they are in china, then we are just waiting for accident to happen.
we should also tell the gahmen tt they are getting too expensive and we are replacing them with the chinese premier and his team. they run a country wif a billion ppl and surely they will kick butt in a small city like sinkapore. and they will cost only a quarter of what these current crop are charging.
how about that?
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Originally posted by weiqimun:
if this chinamen drives like they are in china, then we are just waiting for accident to happen.
we should also tell the gahmen tt they are getting too expensive and we are replacing them with the chinese premier and his team. they run a country wif a billion ppl and surely they will kick butt in a small city like sinkapore. and they will cost only a quarter of what these current crop are charging.
how about that?
They will tell u bus driver is dispensable while elite gov is not. Basically they are telling there is indeed different classification of citizen in SG.U peasant can die, I elite cannot!!!
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Originally posted by caleb_chiang:
that is a sign... raising their own salaries and bringing in FT to lower our salaries through completing factors...
you want to work even the wages is raised?I bet out of 10 here in SC, 9 would shun shift work jobs
When raises are raised, I bet SC ppl here would whine why bus fare hike
