Fines not the only tool to make public transport operators do their job: Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow
SINGAPORE: Fines are not the only tool to ensure that public transport operators do their job, said acting Transport Minister Jeffrey.
He was speaking in a wide-ranging interview with the media earlier in June, where he also gave his views on hot-button transport issues that have dominated the headlines since he took on the role last month.
One of these was the Jun 3 announcement that transport operator SMRT would be fined S$3 million (US$2.33 million) over a six-day disruption along the East-West Line in September 2024.
Commenting generally on using fines to penalise public transport operators for lapses in service, Mr Siow said the system was used as a means of reducing the financial resources of the public transport company.
This in turn affects the company's bottom line and consequently, 'what it can pay to its people and what it can do for itself'.
But beyond financial penalties, it is about "working with them together as part of the whole system, making sure that their interests and their motivations are aligned overall with the longer-term goal; with a larger goal of making public transport a good transport system in Singapore', said Mr Siow.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said earlier this month that as asset owner, it has since strengthened its oversight of operators' management of assets, including internal procedures to adjust maintenance schedules, among other measures taken.
Mr Siow said he could not comment on the specific incident in September, as it remains unknown if SMRT will appeal the fine.
He separately noted that rail reliability has improved over the years, from 67,000 mean km between failure (MKBF) in 2012, to 2 million MKBF today.
MKBF is the widely accepted engineering measure for rail reliability.
"It doesn't mean that it is perfect ... I think disruptions will happen every now and then, invariably, and that's where it's important for the train network to be resilient," he said.
And one important feature of a resilient network is for commuters to have alternative routes should a train service on a particular track be disrupted.
This is where the Circle Line and the future Cross Island Line is "absolutely critical", he said.
These lines cut through many others, ensuring that if one line is down, commuters can switch to another to get to their destinations.
"Slightly longer, but it's not disastrous," said Mr Siow.
ON PHV DRIVERS' WORKING HOURS
Mr Siow was also asked if more could be done to manage the working hours of private-hire drivers, after the death of 49-year-old Gavin Neo last month from a stroke.
The Grab driver was known to have worked up to 15-hour days to support his two teenage children.
Mr Siow said that whether the highest tier of incentives for private-hire drivers should exist on ride-hailing platforms like Grab is 'something worth asking them about'.
'I think they have a certain incentive system, and there's a very high achieving tier … My understanding is that there's very few drivers on that tier,' said Mr Siow.
'The question is whether they really even need that at all if there are very few people on the tier."
Drivers that CNA earlier spoke to said that while the incentive systems of some ride-hailing companies could motivate them to earn more money, it could also have the unintended effect of pushing them too hard and thus result in health issues or accidents.
Grab has told CNA that its incentive programmes are within guidelines set by the tripartite Workplace Safety and Health Council; and that on average, the number of hours spent by its drivers are well within those guidelines.
The Council encourages drivers to limit their shifts to no more than 12 hours.
In the wake of Mr Neo's death, Member of Parliament Yeo Wan Ling, who is adviser to the National Private Hire Vehicles Association (NPHVA) and National Taxi Association (NTA), urged platform operators to take steps to improve the lives and livelihoods of platform workers by creating fair incentives.
'Avoid schemes that incentivise platform workers to work long hours to get rewards,' she said. 'Allow reasonable rest duration for workers to avoid fatigue.'
As to whether LTA would step in to better regulate the working hours of private-hire drivers, Mr Siow said these could come into play if it was a matter of safety.
'Meaning that we find that the accident rates of PHVs are much higher than private vehicles, then obviously we have to step in,' he said.
However, this is 'not really the case' based on prevailing data, he added.
Mr Siow also noted that the union has not called for regulation of hours either.
"Because I think they recognise that PHV drivers themselves have different views on … what's the right number of hours to drive,' he said.
The Ministry of Transport told CNA that taxi and private-hire car drivers undergo training on occupational health hazards as part of their vocational licence courses, which recommend taking short breaks after every two hours of driving.
It added that all taxi and ride-hailing platform operators have guidelines for drivers to have sufficient rest, and remind them either through taxis' mobile data terminals or ride-hailing apps to take breaks after long shifts.
'Some operators have also deployed various forms of driver assistance technology and anti-fatigue systems to promote safe driving,' a ministry spokesperson added.
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