Wanted: More female bus captains on board
Senior Minister of State Josephine Teo (standing, left) with bus captains Siti Nurul’ain from SMRT and Ms Du Kebin from SBS Transit at a dialogue session at Yishun Temporary Bus Interchange yesterday. Photo: Don Wong
SINGAPORE — To beef up the starved ranks of public bus drivers here, the Land Transport Authority and public bus operators are looking to get more women to join the traditionally male-dominated industry.
More will be done to raise awareness among women of job opportunities in the public transport industry, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo yesterday.
“The increase in the share of women bus captains grew very slowly. Five years ago, it was 5 per cent. Now, it is 6 per cent,” said Mrs Teo, who spoke to reporters after a tea session with 16 female bus captains at Yishun Temporary Bus Interchange.
Public-bus operator SBS Transit has about 400 female bus captains while SMRT has around 125.
“(We want to) dispel the fears they have that this is a very difficult skill to learn and a difficult lifestyle to have,” said Mrs Teo, who added that the authorities will look into some suggestions raised at the tea session.
Several newly-wed captains raised the idea of having childcare and infant care centres within bus interchanges.
“This will be helpful for working mothers who cannot afford to hire domestic helpers,” said SBS Transit bus captain Lim Lee Ping, who got married last year and plans to have children.
Mrs Teo said the authorities will look into better ways of “organising facilities (at new bus interchanges) ... not only for lady bus captains, but it could also be a matter of great convenience for the general public”.
Another suggestion was to have toilets dedicated to bus captains in the new bus interchanges and integrated transport hubs. “It’s not that bus captains don’t want to share (with the public), but they have very limited time between one service and the next,” said Mrs Teo.
The bulk of challenges raised at the tea session, however, were not gender-specific. These include a lack of parking lots at bus interchanges and difficulties taking days off, especially during festive periods.
SMRT’s Mdm Koh Guek Khim, for instance, said she had managed to be with her family on the eve of Lunar New Year only thrice in the past decade that she has been a bus driver.
“Now, (my family members) accommodate my schedule and we have our reunion dinners on other days,” said the 51-year-old.
On what motivated them to join the profession, several female bus captains cited family support.
Sociology graduate Siti Nurul’ain Hamdan, 25, said her parents had encouraged her to take up SMRT’s part-time scheme. She had aspired to be a bus driver since she was a child, after tagging along on rides with her father, who was a private-bus driver.
“The five-hour shifts allow me to still spend time with my husband. Although I have to wake up at four in the morning every day, I look forward to coming to work … my dream is to drive a bendy bus,” she said.
The predominance of males in the industry was not a great concern for most of the female bus captains TODAY spoke to. Instead, they hope for greater respect from commuters.
“Some passengers vent their anger on us (and) even utter vulgarities. These things do affect us emotionally,” said Mdm Koh.
