Let’s take concrete steps to address the issue of smoking-addicted bus drivers
For health and safety reasons, public transport companies and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) should address the problem of smoking among bus drivers.
I take public buses regularly and often see the drivers having a quick puff at bus terminuses, just after they finish their shifts. Their faces show immense relief as they reunite with their cigarette sticks. Bus drivers chewing vigorously on their nicotine gums is also a common sight.
Heavy smokers need their puffs at short intervals. It is doubtful that a nicotine-dependent bus driver does not crave for his cigarettes over a journey that often exceeds their nicotine “refuel time”.
The onus is on the bus companies and LTA to prove that smoking-addicted bus drivers do not compromise passenger safety owing to the distraction caused by their nicotine craving.
By addressing the smoking problem, I do not mean a perfunctory advice to employees to quit smoking, distributing cessation pamphlets or making known the QuitLine number from the health authorities.
There should be more substantive and purposeful corporate action to set targets to reduce the smoking rate among hired drivers, for the sake of passenger safety.
A policy of preferential hiring of non-smokers for new drivers should be in place.
There should also be mandatory smoking cessation requirement for existing smoking drivers.
It is time that we seriously make non-smoking a requirement as part of the job description of a bus driver for public safety.
