Singapore lady complained of PRC bus drivers being ignorant
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Singapore lady complained of PRC bus drivers being ignorant of bus routes
April 5, 2010
An obviously peeved Singapore lady Ms Wong Kit Peng has written a letter to the Straits Times Forum today complaining about PRC bus drivers who “did not understand simple English and were ignorant of the routes they plied.”
She related two recent encounters with PRC bus drivers who were unable to comprehend her queries:
“In the first case – SBS Transit service 151 – I asked if the bus stopped at National Junior College. The driver had difficulty with my query, even though I repeated the location a few times. The same thing happened on SMRT service 852, when I asked if the bus went to Selegie Road and Peace Centre,” she wrote.
Ms Wong wondered why SBS and SMRT are now hiring bus drivers with doubtful English language proficiencies and knowledge of the bus routes.
She thought they are doing so to cut costs:
“If bus companies have trouble hiring drivers, perhaps it is time to improve their pay. It is better to cut costs by, say, going green than hiring drivers who hurt service quality,” she ended her letter.
Ms Wong cannot be more wrong if she thinks that Singapore bus companies are recruiting PRC bus drivers because they are cheaper.
According to a Sichuan newspaper, an unknown “big” Singapore bus company is currently mass recruiting prospective bus drivers from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, China. (read article here)
The PRC applicants are offered annual salaries ranging between RMB90,000 and RMB120,000 (approximately $1,562 – $2,082 monthly taking S$1 = RMB4.80) and are also given free lodging, transport allowances and medical insurance coverage.
The applicants must have a Chinese class “A” driver and three years of driving experience of public transport in China.
With such attractive terms, it is highly unlikely that the company will encounter difficulties recruiting Singaporeans for the job.
Are PRC nationals safer drivers than Singaporeans? Or are they more experienced? Perhaps the HR managers of SBS and SMRT should go to China and take their buses for a week and witness for themselves the “performance” of PRC bus drivers:
[Photo: A PRC bus driver showing how he can "multi-task" in China]
Due the PAP’s liberal immigration and pro-China policies, large number of Chinese from mainland China have flocked to Singapore to work, study and live in recent years, many of whom are unable to speak a single word of English.
Unlike other countries like Australia and Canada, foreigners do not have to pass a basic English proficiency test to work in Singapore which explains the large number of PRC bus drivers who do not understand or speak English.
PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew said in a recent interview with National Geographic magazine that it is a “good” thing that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (from mainland China) as they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than locals.
When your correspondent took a bus driven by a PRC bus driver and half-filled with PRC nationals along Geylang road lately, he almost thought he was in some third-tier city of China.
View photos of how PRC bus drivers drive on the road here
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Big deal. I everytime w/o fail will see 1 paricular driver reading the paper while driving...... Sv169 AMK ~ WdLands
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pax cannot read the board that shows where the particular route plies at all busstops in sg? obvious questions like eg. sv88 got go amk ave 3 or not will be written there one what. still ask. zzz.
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Originally posted by Stage:
pax cannot read the board that shows where the particular route plies at all busstops in sg? obvious questions like eg. sv88 got go amk ave 3 or not will be written there one what. still ask. zzz.
there's always a group of ppl who trust their ears than their eyes.. no choiceand that lady wants to improve their pay? can.. increase bus fare, commoners make noise and the cycle goes over and over again. The bus companies know its hard to run away from their services as the private companies cannot operate unauthorised routes and taxis are the most expensive mode of land public transport. So what they do is they cut costs the easy way out - employ people who are willing to work at the rate the bus companies pay them. cant get locals? cant get enough malaysians? go china lor..
The best way out for the bus companies is prudent investments that are able to earn returns as much as their fare revenue, if not more. However, due to the company structure of SMRT and SBST, SMRT has been a better buy than SBST.
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there are so many PRCs working in singapore. I think china and spore have already done a unofficial FTA liao lar. its a win win situation for both countries really. spore create employment for PRCs and PRC allow sporean companies to come in to invest.
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Originally posted by CheckmateA1:
The PRC applicants are offered annual salaries ranging between RMB90,000 and RMB120,000 (approximately $1,562 – $2,082 monthly taking S$1 = RMB4.80) and are also given free lodging, transport allowances and medical insurance coverage.
The applicants must have a Chinese class “A� driver and three years of driving experience of public transport in China.
With such attractive terms, it is highly unlikely that the company will encounter difficulties recruiting Singaporeans for the job.
heard of overseas allowance?
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The picture above happen to let me see a svc. 963 BC reading newspaper while driving yesterday.
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Originally posted by CheckmateA1:
Singapore lady complained of PRC bus drivers being ignorant of bus routes
April 5, 2010
An obviously peeved Singapore lady Ms Wong Kit Peng has written a letter to the Straits Times Forum today complaining about PRC bus drivers who “did not understand simple English and were ignorant of the routes they plied.”
She related two recent encounters with PRC bus drivers who were unable to comprehend her queries:
“In the first case – SBS Transit service 151 – I asked if the bus stopped at National Junior College. The driver had difficulty with my query, even though I repeated the location a few times. The same thing happened on SMRT service 852, when I asked if the bus went to Selegie Road and Peace Centre,” she wrote.
Ms Wong wondered why SBS and SMRT are now hiring bus drivers with doubtful English language proficiencies and knowledge of the bus routes.
She thought they are doing so to cut costs:
“If bus companies have trouble hiring drivers, perhaps it is time to improve their pay. It is better to cut costs by, say, going green than hiring drivers who hurt service quality,” she ended her letter.
Ms Wong cannot be more wrong if she thinks that Singapore bus companies are recruiting PRC bus drivers because they are cheaper.
According to a Sichuan newspaper, an unknown “big” Singapore bus company is currently mass recruiting prospective bus drivers from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, China. (read article here)
The PRC applicants are offered annual salaries ranging between RMB90,000 and RMB120,000 (approximately $1,562 – $2,082 monthly taking S$1 = RMB4.80) and are also given free lodging, transport allowances and medical insurance coverage.
The applicants must have a Chinese class “A” driver and three years of driving experience of public transport in China.
With such attractive terms, it is highly unlikely that the company will encounter difficulties recruiting Singaporeans for the job.
Are PRC nationals safer drivers than Singaporeans? Or are they more experienced? Perhaps the HR managers of SBS and SMRT should go to China and take their buses for a week and witness for themselves the “performance” of PRC bus drivers:
[Photo: A PRC bus driver showing how he can "multi-task" in China]
Due the PAP’s liberal immigration and pro-China policies, large number of Chinese from mainland China have flocked to Singapore to work, study and live in recent years, many of whom are unable to speak a single word of English.
Unlike other countries like Australia and Canada, foreigners do not have to pass a basic English proficiency test to work in Singapore which explains the large number of PRC bus drivers who do not understand or speak English.
PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew said in a recent interview with National Geographic magazine that it is a “good” thing that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (from mainland China) as they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than locals.
When your correspondent took a bus driven by a PRC bus driver and half-filled with PRC nationals along Geylang road lately, he almost thought he was in some third-tier city of China.
View photos of how PRC bus drivers drive on the road here
LOL increase pay for wad? Bus driver dunno english nia mah....... Have u ever heard of service guides? SBST and SMRT working hard on the service guides and no1 appreciate......... Singaporeans like to complain over a small matter of things.... Not happy? Theres other mode of transport.... E.g. Taxi , MRT....
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Originally posted by TIB1234T:
The picture above happen to let me see a svc. 963 BC reading newspaper while driving yesterday.
BCs and SLs nowadays very zai..... Can read while driving.... Last time saw SL reading Lianhe Wanbao and Sin Min Re Bao......... LOL
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take bus only.. u pay for ur seats on the bus.. nt additional service from the bus driver... tat bitch want to ask so much qn seat in taxi lo.. taxi uncle can chit chat and answer all her qns while she's on the cab...
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Encounted before on 927 at Mandai. PRC driver couldn't understand much of a lady's queries. She wanted to get to aljunied... and the BC didn't know where it was. (Quite a strange question to be asked on 927). Someone else stepped it to translate. She took the bus to the nearest MRT station.