The shadow cast by a KMB （Kowloon Motor Bus Co） bus crash in Tai Po before the Chinese New Year still lingers in people's minds. The accident highlights hidden safety and supervision problems with franchised bus service. Franchised bus operators and transport authorities must promptly make improvement to heighten service quality, so as to give the public a satisfactory answer.
After the Tai Po tragedy, KMB suspends the hiring of part-time drivers. For, as the bus driver involved in the crash was a part-timer, KMB had been accused in the aftermath of ignoring safety for the sake of cost saving. So KMB suspiciously took such a move out of sulkiness. Surely the driver concerned was a part-timer, but this does not mean all part-time drivers drive irresponsibly or have safety problems. Hence, such an across-the-board measure won't be of any help. It won't help solve the problem of shortage of bus drivers, but instead will affect bus frequency and passengers' waiting time. This is really not out of the right attitude in facing face up to the accident and criticism.
As a matter of fact, nothing comes from nothing. There may be some "accidental" factors behind the fatal bus crash in Tai Po, yet it reflects some lingering hidden problems or "inevitable" factors. Therefore, suspending the hiring of part-time drivers can only "cure the symptoms", while the way to "cure the disease" lies in how to comprehensively heighten safety awareness, law-abiding awareness and service quality.
According statistics released by the Transport and Housing Bureau statistics in October, there happened 1,565 bus accidents in total in 2016, the average age of drivers involved in these accidents was 49.3, and average daily working hours for each driver in that year was 10.1.
According to franchises granted to bus operators, the daily working hours for a full-time driver should be eight. But in actual operation, it is a general practice for drivers to work overtime. Taking KMB for example, there were more than 1,600 drivers working for extra four hours or more per day in last October, which was far more than other operators such as the Citybus and First Bus which each only had over 200 drivers working overtime during the period.
The fact that bus drivers are of older age and work overtime surely has much to do with the [low] pay. As of yesterday, KMB disclosed that it would increase start monthly salary for drivers by 30% to $15,300, and overtime pay to over $90 per hour from some $70.
Pay raise surely is good news for employees. Nevertheless, for one thing, KMB's so-called pay increment in fact is to turn bonus pay based on meeting safety and "good service" requirements into part of basic salary, which seems just like playing some trickery. Secondly, even the increased salary of $15,000 is hardly attractive to young drivers. More importantly, pay raise is unlikely to solve the problems of long working hours, frequent overtime work and the most important issue of sense of responsibility. Specific causes for the fatal accident in Tai Po have yet to be determined by the court. But from spot news, the happening of the accident obviously had something to do with the mood of the driver at the time. This is something that cannot be solved by money, but a problem involving the attitude in attending to customers, which can only be solved by dealing with the root cause, that is to improve the sense of responsibility and awareness of law-abiding.
In the aftermath of the Tai Po fatal crash, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor promptly announced to set up an independent commission of inquiry chaired by a judge. Targeting at safety of franchised bus service, the commission hopefully will be able to offer suggestions handling systematic problems, such as road safety in Hong Kong, driving safety and the operation of bus companies.
Earlier, in last October, the Transport Department was working on the "Guidelines on Bus Captain Working Hours, Rest Times and Meal Breaks", which would set more specific rules on issues such as bus drivers' working hours, salaries and benefits, and duty roster. It is hoped that the heavy price paid by the Tai Po fatal bus crash could help bring about comprehensive improvement of bus service.
22 February, 2018
