FINES ON BUS OPERATORS

Column: 1025

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FINES ON BUS OPERATORS

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(Objectives and adequacy of quanta): **

16.

Mr Siew Kum Hong asked the Minister for Transport what is the objective of fines imposed by the Public Transport Council on bus operators for non-compliance with Quality of Service standards and whether the quanta are adequate.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Since October 2007, the Public Transport Council (PTC) has put in place a penalty framework to enforce its set of Quality of Service (QoS) standards for basic bus services. The penalty framework sends a strong and clear signal to the operators that they should consistently strive to do better than what the QoS standards stipulate.

The penalties vary with the nature of non-compliance. Broadly, an operator could fail to comply either at the level of an individual bus service, for example, services that are overcrowded, or at the level of its entire bus operation, for example accident rate and bus breakdown rate. Penalties range from $100 per day for each non-compliant bus service in the former, to $10,000 per month for each non-compliant standard in the latter. Given that there are about 260 basic bus services, the financial penalties for non-compliance can add up to a significant sum if the operators are not vigilant in their operations.

In the PTC’s recent assessment of the operators’ performance from December 2007 to May 2008, the bus operators largely met the QoS standards set but also had some instances of non-compliance. These include non-compliance with standards, such as scheduled trips operated, adherence to scheduled headways and passenger loading. As a result, financial penalties of $9,300 and $1,000 were imposed on SBS Transit and SMRT Buses respectively.

But such instances of non-compliance do not just penalise the operators financially. As Mr Cedric Foo had noted in a report in the Straits Times , the operators "carry a reputation risk in not meeting the standards". He highlighted an important aspect of the penalty framework, which is the signalling and reputation effect, which goes beyond the direct cost of financial penalties. In this regard, I note that SBST had earlier said it was "sorry and disappointed" over its instance of non-compliance in the latest QoS assessment, and that it will step up efforts to improve.

The bus operators are purchasing more buses, as well as accelerating the recruitment and training of bus drivers. Regular commuters on public transport would have noticed the newer buses already plying our roads. Such efforts by the operators show that the penalty framework helps in inducing the operators to enhance their operations to comply with the QoS standards.

Going forward, the PTC will review the penalty framework as and when necessary to ensure that it remains effective.

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