Tower Transit trials programme to help older bus drivers transition into other roles

SINGAPORE – In less than a month, Mr Alex Poon will turn 75 and no longer be allowed to drive a bus.

But the Tower Transit Singapore employee has no plans to retire just yet and will instead transition to becoming a mentor for new bus drivers.

Under a pilot programme being trialled by the public transport operator with 15 senior bus drivers, Mr Poon will accompany those new to the role as they ply their routes, imparting lessons drawn from his more than 30 years of experience.

Noting that he will teach them the value of patience, he added that he was similarly mentored by older bus drivers when he first took on the role, and this was his chance to pay it forward.

He said: “I’m very happy to pass on my experience to new drivers. I’m still healthy, and I’m happy in this job.”

Mr Poon’s new role is one of three programmes Tower Transit Singapore is testing in the light of an ageing workforce, as part of a partnership with the Alliance for Action on Empowering Multi-Stage Careers for Mature Workers.

The industry-led group, formed by the Tripartite Workgroup on Senior Employment, is working with about 30 companies to come up with solutions that support the employment of senior workers.

These include training and equipping them with new skills, as well as enabling such workers to transition into less demanding roles.

Senior Minister of State for Manpower and Health Koh Poh Koon, who is one of the three co-chairs of the work group, told the media on April 23 that senior workers are still able to “contribute significantly” to Singapore’s economy, drawing on years of experience that can be tapped.

From a medical perspective, physical and cognitive decline also sets in rapidly when a person stops working, he added, which prompts the need to have “more opportunities for our workforce to continue working for as long as they can”.

During a visit to Bulim Bus Depot in Jurong West, where Tower Transit Singapore operates out of, Dr Koh said: “The nature of work is changing. It’s not likely for anyone to continue in a linear fashion in their entire career.

“So we have to look at how to redesign multi-stage careers for our workforce as they go through different stages of life.”

In Tower Transit Singapore’s case, besides having older bus drivers transition into buddy roles for new hires, they can also opt to take on secondary roles as officers at one of its six interchanges.

While they will still be able to drive, they will be behind the wheel less often and instead assist supervisors at the interchange. For this group, their salaries will remain unchanged, the operator said. Alternatively, they can choose to work part-time, driving a total of 35 hours a week instead of 44.

Of the roughly 1,600 bus drivers Tower Transit Singapore employs, about 14 per cent are aged 60 and above.

Some have asked about continuing to work, said managing director Winston Toh.

“As a responsible employer, we want to be able to see whether there are opportunities that we can create to support the older workers,” he said.

Correction note: This story has been edited to reflect Tower Transit Singapore’s clarification that salaries will be unchanged only for bus drivers who opt to take on secondary roles.