Other Types of Work Days

Split shift

When I have been assigned with a split shift duty, the working hours and period of work will be different from either the AM and PM Shift.

Split shift is actually a very smart and clever bus operational services deployment by my concerned employer to secure a 2-fold outcome. It is been designed intentionally .This is for the happinese of many peak period commuting pax, like you !

Usually, Split shift will start as the last duty number for a particular normal AM shift or PM shift. It served to answer or remedy to the peak period, heaviest passengers traffic demands; and as a relief for BC to takes turn to go for their much needed meal time.

When I am on morning split shift, S1, I will start duty around 0630hr and end duty around 1130hr (about 4-5hours later). By ending the S1 duty around 1130hr, all my fellow BC AM shift, is expected to have taken their energy booster meal (usually will be a lot of Carb).

For S1, no meal time is been allocated (zi chi boa chung) to me. Upon “end-shift”, I have to drive the Bus back to the depot to complete the Part 1, Last Parade Task (LPT); to fill-up with diesel and park it at the designated lot as requested by the bus park attendant before I can tab my work ID card to sign-off for this morning session of work.

After a 3-4hour of  break; semula (Malay for Again, or redo); I have to report back to the starter office, at around 4pm, to do the afternoon split shift, S2 duty. S2 is needed to even out the evening peak passenger traffic load, and importantly, as a relief for the PM shift BC to have their meal. S2 duty is expected to end-duty is around 2100hr and followed by Part 2 for LPT.

It has both advantages and disadvantages inherited in this Split shift operational deployment; but I guess, to the pax, it is not their biz or concern. I presumed, to the pax, in their heart will be, “hello, “bus uncle”, can you drive faster or not; I am hungry and tire and I need to reach home asap! to prepare dinner form my family. Okay, okay lah, cool Mdm, cool man!.

The advantages are that, I will be given a split shift allowance of sgd 9/per day; and I am “free” to do what I wanted for the 3-4break hour.  And most cherished, I will have a daily “normal” night sleep. However, this type of duty does not come by frequently. Till todate, I have only performed once. Yes, just 1 time only lah.

Somehow, this kind of split shift duty is mainly been allocated to the Lady BC first, from my observation. Biologically, I think, I can understand why, human body deterioration and ageing to the pretty “face” will be accelerated, if the Lady BC does not get sufficient power sleep daily. Since I am already past my “youth”; I am OK with that so called “favourable roster arrangement for them (the female BC)”.

The disadvantages will that, the overall working time is longer, little OT, have to perform FPT and LPT twice a day; park the bus twice in the depot; fill-in the gasoline twice, sign-on twice, sign-off twice.

Alamak, such is the chore related to S1 and S2 bus service duty.

Three quarter Shift

This is a still modification and enhancement to Split Shift. The aim of introducing this type of shift work is very similar to the spilt shift role. However, TQ is meant for weekends and public holiday operations. There will be no 3-4 hours break in between. BC doing TQ will also be entitled to one meal break. Thank You lah.

Standby

It is mainly used to relief for unplanned absentees BC on a last minutes notice for no show or AWOL. It can be that the previous night, the BC may have suddenly fallen sick and been granted MC.

Standby BC will ensure that minimum bus services disruption to the public. Fortunately, for me, at this point of writing, I have yet to be rostered as “standby”. Accordingly, if I am lucky for that particular assigned standby day, and, there is 100% scheduled attendance; I can literally “lepak” (Malay for Hang Loose) either just relax around or do whatever been delegated by the starter or time-keeper.

The technical jargon in Mandarin is “he yao shui”, (i.e. drink your cough mixture and get drowsy with it lor).

Meal Time Parking Woes

(Meal time in the Canteen)

Finding a bus parking lot to park the bus at the interchange during Meal Time is always a nightmare.

Meal time bus parking is always terrifying at the interchange. Be it either lunch or dinner, the meal time window been planned in such a way that, it will most probably commence right after the morning peak period (i.e. 0945hr onwards) or before the start of the evening rush hour (i.e. 1730hr onwards)

Woodlands Regional Interchange, WRI is considered to be one of the biggest bus interchanges in the Northern Corridor of Singapore. WRI that was built in early 1990s, in my view, it is already up to its max or full capacity.  WRI hosts some 22 bus service route and maned by some 350 strong BC on each shift. During meal time, progressively, some 350 buses and its BC will take turns to return back to the interchange to park the bus and for their meals. From my observation, there are some 5 parking lots “free” every other minute on the clock for grab. So by just a simple imagination, the BCs are actually jostling for these “free lots” to park.

 As more and more buses been added to service newly sprung up townships or neighborhoods or extra buses been added to reduce the interval waiting time, WRI will certainly get more and more congested by the days. Looking for a lot to park my bus will definitely get more frustrated as the day goes by. 

This is a daily grievances and heartaches for me in order to find a place to park the bus; so that I can temporary leave the steering wheel and quickly run to the canteen (as show in the picture); and have my meal within an average of 22mins. Friends, are you able to enjoy your meal with such a short time?

I now no longer eat and chew my food; I just swallowed my food as fast as possible.  Whatever, time left from this allocated meal time, I will find a place to “charge battery”. Sometime I need to slow down my swallowing process, so I log-on to my Wi-Fi network to check on my “What’s Apps” and E-Mail.

Previously, while working from the office desk, meal time break is easily a 60mins affair. But now, it is a mere 22mins. How lah ?, Just have to accept it for now, lor.  But the question is that can this situation be improved to a more dignify level? 

 

(Picture showing a 20M  long bus, its rear is very close to the stone pebble kerb) 

The other day, it is a bit unfortunate to me; I have a commotion with another Bendy bus BC during meal time. My bus was blocked from reversing fully by this 20M long bus; I could not get out from the bus parking lot.

When a Bendy bus of some 20M long been parked beside and to the right side of the 12M bus. Because of limited reversing gap at the interchange, as shown in the picture above, for sure, I will not be able to reverse my bus fully from the parking lot as the bendy bus, rear portion, is completely blocked my right exit way.

Since I still need to continue my service duty, I got the Time-keeper help to page for him (the bendy bus BC). After a few paging, as I was waiting in the driver’s seat, he came over with rage and shouted at me; why I disturb his meal time and claimed that, he still have few more minutes to go before his allocated meal time is up.

Even though, I am already late for 8mins from my scheduled departure time, I can fully understand and empathize with this angry Bendy bus BC. I stayed calm and told him in Mandarin, “hao de, che zhang, wo deng ni”. Literally, in English, Okay, please go back to finish your meal and I will wait for you. Nevertheless, he is still not at peace, and he went straight to the Time-Keeper office to complain about me that, I have illegally parked at the bendy bus designated parking lot, which is not been allocated to a 12M bus.

Yes, I agreed to his statement; but, there is also an exception to this rule is that, during meal time, this rule can be compromised and it is the duty of the bendy bus BC not to park on the right side of the 12M long bus, on a first-come-first-own-basis.

The time keeper asked me this question, “who came here first to park”. I told him; of course I am the first to park here. After uttering some “4LW”, the Bendy bus BC jumped into his bus, reversed his bus and left. Now my right side is clear from any obstruction, and I am able to reverse the bus fully to continue with my revenue-able service to the commuters. However, the pax waiting at the designated berth was certainly not happy as I am already late by 15mins form the scheduled berth picking up and departure time. Not a good day for me lah.

Kena Sai (Malay Hokkien for – got shit) !! for that day.

Work Days

Shift Works

A Paris based journal, “Occupational & Environmental Medicine”, has classified Shift Work as: Night Shift or Shift that alternate between morning, afternoon and night.

For the next several Blog Postings, it is merely, an account of my real incidences and situation that I have been subjected to. It is never my intention and certainly not meant to ill-will, bad mouth, or criticizes or says anything that been disrespectful to my esteemed employer. It is the process of bus operation that, I have to undergo daily and sharing it with you. 

Every other week, the standard operational procedure, SOP, is that BC will be on rotating shift. A week on Morning, AM Shift and followed by a week in Afternoon, PM Shift.

When I am been scheduled to work in the AM shift; I have to clock-in by the stipulated time from the roster for “Start Duty”. The Start-Duty time, can start as early as 0505hr for the bus to leave the depot and heading to the specified bus interchange or bus stop pickup location for revenue-able service.

When I am scheduled to work on PM shift; I have to clock-out by the stipulated time from the time card for “End Duty”. The End-Duty time, can end as late as 0230hr for the bus to return back to the depot for overnight parking, so to speak.

As a rule, an interval of 12hours break is needed. So my official “Rest Day or Off Day” is usually precedes the changing over of shift.

For example, on May 29th, I am on PM Shift duty that starts work at 1500hr; and, I end my duty at 0200hr (i.e. early morning of May 30^th); it is not proper to change or rotate me to do AM shift duty on May 30^th, with a short break of just 3hours. So the Rostering Supervior will plan a Rest Day for me on May 30th.

So when I have to rotate from PM to AM; I actually, have a very short rest period. This is because on May 30^th, from 0300hr to 1100hr, I will most probably be sleeping. From the moment I am awake, i.e. in the late morning till to the time I get to bed again at around 9pm on the same day; my waking hour is less than 10hours.  

On the other hand, for AM rotates to PM shift, I do have a little more time to rest and hang loose!!  To illustrate, if on May29th, I am in the AM shift and my duty ends at 1400hr; and followed by a Rest Day on May 30^th; I will only restart my work on May 31^st at 1400hr. That’s easily more than 24hours of rest, right?

            However, all the above, so called “hours on rest day”, is still pale in comparison from my previous office desk work. Whereby, I could have a full 48hours of rest hours on both Saturday and Sunday.

 But now, sadly, I have to kiss-it-and say, goodbye.

Morning, AM Shift,

Family acceptance and tolerance of my beyond normal working hours is very crucial for my success as a Public Transport BC.

The first two month into my active duty, this subject matter almost breaks down me from continuing as a BC. When scheduled to work in the AM shift, and start duty at 0504hr. I mentally need to prepare myself for bed no later than 9.30pm. The aim is have sufficient rest and if possible, a proper sleep. I will need to wake up no later than 0400hr to get ready and leave the house for work.

The official working hour is 7.22hour/day. I am not allowed to stop the bus then and then when I hit my official working hours while half-way into the journey; usually there will be an automatic overtime authorization for me to complete my onward journey until I reached my final destination.

My work week is a 44hours, 6 days with a non-fixed rest day.

When, I am on AM shift and early to bed, my Family support to keep the noise level in the house to the minimum is very important.  My Wife while still watching the Channel 8 drama and daily news till around 11pm will mindfully keep the TV volume to just audible to herself.

However, my wife will be greatly disturbed when the alarm clock rang at 0345hr. Moreover, the noise from the bathroom of using the toilet, brush my teeth and shower will interrupt her sleep greatly. To ensure that her sleep is not so disruptive; I will use the common washroom instead of the master-room attached toilet.

For my well-being, I must be able to secure a “power sleep” of 5 hours every night. This is very important for the maintenance of my health and safe driving attention for the day.

When I am on AM shift, I can wish the Starter, Good Morning when I collected the logbook and key from him. Following that, I then can wish the Time-Keeper, Good Afternoon when I sign-off end of duty and handover the logbook and key to my PM shift partner. However, this scenario changes totally when I am on Afternoon, PM shift duty.

Afternoon, PM Shift

Till to date, I have to be frank with you that, I have limited success to secure a power-sleep of 5hours whenever I am on PM Shift.

For PM shift, work duty start around 3pm; and ends around 2am. The moment, I reach home it is already close to 3am. Tough I did not use the master bed-room for my brushing and shower; my wife will be awake by the sound coming from the opening and closing of the bedroom door, and the running water from the bathroom.

After getting my hair dry up, if I am lucky, I can be in bed by around 3.30am. The challenges did not end here. My Wife will wake up by around 0630hr, to get ready for her school duty. Then and then, my sleep is been interrupted and I will be awake too.

The sun will rise and daybreak will come soon. The chance of getting back to sleep is almost diminished. By 0930hr, I will be mentally awake, but psychically still too tired to do anything. Around, noon to 1pm, I must just take an hour of rest or nap before I leave for work.

When my PM shift duty start at the interchange, I can wish my interchange Time-Keeper, Good Afternoon; and when we meet up again for dinner, Good Evening; and when I drop off the commuting pax in the bus stop, I can wish them, Good Night; And finally when my PM shift duty ended, I can wish my depot Starter, Good Morning. Such is the unique nature of my duty working hours for PM Shift, and I do not recalled which other type of Job that is, whereby you literally can greet someone in this manner been described as above, Cool, right ?

This kind of shift daily working hours bears the hallmark on why the working hours of BC is “beyond normal”.

However, to me, the most critical Q is how to harmonize my sleeping time with my family members. Unfortunately, till to date, I still do not have a clear answer to this Q. Staying in the same household is indeed a big challenge, and My Family and I are now patiently and mindfully enduring the circumstances and shortcomings.

George Yeo, please come Home

(Mr. George Yeo is a former Singapore Foreign Minister. He is present the Chancellor of Nalanda University, India.) 

“With my age and with some health concerns, I want to retire….but frankly speaking in our country (Myanmar), there are very few young or even middle-aged people who could steer the country in the right direction.” …… President Thein Sein.  Source: ST

There has been a lot of buzz that GE2015, is just around the corner. My take is that it will be held in the month of November 2015.

I have concern on the recent Cabinet changes with the intention to build a strong "A" team for Singapore. The intention and action taken by PM Lee is a good and wholesome one for Singapore. However, I am worry that this so called 4th generation minister may not be fully “polished " and “ready "; for this coming general election, to assume the role of senior Leader/s for Singapore.

What I can see, is that, PM Lee, have the intention to give these minister as much exposure as possible, and at the shortest possible time frame. They may have sufficient local content exposure since GE2011. However, for foreign and international exposure and guanxi; in my view is still need to be reinforced.

Not meant to be “Kurang Ajar", a phrase borrowed from Malay, meaning “lacking in respect and mannerism”; we need to be realistic that the 4^th generations Ministers; collectively, are still young in terms of their political age. Majority of them has only about 5 years of real baptism of fire in politics. They may have difficulties and shortcomings to take on the demands of the higher ministerial office duty and to represent Singapore in the international arena. 

I believe more time is needed for them to learn the political rope and at the same time to be guided by a good mentor to nurture them further. Nevertheless, this time round, there will be 16 GRC, for this coming GE to be contest; I guess, in accordance to PAP tradition, some of them will be anchorman for their assigned GRC. I wish them fair wind in their sailing into GE2015.

On the other hand, for this coming GE, my wish is that, Mr. George Yeo (Yang RongWen), can come home and contest in this general election to be held soon. Regardless whether, Mr. Yeo wishes to contest under the banner of PAP or a matter of principle as an independent candidate, at this juncture is not that important. What is crucial is that, he 1^st got himself to be elected as a MP. Even though or perhaps the resident of Aljunied may have let you down; A lot of Singaporean has not forgotten about you and still wish that you can come back to serve us all. Please do not be disappointed by just one battle of your political life. You still have a War to fight in you, right?

Out of altruism for the good of Singapore and Singaporean, I wish to implore the ruling PAP government to reconsider that, Mr. George Yeo (Yang RongWen), to be invited back Home to serve this glorious city-little-red-dot country.

From what I have read, watch and hear; since 1987, Mr. Yeo is one of those 3rd generation leaders that; I believe, have benefited and learned much from Bapa Singapura, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew tutelage and pupilage.

He has direct experiential, vast international exposure and par excellence real learning opportunities from Mr. Lee Kuan Yew. I am confident that, if Mr. Yeo is once again willing to assume political leadership (I sincerely hope that he will), the legacy and those positive values  that so dear to Bapa Singapura, will not grow dark too soon in Singapore and will be carried on much longer a time with success for all Singaporean.

Majulah Singapura. 

p/s: I'm not too good in website management, dear reader, if possible, can someone afte reading this blog, help to share my blog post  to:

https://www.facebook.com/georgeyeopage

Thank You.

Roster Supervisor, Starter and Time-Keeper

(My 1^st,Time-Keeper; Mr. Bala, a considerate and understanding person; whenever I am late for the scheduled arrival time, just a simple explanation will suffice!)

In this blog posting, I wish to share with you 3 VVIP in Bus Operations.

Among them, the Roster Supervisor is the Master Warrant Officer (MWO); Starter and Time-Keeper (TK) are the Warrant Officer and Platoon Commander respectively. The MWO plans the bus duty operations on a weekly basis. A very heavy duty work position.  In WRI depot, he commands some 700 BC with responsibility and authority. Majority of us, will not dare to talk back to him whenever our request is been turn down with a fat “No”. He is really, the mastermind behind the well-being of bus operations.

When I am on AM shift duty, the Starter will issue me the pre-allocated bus to be used for the intended daily service. After handing over the bus logbook and fare printer key to me; I have to see where the bus is been parked. On some bad early morning days, I can spent more than 10mins just to locate where the bus is been parked.

Once, I have found where it is been shown in the parking plan (an A3 Photostatted paper been paste on a column or wall, been refreshed daily); I will proceed to the bus actual psychical location and to perform the required 1^st parade task, FPT. If and when the bus is not road worthy, and there is safety concern, it is my accountability and responsibility to inform the Starter and return the bus logbook and key back to him.

At this juncture, this is where; complication and morning frustration will start. If I could not recover fast from those neuro-peptide (a kind of harmful amino acid), been injected into my blood stream, the rest of the day will be not so pleasant. I will be given another bus, and the whole process of FPT will be repeated then and then.

Safe to say and I can put it to you that, the bus depot is not our ordinary HDB MSCP; some time, using a rechargeable torch light given by my son, some time back, I have to walk for minutes to get to the bus. The distant can be about 300M from where the starter office is located.

The starter will become extremely anxious whenever I am on 1^st Bus duty. The exact time to set off or depart from the depot to the designated interchange, is very critical for the smooth operations for the rest of the day. It is the Company’s mission of trust and promises in honoring our time schedule to all the commuters.

Once I left the bus depot and moving towards the designated interchange; the Time-Keeper (TK), will become my scheduler and trip driver for the next 8 to 10 working hours. Commuter seldom come into contact with them; the TK, actually, they played an extremely important role to dispatch and normalize the arrival and departure of all the buses under his or her charge.

 Technically speaking, they will do real-time scheduling for ~100 buses under their care; to provide sufficient head-way for buses. Head-way time is very crucial in preventing the much complaint “bus bunching” that is ubiquitous on the road.

When there is a jam or road block caused by road accident or road diversion, the TK will use his authority to see how best to do a next bus deployment that, can minimize pax waiting time at the bus stop and space out the timing for the buses, most importantly to avoid the bus been over packed.

Usually there is spare or break time for in between service trip. (E.g. float or dummy time in operation research term). When I am too late on my stated arrival time and the stipulated float time been lapsed; after performing my bio break (nature’s call); the TK, will to his best to plan for “down route service” for me to catch up the time been lost earlier.

For example if my duty is to start to pick up pax from WRI to BLI, I will be directed to drive straight to Ten Mile Junction in Upper Bukit Timah Road, with a “ off service display”, (an empty bus). Then upon reaching the requested bus stop, I will pick up the 1^st pax from here. In parallel, having consulted the Senior TK, my TK, he will deploy another bus to the berth in WRI to cover for my no show service earlier.

When a BC has not clocked for bus service departure; sort of a temporary MIA, the TK will make a couple of loudspeaker paging for him to swipe his card to depart or “jalan”, (Malay for Move it, man); after been paged, and the BC still no show, the TK will have to leave his office chair to go to look for that concerned BC (at times, the TK may have to walk a distant of 80M, just to find person he wanted. I guess, the BC may be too tired and has fallen asleep inside the bus!. Ooops!, Sorry. The life line of the bus daily schedule for departure and arrival is managed in this manner by these heroes behind the scene.

At times, like the recent MRT Breakdown on 7/7/2015; their action behind the scene is indeed a “gems” or “go the extra mile service” for the commuter at large.

                                     

Types of Bus Service Route

Broadly speaking, there are 2 main categories of service routes. The acquired technical jargon will be – inside line and outside line (direct translation from Mandarin, “nei xian and wai xian”).

After my POP, I am stationed at Woodlands Regional Interchange, WRI. WRI hosts some 22 bus service route and maned by some 700 strong BC. In my early months of my work, I have the opportunity to expose myself to both types of services. Both have its unique features of difficulties and challenges.

The “internal line” will bore me to tears. The routine is so monotonous with round trips that lasted about 33mins or so. Each day, I have to do a “45 degree forward park” 12 times and “reverse backward” the bus 12times at the Interchange Parking Lot. Some much shorter services will have some 20 round trips per shift. What a big diff, previously, during while still working from the office desk; I only need to park my car once or twice at the HDB MSCP per day. After doing my second route service for close to 7 long months, in early July, I was assigned to do Svc858, an outside trunk line.

The external-line is more challenging and I actually begin to fall in love with it. However, it has a lot of risk and fear factor; unpleasant situation of fatal accident, erratic pax behavior and action; and been subjected much unpredictable traffic conditions.

On 19^th July 2015 (3^rd Day of Hari Raya Puasa), I witnessed a very unfortunate event of fatal accident, and the scene stay in mind for the entire day each time I closed my eyes. The fatal accident occurred right in front of Khatib MRT station; having collided with a van, the biker got killed on the spot and lying on the other left lane. I saw the unfortunate event (the biker’s body) twice on that day. One on my way driving to Changi Airport, east wise, on the opposite side of the road, I saw the dead body lying on the road, and on my way back to Woodlands from Changi Airport, I literally, drove the bus side by side within 0.5M with the demised person. I guess the least I can do at that moment, in a silent and a simple prayer for this dead person.

On 22th July 2015, I put on another cap, besides working as an official BC; I drove the public commuter bus almost like a F1 driver. At 2300hr while at WRI berth, a Filipino young maiden broad Svc858 bound for Changi Airport. She has two piece of luggage with her. She was seated directly at the back of me, a blind spot seat. Certainly near, Yishun Sport Hall, she lean over to my left shoulder and asked me; Uncle, how long more to go to reach Changi Airport. I told her, it depends on the traffic condition.

Looking at my watch and it is close to 0000hr, I told her, if will take about 35mins to 45mins. (Depending on where you are alighting). The bus will first called at T3, then T1 and finally at T2. Along the way, there will be 3 security safety checks!! She told me that, she needs to check the plane for Manila flight at 0055hr. with less than 60mins to catch her plane home, her predicament is fully understandable. Since the bus has a speed limiter, the max speed, I can go is 60km/hr. However while, the bus is in the down slope motion, and because of Newton’s Law on momentum; the bus black box will it buzz, and buzz until I intentionally slow the bus down.

At midnight, the traffic is light in the TPE highway, and been fully mindful of road safety, I just let the buzzer go on and go. I guess I will be given a pep talk for speeding pretty soon by my supervisor. At worst case, I may be getting a verbal warning. However, at that moment, I am glad that I have truly embraced the value of “safely”, moving people and enhancing lives. I hope she managed to catch the plane for her much awaited homecoming, ya.

Furthermore, due to the ongoing construction and building of new under-ground MRT lines, services that traveling above it or at the proximity to this under-ground lines, will have frequent journey disruption and service delays. Take Service 178 for example, that plying along the old Woodlands Road and Upper Bukit Timah Road, road diversions and new road been paved almost every other months is a norm. All in, this makes driving very difficult at times and certainly needs tons of patient seating and holding the steering wheel and handbrake stick.

The minimum requirement for a BC to be fully certified as BC grade 1 staff level; is to master and familiar with at least 2 revenue-able service routes. Soon, with more and more new township and neighbourhood coming out; I think here in Singapore, the number of bus service routes will have to increase and this can translate into learning more and more revenue-able service routes to come for all BC.

a complementary idea for “CET”, continuous education and training! 

My Mentors

(seen here with my 3rd Mentor, a well-mannered Senior BC, Sifu SS Wong)

It is a baptism of fire for me, for the 1^st time, I am now all on my mark, get set and Go, solo…..to do revenue-able service for my Employer.

  

Before I can go solo, and become “Hans Solo”, I needed to be mentored. The night before, I just could not get to sleep. Worry for this and worry for that, the whole night. When there is pax or commuter on board the bus; the whole ball game of driving a public bus is changed and different from just driving around “makan angin” Or literally “eating wind”, with your fellow trainee and trainer.

Mentors play a very important role in providing practical guidance to newly minted BC. Mentor themselves are senior or chief BC with many years of driving experience under their belt. Each time a BC undertakes a new route revenue-able service; an experience senior will served as mentor and will be attached to him or her for a day or two.

As for me, I did appreciate what my 1^st Mentor (a Senior II BC) thought me; however, I was taken aback and startled by the remarks from the 2^nd Mentor (a Chief Bus Captain); having him looked straight into my eyes, he said “you will not last more than 3months, here !!”. OMG, at first, I am discouraged and sadden by his words. Nevertheless, after reflecting on his words, I think, he is correct because of my previous office sedentary work lifestyle background. The lifestyle of a BC is beyond any office norm and environmental condition! I will review much more in days to come..stay tuned, ya.

To illustrate this point further, let takes an example of Farmer John; whom has been toiling the land for many years with his bare hands, with his back bend forward, and been exposing himself to the harsh elements, day in day out; and suddenly, found himself working and sitting in an office air-con environment with not much sweating to do. Do you think, he will stay long and survive in his new office career? Vice versa, let take an example of Procurement Officer Joe; who has been clicking away computer keyboard and playing with the mouse with his index finger, in a well-controlled office temperature environment; will he be able to do the farming and cultivating the land for long? Will he survive in this new career role, I doubt so.

I persevered till to date, to challenge myself daily and stay the course. I need to prove my worth as a public bus BC to the 2^nd Mentor. Till to date whenever, we cross each other path, I will always be the 1^st person to greet and address him as “sifu”.

The mentoring period ended after 4 days. Now, I am truly on my own. Many of my senior colleagues, those older and much experienced BC, watches me daily on how I fair. But behind my back, they actually bet with each other that, I will quit any time soon ! So almost every day, they will ask me, literally translated from Cantonese, “can or cannot lah”. I choose to strive on with dignity and due diligent, and all of them are utterly wrong about me till to date.

After 3months of probation as BC, I now a confirmed staff; and all the hype and betting on me stopped suddenly. One year later, I met up again, with this 2nd Mentor of mine; he was a little “pei sei” as we speak to each other. I guess, deep inside him, he is still wandering, how come this office orientated professional can last that long time in this environment, spontaneously, another colleague standing nearby also chipped in and asked, “so now, how long already you working here?".I think they now started to accept me as one of them as equal from now on.

Least to say, for anyone wishes to take on any new career path like this public profession; you certainly need to prepare yourself  both psychically and mentally for it as you may not know, what will come your way, and what type of people or colleague you will be facing. To me this make me more humble in my continual approach to pre-retirement life.

“If you have the will, you will have the way”….this is an old Saying, that my dearest Mother always reminded me of whenever I encountered hardship or difficulties in life.

My Classmate and Course mate

The English language instructed class that I have attended, has a cohort of 18 trainees. (one of half on the Left side had already left, me!) Standing front 4th is BC Din, 5th, Ksevan, 6th Ezli, and 7th Saha; standing at the back  row, alone is BC Logan (a Mechanical Graduate from Malaysia)

I befriend with them and this is what I wish to share. Initially there were 4 Singaporean including myself; 2 Malay and 2 Chinese. The elder Malay is a retired RSM (En. Rashid) from the MP (Military Police) division, with duty of catching, jailing and caning those MIA recruit soldiers; Mr. Syafie, a young Malay man in his early twenties, just ORD (operationally ready date), from the Sembawang Transport Command Camp with several Heavy Vehicle Class Driving licences to his name. The other Chinese (Mr. Lim) has been working as a driver-cum-deliveryman and speak a little English.

Into the 7^th week of the Basic Training programme, Mr. Lim left the course and went back to his previous profession. He did not complete or passed out from the course as a certified BC. The reason, he cited was the amount of risk and responsibility of been a BC are too much and demanding and moreover the basic pay remuneration is not commensurate with it.

Mr. Syafie left after 2 months working as a certified BC and citing reasons of the bus operational time schedule demands imposed onto to him; is much more rigid than while he is in the army camp. He does not wish his life to be “imposed or restricted” for now at this juncture of his young adulthood life. “sort of I want to break-free !, and to be free”.

Mr. Rashid initially was so determined to become a BC and “just bit the bullet” and accept whatever download from the trainer for those 8-9 long weeks. However, he left after 6 months into his service and now a Security Officer, with a local renowned News press company. The cited the need for higher income to support this P6 son and to have more family time to spend with him during the young boy formative years. I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

As for me, after all my worry about becoming a BC earlier; is now finally over and I felt liberated. I choose to stay on for a little longer to expose and acquire more knowledge on this newly chosen career in this Public Transport Industry. It is my employer’s mission, the ideal and passion of “moving people, enhancing lives” that has had been keeping me going day after day.

The Q that I am still searching for an answer is that, what is the “real fact” for the extremely low local signing up as BC, and even if they did sign up; they do not stay long. Sigh! Even though all my Singaporean Classmate had left me; I still have a journey to travel on, to find an answer to this big Q above. However, for other BC, I think, they may have reached their destination the moment, they become a certified Bus Captain.

            Months later, I manage to meet up with another Singaporean BC and we started to exchange notes of our odyssey. His name is Rickee Ng, aged 61, and was formerly a SGX-DT RR dealing in capital markets products. He shared with me his class intake. From what he has informed me, there were 3 other Singaporeans he'd trained together with. One left before starting revenue service duty; another left after 2 months into revenue service duty; while the 3rd, in his late twenties, left after 4 months as a qualified BC. Their reasons for resigning are no different from most others that left before them. Rickee is hanging on for now.

My conversation with Mr.Ng on our shared concern and worry for the future of this public profession in Singapore has further crystallized my interest to pursue what was been explained in the proceeded blog post “Why I Blog”. Thank You and wish you a Happy continued reading…

POP

             Regardless, what is my previous professional background; it is indeed very fortunate that my employer does have a very well structure in-house training programme to train anyone that aspires to become a BC. The only thing left is the person’s will, discipline and mental determination. Having dressed a full company’s attire for the 1^st time; with a long sleeve red shirt, corporate tie-pin and a crisp black pant, I certainly look smart and feeling good about it.

Today, 12/6/2014, is the passing out parade, POP and Bus Interchange Operations familiarization day. This is the last time, I will be seeing all my class intake in one meaningful occasion. After the ceremony, we will be posted to our respective unit to serve. Some colleagues will be posted to CCK, Kranji, Yishun and I myself was posted to Woodlands Regional Interchange. I will be meeting my operational group supervisor today for the 1^st time.

I was told that the VP of Bus operation is coming over soon to give away the certificate of competency to all of us. I am now officially a certified Bus Captain. The trainer-in-charge has requested me to give a valedictory speech to the graduating Class I2/4/2014. I am deeply honour by the invitation. During my speech, I expressed my class cohort sincere thanks of gratitude to the company for giving us an opportunity to work as BC; and grateful to all the Garang (fierce), and Kilat (Malay word for shining) Trainers. For me, it is indeed that the Trainers effort in guiding and instructing me is the greatest.  Dear Trainer, please accept a bow form me and Thank You.

I concluded my speech with much laughter and applause from my passing out colleagues and company management; I told them that, the Public Transport Industry, will be an iron rice bowl for me and my family for many more noon and years to come; because, daily some 3 Million residents will still need to take “BMW” as transport, to get around for their routine business in Singapore.

Bus, Mrt and unfortunately, if both also breakdown, the commuters can Walk home lah!.

Practical Driving Skill & Flying

                                                  ( An exmaple of a Tyre striking a Kerb )
On 2^nd of July 2015, glad to inform you that, my employer together with Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability (e2i), opened a The Bus Training and Evaluation Center – (BTEC), in Jurong East with some 12 bus cockpit simulator to give trainee a sense of what they will face on Singapore’s roads. Personally, this is a step in the right direction. However, it is still remain to be proven whether, more locals will come forward to take up this job as a public Bus Captain and I hope my regular blog posting, in a small way, will be able to compliment these good initiatives.

This is the start of the actual training programme for Trainee Bus Captain. In this module, there is Part A and Part B. Part A is about theory (see the last para for blog post no.7) and is conducted in a class room environment for about 2 weeks. At the end of each topic, there will be understanding test taken. Part B is about practical driving skill with a 12M long Bus.

After completing the classroom activities in Part A; for the next 4 weeks, I was on the road, every day. I have to drive daily to hone my driving skill in handling all the intricate and complicated road conditions. This is the time, where mistakes are tolerated by the trainer as some roads and their related junction corners are both narrow and sharp.  If I am not careful, I will get the rear tyre to mount kerb or force the tyre to press too hard to the stone kerb and cause a puncture tyre as shown in the attached photo. At times, I also have to “eat” into the opposite lane, i.e. cross-over the white line. Specific to TP class 4A test requirements, all these road mistakes mentioned are deemed to secure an immediate failure from the TP tester. However, I guess, in real practical driving, I need to bend the rule to avoid any potential accident.

For Part B, I am fortunate to be assigned to a more “refined” Trainer. I could not remember him cursing or shouting or uttering any 4-letters words to me. This phase of my training, covers, narrow roads maneuver, sharp during corners and negotiating bends, making U-turn (not tested earlier in TP Class 4A test), bus stops function, the dreaded pedestrian crossing rule, bus washing, parking at the depot, top up diesel, bus cleaning, daily1^st parade (FPT) and last parade task (LPT) and passenger boarding and alighting.

 To complete the learning for this Module 2 and to be passed out as a Trained BC; I need to do about 8 trips of “flying”. This is a technical jargon used for a new BC to get himself familiar with the service route that he will be expected to do as a first revenue-able service duty, soon. I have to literally sit inside the said service bus number, driven by another official BC; as a passenger for 8 trips. I guess, this is what in Malay it is called “makan angin” or loosely translated as “eating wind”. Of the required flying trips, minimum 2 trips will be done with a night flying. The reason is that, during the day time, the daylight from the Sun helps you to have a better visual, and you can see afar on what is coming your way. However, during night time, with only the streets lamps light; the visual distant is much limited and overall visibility is reduced. So it is actually a very wise move as required in this route familiarization session.

It can be overwhelming for a new BC like me to immediately trying to know exactly, where is the next bus stop located along the road; where will be the cross or T-junctions and pedestrian crossing situated; where and when to make the dread 4-3-2-1 lane switching from the out most left lane to the out most right lane and immediately followed by making a right turn.

My maiden svc route is 178. It is a trunk service linking WRI and Boon Lay Interchange, BLI. To and fro, there are some 140 Bus stops, about 70 bus stops in each direction. So if, you are 1^st time doing this svc 178; do you think, you can remember all the bus stops?  I guess, you will miss some, which I have to confess, initially, I do missed some, but luckily there is no passenger waiting to board the bus.

When the 4 weeks is up, I am ready to be certified as a Bus Captain. The final test requires me to drive the bus from WRI to BLI. This is real stuff, but minus the commuting passenger on board. The final test is examined by in-house examiner. I passed in one go, and no retest is required. Hurray, the next thing to do is formality….the Passing Out Parade, “POP”.