Tower Transit has announced a pay raise of 3.5% for Bus Captains and all staff covered under its agreement with the National Transport Workers’ Union (NTWU). The increment will take effect starting May 2016 and will benefit more than 900 employees of Tower Transit including Bus Captains currently driving the 26 services being taken over by the company from 29 May.

Singapore’s third local bus operator Tower Transit has built a strong Singaporean core in its team of Bus Captains. All 448 of its new Bus Captains are Singapore citizens or Permanent Residents (PRs). Another 364, affected Bus Captains who currently drive the 26 bus services to be progressively taken over by Tower Transit from 29 May 2016, bring the full strength of its Bus Captains to 812, and the total proportion of citizens and permanent residents to 77%.

Tower Transit Bus Captains are being equipped not just to render assistance to persons with disabilities. In a disability awareness and sensitivity talk held today at Bulim Bus Depot by SPD, an organisation that supports persons with disabilities, Bus Captains were taught to be sensitive to the needs of people with disabilities, to adopt disability etiquette and to think about disabilities in non-prejudicial ways. The talk is part of a broader programme to equip Tower Transit’s Bus Captains with both the hard and soft skills needed to facilitate a smooth ride for people with disabilities.

Tower Transit has filled 80% of its 750 Bus Captain positions. To date, over 600 have signed-up as Bus Captains with Singapore’s third bus operator. These include about 300 new Bus Captain recruits and over 320 Bus Captains currently plying the 26 routes that Tower Transit will take over by mid-2016.

Attractive basic wages and a job redesign to remove non-driving work such as refuelling and cleaning of buses – those are just some of the benefits that Tower Transit’s Bus Captains will enjoy when Singapore’s third bus operator hits the road in mid-2016.