THE current obsession with banning lorries from transporting
workers following a recent fatal accident is unreasonable.
The issue of transporting workers in such vehicles should be
considered in a balanced way, and we need to take into account the
needs of all the concerned parties. For instance, if army personnel
can be transported by lorries, why not workers?
Many jumped to hasty conclusions following the fatal accident on
June 22, in which three foreign workers died after the lorry they
were in skidded and crashed off the Pan-Island Expressway.
Many who are pressing for a ban on using such vehicles to
transport workers do not understand the practicalities of operating
a small business.
The immediate consequence of restricting worker transport to
buses or vans for small construction and service companies is a
sharp spike in costs, as these firms are forced to buy vans or
small buses and hire additional drivers.
Second, the vehicle population will swell by a few thousand
buses and vans.
Assuming that there is a small job that requires five or six
workers with some materials to be transported, the company will
have to ferry the workers by van to the site and use another lorry
to transport the tools and materials.
The van and driver will remain idle for a long stretch until it
is time to pick up the workers in the evening.
Are Singaporeans willing to pay for such a sharp increase in
costs?
Can Singapore businesses remain competitive?
And what does it say about productivity when transport vehicles
and drivers have nothing to do for such long stretches daily?
Tan Lek Lek