SINGAPORE – All lorries ferrying staff will now be geared up with pace administration gadgets and should have a chosen individual within the automobile who can cease the driving force if he’s driving in an unsafe manner.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) may also introduce new guidelines to ensure drivers ferrying staff, particularly those that additionally work onsite, have sufficient relaxation. This is on prime of current laws that cap working hours to 12 hours a day and as much as 72 time beyond regulation hours a month.
Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor on Wednesday (March 9) introduced these new measures to raised shield staff being ferried in lorries, whereas reiterating the difficulties of transporting all staff in buses.
She was responding in Parliament to Labour MP Melvin Yong (Radin Mas) who, together with different advocates, has been asking if it was attainable to get rid of transporting migrant staff by lorries altogether.
The new pace limiter rule for lorries extends such gadgets to the final lorry class presently not mandated by regulation to have them – lorries with a most laden weight exceeding 3,500kg.
Those with a decrease most laden weight already should have pace warning gadgets, whereas heavier items autos with most laden weight exceeding 12,000kg have to be geared up with pace limiters.
Dr Khor didn’t say what the pace restrict shall be for these new lorries. The Traffic Police are working with the business and extra particulars shall be launched later, she stated.
In addition to new manpower and pace legal guidelines, Dr Khor additionally stated all lorries used to ferry staff have to be fitted with rain covers, that are waterproof canvas tarps, to guard the employees in opposition to inclement climate.
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She, nevertheless, maintained the ministry’s place up to now on transporting staff in buses, citing how smaller firms that rent staff stated they’ve to move a small crew with cumbersome tools to a number of areas in a single day. Lorries stay essentially the most environment friendly automobile for this twin objective, she stated.
Private bus operators additionally stated there have been merely not sufficient buses and drivers to move the greater than 280,000 staff employed within the manufacturing and building and marine sectors.
“A full transition to buses could require a doubling or even tripling of the number of large private buses in the industry today. Even if multiple and staggered trips are made, the demand for buses will still be significant,” stated Dr Khor.
“Furthermore, the bus operators shared that the shortage of bus drivers would be an even more binding constraint.”
Dr Khor didn’t rule out a future the place all staff shall be transported by buses.
“These challenges are not all insurmountable, but we will need time to work through them with the industry and relevant agencies,” she stated.
“We encourage more in the industry (to use buses). We will facilitate the sharing of best practices, and will study the conditions for success to enable more companies to make the shift.”
