We thank Ms Zhang Xueli for her heartfelt letter highlighting the quiet sacrifices that Bus Captains (BC) and their families make to keep Singaporeans moving safely and reliably every day (交流站：请把父亲还给我, 3 September 2025).
We are grateful to our BCs and their families for their dedication and support over the years to serve SIngaporeans. The role of a BC is indeed demanding. Besides spending long hours on the road, they shoulder heavy responsibilities, including ensuring the safety of passengers, responding to unexpected scenarios while navigating through busy traffic, and providing good customer service.
Experienced BCs like Ms Zhang’s father are especially important to our public transport system. They serve as mentors to younger BCs, imparting their skills and knowledge about passenger safety and service reliability.
Over the years, we have worked with bus operators and the unions to improve the welfare and working conditions of our BCs. For example, operators must ensure BCs have at least nine hours of rest between duties. Many now offer flexible work schemes, including five-day work week and part-time working arrangements. We have also invested in better staff facilities at bus interchanges and depots, such as rest lounges and canteens so that BCs can have more comfortable breaks during the day.
However, operational challenges and realities cannot be fully overcome. Public bus services must run throughout the day – ferrying the first passengers before dawn and dropping off the last passengers past midnight. To meet ridership demand during the morning and evening peak periods, some BCs must be rostered to perform split shifts covering both peaks, with a break in between.
With more BCs, we can resolve some of these challenges. However, recruiting and retaining BCs remains difficult, even with improvements to pay over time. This is also the main reason why we are not able to acquiesce to every request for new bus services or higher frequencies as this will place ever heavier demands on our finite pool of BCs.
Ms Zhang’s message that “family is the last bus one should not miss” is a good reminder of the sacrifices BCs and their families make. Ms Zhang is not alone in her appreciation for what BCs do. We are encouraged by the many commuters who have written in to express their appreciation for our BCs, and we encourage all commuters to show their gratitude through simple gestures like saying thank you and being patient.
We thank all BCs and their families for their continued support in serving Singapore’s public transport.
Yeo Teck Guan (Mr) (姚德源)
Senior Group Director, Public Transport (公共交通组高级总署长)
Land Transport Authority (陆路交通管理局)
