Bus company's $5,000 salary offer for drivers draws over 1,400 applicants, 5 uni grads among 30 hired

A local bus company's salary offer of up to $5,000 for bus drivers has attracted over 1,400 applicants so far, almost half of them Singaporeans or Permanent Residents.

Private bus company Westpoint Transit had announced its recruitment drive in December last year, offering at least $3,500 for drivers of its medium-sized buses and $5,000 for those driving the 45-seater charter buses.

The already attractive offer was sweetened by a joining bonus of $7,500 or $10,000 depending on the bus size, with the requirement that they stay in the company for at least three years.

According to Shin Min Daily News on Saturday (July 27), all of the 30 successful applicants so far are Singaporean, including five university graduates.

Among them is Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) graduate Aeneas Liow, who joined the company in February.

Liow had graduated from SIT with a degree in air transport management, but he'd always had an interest in buses and driving, Shin Min reported.

Before pursuing his degree, he drove buses for transport service operators SMRT and ComfortDelgro.

At 28 years old, Liow is Westpoint's youngest employee so far.

"My father supports my choice of vocation but my mum thinks the job is tough with long hours. But I feel this is ultimately my decision to make, every job is tough in some way," Liow told Shin Min. 

With the experience, the young man hopes that he'll be able to set up his own bus company in future.

Speaking with the Chinese evening daily on Friday, Westpoint's director Lionel Lee stated that the company has so far received 1,478 applications, 45 per cent of them with Singaporean citizenship or permanent residency status.

Another 45 per cent of applicants are from Malaysia while those from China, India, Myanmar and other nationalities make up the remaining 10 per cent.

Lee, 37, added that a majority of the local applicants have at least graduated from a junior college, polytechnic or institute of technical education.

However, what the company looks out for more are technical skills, said Lee.

In previous media interviews, Lee, a second-generation leader at Westpoint, had said the attractive offer and bonus was an attempt to beat the manpower crunch as well as change the public's perception of the job as low-paying and labour-intensive.

He also provided insight into his emphasis on hiring locally in his most recent interview with Shin Min.

"The most important thing to me is to hire Singaporeans, because there are many of them who are very interested in the job, why should we deny them the chance?" said Lee.

He explained that some of the new hires used to be white-collared workers such as bank employees who were willing to drive buses part-time on weekends.

They were initially unwilling to make the career switch due to salary concerns but did so following the revised pay structure, Lee added.

"Many of them joined because of their passion and this salary can allow them to continue to provide for their families in the long term." 

While the company had expected to hire just 30 individuals from this recruitment drive, Lee revealed that the exercise will be extended due to a recent expansion of its fleet.

The company welcomed 21 new buses on Friday, and will receive another 10 buses this year, bringing its total number of buses to 68.

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candicecai@asiaone.com