Full-time taxi drivers employed by HDT Taxi Singapore (HDT) can now look forward to more training and career progression opportunities. This comes after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the company, the National Taxi Association (NTA) and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) on 26 January 2019.
Under the agreement, these full-time HDT taxi drivers will get NTA membership, with the company paying their membership dues.
In the area of career development, some 800 full-time drivers will get to attend the SkillsFuture Digital Workshop training that will help them keep pace with digital transformation in the economy. This will take place progressively over the next five years with HDT and NTA co-paying the required fees.
Drivers can also look forward to a clearer progression path, where experienced drivers can get ‘promoted’ to take on the role of mentors to new drivers. The company will also explore ways of helping drivers keen on progressing beyond a driving role with other opportunities within the company.
Attracting and Retaining Talent
In the longer term, HDT, NTA and e2i will continue working closely to better attract and retain drivers, especially in this period of digital transformation.
An existing collaboration is the Place-and-Train programme, which includes a work-trial stint and on-the-job training. During the work trial period, drivers are given 80 hours to get a sense of what it is like to drive the electric cars in HDT’s fleet.
“While traditional self-employed taxi drivers are often left to manage challenges at work or at home on their own, HDT drivers have the full support of their employer. We are happy to work closely with our partners to better take care of the needs of our drivers.
“In very apparent ways, taxi drivers have to keep up with digital transformation and find new ways to earn better. We hope to help them with training so that they can keep up with changes. More importantly, having clear career options will entice them to skill up so that they can move up in their roles,” said NTA Executive Advisor Ang Hin Kee.
