The National Taxi Association (NTA) refers to the forum letter (“Offer free health screening, awards and perks to improve cabbies’ welfare”, 16 Feb 2014) and would like to thank the writer for the many useful suggestions. We will study the proposed ideas carefully, as part of our feedback process.
To date, we have some 180 full-time taxi drivers who volunteer their time as elected representatives to help members with workplace grievances and events organising. Through regular engagements with the taxi drivers on platforms like our coffee shop talk sessions and focus group discussions, NTA gathers feedback on issues and worries faced by the cabbies. As drivers ourselves, we also empathise with these concerns impacting cabbies’ daily living. Some of the recent issues raised by NTA include the call to review the taxi industry holistically, relaxation of CBD rules, ERP discount pass, fare and rental review, further tweaking of the Taxi Availability Indicators, etc.
One area of focus is the health and wellness aspect of the cabbies. As self-employed, we need to save up for our own medical needs. Thus, it was a breakthrough when the association managed to get taxi operators onboard the “Drive and Save” scheme in 2011, by co-contributing to cabbies’ Medisave accounts. NTA also partners with Parkway Shenton Medical, Raffles Medical, NTUC Unity Healthcare and Q & M Dental to offer affordable medical treatment and services to our members and their families. To keep our members fit and healthy, sporting and wellness programmes like bowling, badminton, brisk walking, etc are also regularly organised.
Through collaboration with various local attractions, places of interests like the Science Centre, Wild Wild Wet, Resort World Sentosa etc, members are offered discounted rates to enjoy the facilities with their families. Also, to help relieve cabbies’ worries relating to rising school expenses for their children, 3,100 eligible members and their children receive some $580,000 worth of financial assistance through U Care Back to School Vouchers and U-Stretch Vouchers annually.
There is still a lot more that we can do, and we hope to continue to do more for our members. NTA looks forward to working together with all our partners and key stakeholders to bring about positive changes to the lives of our cabbies.
Gerald Chan
President
National Taxi Association
