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While the govt is the BEST PAID in the world and the ministers get pension at 55 regardless of whether they are still employed? What kind of CCB and leegally corrupt system is this?
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>March 8, 2009
EDITORIAL
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Is after 73 too old?
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Ang Chin Wah has been a taxi driver for more than 10 years. The 72-year-old, who is on the road from 8am to 8pm, says he has no serious medical problems. He feels fine. But next year, he will not be able to drive a taxi any more. He will be among more than 650 cabbies who will lose their livelihoods in the next one to three years, when they turn 73. That is the age at which their taxi vocational licences issued by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will expire - even if they are fit enough to carry on.
But is 73 the optimal age ceiling? The LTA believes so and is not budging from its position for the moment. It last raised the age limit in 2006, from 70 to 73. It settled on 73 after taking into account taxi drivers' generally longer working hours and the fact that they handle more challenging driving conditions than most other motorists. As these challenges inevitably intensify with age for most drivers, settling on the ceiling of 73 was a 'prudent safeguard' for cabbies and their passengers, the LTA maintains.
But whether it is 73, 74, 75 or 76, the numbers are arbitrary because cabbies have to pass a medical fitness test and a test to assess their reflexes and hand-eye coordination every year, after they reach 65. A younger cabbie aged 65 can fail his tests. Another of 75 years can pass both. The Government is encouraging more older people to continue working. The LTA should consider allowing cabbies who pass the tests to work beyond 73, perhaps to 76 years old. ComfortDelGro, the largest taxi operator with 32,000 drivers, is ready to vouch for its older drivers. As its spokesman said, they are cautious drivers and a majority have accident-free records. As more cabbies will be hitting their 70s in the coming years, now is as good a time as any to raise the age limit.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>March 8, 2009
EDITORIAL
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Is after 73 too old?
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Ang Chin Wah has been a taxi driver for more than 10 years. The 72-year-old, who is on the road from 8am to 8pm, says he has no serious medical problems. He feels fine. But next year, he will not be able to drive a taxi any more. He will be among more than 650 cabbies who will lose their livelihoods in the next one to three years, when they turn 73. That is the age at which their taxi vocational licences issued by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will expire - even if they are fit enough to carry on.
But is 73 the optimal age ceiling? The LTA believes so and is not budging from its position for the moment. It last raised the age limit in 2006, from 70 to 73. It settled on 73 after taking into account taxi drivers' generally longer working hours and the fact that they handle more challenging driving conditions than most other motorists. As these challenges inevitably intensify with age for most drivers, settling on the ceiling of 73 was a 'prudent safeguard' for cabbies and their passengers, the LTA maintains.
But whether it is 73, 74, 75 or 76, the numbers are arbitrary because cabbies have to pass a medical fitness test and a test to assess their reflexes and hand-eye coordination every year, after they reach 65. A younger cabbie aged 65 can fail his tests. Another of 75 years can pass both. The Government is encouraging more older people to continue working. The LTA should consider allowing cabbies who pass the tests to work beyond 73, perhaps to 76 years old. ComfortDelGro, the largest taxi operator with 32,000 drivers, is ready to vouch for its older drivers. As its spokesman said, they are cautious drivers and a majority have accident-free records. As more cabbies will be hitting their 70s in the coming years, now is as good a time as any to raise the age limit.
