Serious The New PAP fuckup that is the BCM bus model and Go-Ahead Bus

[Papsmearer]

Seems like the PAP cannot even do a simple thing nowadays. How can you fuck up a simple tender for a bus contract for a few lines of service? Well, when you have a grossly incompetent former admiral retired Chew Men Leong running LTA, you can fuck that up and more.

About 15 months ago, the LTA changed the bus service model in singapore to one call the BCM aka bus contracting model. The first contract for Bulim lines was awarded to a foreign bus company, an australian/british outfit called Towers. At that time, I posted here that I had serious misgivings about this winner. Firstly, they were not the lowest bid. In fact, at $553 million their bid was the third lowest, the SMRT bid coming in the lowest at $453 million. SBS transit came in at $600 million while another local company Woodlands came in at $683 million. Now in the second round of BCM for the Loyang routes, LTA awarded it to another foreign company, a British company called Go-Ahead. Its seems that the LTA is adamant that no local operator will win any of these BCM contracts, my theory being that they are inherently unprofitable, and a GLC like SMRT has to be protected from losing money on bus routes. Therefore, the tenders do have a degree of wayang in them. This time, Go-Ahead did actually have the lowest bid of $497 million followed by SBS Bus at $546 million and SMRT at $598 million.

fast forward to 10 months later, and Go-Ahead is screaming for help. Many of the bus captains that they have hired have quit. In part due to the work policies put in and quoted by some of their ex staff that there were not enough breaks, all this despite paying more then what the starting salaries for SMRT and SBS bus captains. It is a failing of a MNC, coming into the local market, and not being aware of the local practices and standards, falsely assured by NTUC and their trade unions that the workers will be subservient and can be controlled. They forgot to mention the little fact that most of their work force are FT from PRC, Malaysia, etc. These people are like gold now after the work permit numbers were restricted, and know that they can find work somewhere else relatively easily. Foreign companies coming in here cannot read the ground no matter how many local assistant GMs they hire.

Somehow, Go-Ahead managed to get the LTA to arrow SBS, SMRT, and Towers to pitch in and help them out by sending their own drivers to cover for Go-Ahead on the routes that were short of drivers. I have never seen a situation where competitors in the same market are required to help each other out. Imagine how tulan SBS and SMRT must be. Not only did they lose the contract to Go-Ahead, they now have to help them out as though they have so much free drivers sitting around shaking leg? What ever happened to honouring a legal contract that you signed with a govt stat board? i mean Go Ahead signed a contract for almost $500 million, plus they get to keep all the advertising revenues on their buses and what not, to provide bus services for their area. Whether they have enough drivers or not is not the problem of LTA. If they cannot fulfill their contract, they are supposed to be fined, or penalized in some form. What happened to that? And if they cannot really do it, they should cancel their contract, lose some form of money, and the tender be re-opened again. Why is LTA jumping in to help them? Does other stat boards or govt Ministries jump in to bail out companies that have signed contracts with them? Or do foreign companies get special treatments and not locals?

Chew Men Leong, the ex admiral had this to say when awarding the contract to Go-Ahead. "Go-Ahead demonstrated a thorough understanding of ground conditions and strong ability in developing strategies to manage specific scenarios for each bus route," LTA said. "At the same time, Go-Ahead also emphasised in its proposal a stringent bus maintenance regime for bus assets and infrastructure.". I guess all that was just bullshit, because Go-Ahead did not throughly understand the ground conditions or they would not be in the predicament that they are in.

I maintain that there was never a need for the BCM. Just because SMRT was screaming that they were losing money on bus routes is not enough justification to switch to the BCM. That is their problem. If they are losing money, they will just have to subsidize it from their profit making rail business. In any case, their profits are fine, and they are just greedy by wanting more because big Boss Whore Jinx says so. the commuting public never asked for this, the commuting public never wanted this, this was all driven by a PAP/LTA/SMRT agenda. Now, they have egg on their face because the second of 2 contracts is already in trouble.

 

[Papsmearer]

SINGAPORE: Bus drivers from public transport operators SBS Transit and SMRT were on Wednesday (Sep 21) deployed to temporarily assist Go-Ahead Singapore, after the new bus operator found itself short of staff less than three weeks after launching its services.
A total of 30 SBS Transit drivers have been deployed at Loyang Depot to operate services 358 and 359, while SMRT has sent 10 drivers to help the new public bus operator.
UK-based operator Tower Transit has also been engaged to supply a staff bus service for Go-Ahead employees at Loyang Bus Depot, both operators confirmed with Channel NewsAsia. Responding to queries, Go-Ahead on Wednesday said the move will allow the company “to optimise its existing pool of bus captains” and “focus on serving its commuters”.
Earlier, Go-Ahead said in a media release that it requested for help as there was a “higher-than-expected staff attrition” as well as the “fine-tuning of its schedules”. The short-term sub-contracting arrangement between SBS Transit and SMRT will last about two months, while the arrangement with Tower Transit – which started from over last weekend – is expected to last for a month.
Go-Ahead added that it has 38 bus drivers due to enter service over the coming weeks and has also been “actively sourcing for and recruiting” more drivers. “This move is about ensuring commuters continue to receive a service they can rely on,” said Go-Ahead deputy chairman David Cutts.
According to a transport enthusiast who spoke to Channel NewsAsia on the condition of anonymity, “a number of bus captains” operating at Punggol Bus Interchange tendered their resignation on Sep 4 as they are "not used to the new operating system of Go-Ahead”. He said bus captains complained of “minimal breaks” in their roster compared to when they were in SBS Transit.
A Go-Ahead bus driver, who only wanted to be identified as Mr Tng, had not heard about the shortage of staff but said it did not come as a surprise to him. "Of the 100 people who join, usually only 30 would stay," said the 55-year-old former SBS Transit bus driver, when Channel NewsAsia visited the depot in Loyang on Tuesday evening. "This is not an easy job. At first, many would join but they soon realise that it's tough."
Another Go-Ahead driver, Mr Indra, suggested that the company up its salary by S$100 to S$200 to retain staff. In July, the company increased its starting salary to S$1,950, up from the S$1,865 offered in February.
Go-Ahead officially began operating its 24 services on Sep 4 under the new bus contracting model, and serves areas including Pasir Ris, Punggol, Changi, Tampines, Bedok and Sengkang. Go-Ahead is the second foreign bus operator in Singapore after Tower Transit, which runs the Bulim bus package in the West.
In a separate statement, the National Transport Workers' Union (NTWU) said it is working closely with Go-Ahead, SBS Transit, SMRT and the Land Transport Authority to support Go-Ahead's manpower needs in the interim.
Said NTWU's executive secretary Melvin Yong: "Our union leaders have been engaging the bus drivers from SBST and SMRT, to address any concerns and queries. NTWU will continue to work closely with the operators to support the bus captains as they start their new work arrangements with Go-Ahead during the interim period."

 

[Papsmearer]

SINGAPORE: London's largest bus operator Go-Ahead Group has won the bid to operate bus services in Pasir Ris and Punggol, announced the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Monday (Nov 23).
The Loyang bus package is the second contract put up for bidding in the Government's new bus contracting model. Go-Ahead Group is the second bid winner from the UK, after London-based Tower Transit won the bid for the first bus package in May.
Go-Ahead will operate the new Loyang bus depot from December. The company will run 25 services from Changi Airport and Changi Village bus terminals as well as the Pasir Ris and Punggol bus interchanges. The services will terminate at Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, Sengkang, Tampines and Yishun bus interchanges as well as New Bridge Road and Upper East Coast bus terminals. These services will be rolled out in two tranches from the third quarter of next year.

Map showing the bus routes which Go-Ahead will operate. (Image: LTA)
​

Go-Ahead will receive about S$497.7 million from LTA over the five-year contract period. Australia's Busways Group submitted the highest bid of S$631.4 million, while local operators SBS Transit and SMRT Buses submitted bids of S$545.9 million and S$598.1 million respectively.
"In this current tender, we have actually seen the bidders learning, in terms of lessons from the last, and actually come forward with much higher quality bids, which gives us something to think about," said Mr Chew Men Leong, chief executive of LTA.

"At the same time, actually having the quality and pricing of the bids quite closely matched. So in the end, we are able to select the best package in terms of quality and price, which finally went to Go-Ahead," he added.
Go-Ahead currently runs 24 per cent of London's bus routes with about 2,300 buses and about 7,000 staff.
In a news release on Monday, LTA said Go-Ahead was awarded the contract as it had the highest score for both quality and price.
"Go-Ahead demonstrated a thorough understanding of ground conditions and strong ability in developing strategies to manage specific scenarios for each bus route," LTA said. "At the same time, Go-Ahead also emphasised in its proposal a stringent bus maintenance regime for bus assets and infrastructure."
Mr David Brown, group chief executive of the Go-Ahead Group, added: "There are a lot of similarities between operating buses in London which, like Singapore, is a growing, vibrant city. So we're looking forward to bringing a lot of the practices ... in London into Singapore, and creating a fusion between what's really good in Singapore and what's really good in London.
"We started this process in early 2014 when we first met the LTA in London. And obviously in the first bid you don't understand the risks, understand the pricing. And as we've been here longer and learnt more, we've understood what those risks are and how to price better."
Go-Ahead said it will have 900 employees and operations, and it is expected to generate revenues of around S$500 million. It is also looking beyond the industry to meet manpower needs.
"In London, we've gone to people who do retail. Retail is about customer service," said Mr Brown. "So actually it's a retail environment that we work in and that's what we have to recruit for."
Mr Brown also distanced his company from comparisons with Tower Transit.
He said: "Everybody is trying to find the best practice, whether it's the best practice in terms of the quality of the operation, or best practice in terms of the cost of the operation. So there are very good operators in Singapore at the moment.

"We've gone into an open tender and we've happened to have won it, we've happened to have won it on a quality basis and a price basis. So in terms of comparisons with Tower Transit, there's no need, we're all in the global world of providing public transport."
The tender for the Loyang bus package was launched on Apr 15 and closed on Aug 14. Depending on Go-Ahead's performance, LTA said the contract can be extended by two years.
GOVERNMENT'S BELIEF IN FOREIGN COMPETITORS
Awarding the contract to Go-Ahead also means local public bus operators - SBS Transit and SMRT - were unsuccessful for a second time. Analysts said this signals the Government's belief that foreign competitors can introduce new management and operations practices to Singapore.
Said Professor Lee Der Horng from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore: "To our local incumbents, SBS and SMRT particularly, I think that this result is really ... another bigger alarm, because we have seen (that) in the first Bulim package, SMRT put in the lowest bid, but they did not get it.

"However, today it is actually the reverse. Go-Ahead put in the lowest bid, but they actually got it, which means our foreign operators, bidders, in terms of technical capability, they have better something to offer as compared to our local incumbents.

"They must have something different in terms of their technical offerings, the way they run the service, the way they provide the overall maintenance and also to achieve the Government's rules and regulations and to achieve the standards specified by the Government. If the local operators still want to remain relevant, I think it is time for them to do something very different or to inject some very drastic change to their operating practices."
Added UniSIM senior lecturer Professor Walter Theseira: "(This is) another signal that the Government is serious about using bus contracting to spur innovation through using foreign companies who may be able to introduce new management and operations practices to Singapore.

"However, unlike the first round, the winner this time was the lowest bidder. So a balance of price and promised performance will clearly be important."
SBS Transit currently runs all 22 existing routes which are under the Loyang package.
When contacted, the operator said it is naturally disappointed at not being awarded the tender. It added that it will work with the LTA, the National Transport Workers' Union and Go-Ahead for a smooth transition.
The local operators can still bid for the third bus package.
SBS Transit and SMRT will continue to run another nine bus packages as negotiated contracts for about five years. These comprise the remaining 80 per cent of existing buses.
After these negotiated contracts expire, more bus services will be gradually tendered out.

 

[Papsmearer]

bumping thread

 

[mojito]

MNC pay more for bus captains yet unaware of local practices? Sounds like local drivers are too used to being unproductive and are actually undeserving of their high MNC pay does it not? What you trying to say?

 

[JohnTan]

The problem is with local drivers being too lazy and resistant to change. They want to stay in their comfort unproductive zones of driving only one route, instead of driving a few different routes which is expected of bus drivers in great western cities.

 

[BritExit]

Autonomous bus is better.

You die your problem.