Bus driver who goes the extra mile awarded trip to UK

SINGAPORE — For more than a decade, he has been a familiar face on bus service 106 — which zips from Bukit Batok to the heart of the Central Business District — so much so that bus driver Vijaya Kumaran, 53, has seen his young passengers become adults.

Once, a commuter boarded his bus near Dhoby Ghaut MRT station and asked him: “Uncle, you don’t know me? You drove an SMRT bus (before) … when I was small, and now I’ve grown up.” That started a warm conversation as both tried to catch up on each other’s lives.

This is how the affable Tower Transit bus driver, who sees Bukit Batok as “all my family”, treats his commuters. To them, he is known affectionately as “Kumar”.

Tower Transit runs 26 bus services from the Clementi, Jurong East and Bukit Batok bus interchanges, including service 106, which it took over from SMRT in May after clinching the first contract under the Government’s bus-contracting model last year.

On Dec 10, at the bus company’s inaugural awards night, Mr Kumaran — who joined the UK-based operator in May after 16 years with SMRT — received his biggest prize yet for excellent service: A pair of return tickets to London and five nights’ accommodation worth S$4,500.

About 60 commuters have written in to praise him since the company launched its services. This is at least double the number of compliments that most of the firm’s top-performing bus drivers get, Tower Transit’s group communications director Glenn Lim said.

Mr Kumaran, who begins his workday at the Bulim bus depot at 5am and usually clocks a 10-hour shift daily, regularly goes out of his way to help commuters. When several city roads were closed to traffic in September for the Formula One night race, the bus driver recognised a regular commuter, told him about the road diversion, and ensured that he alighted at a stop closest to his Shenton Way office.

The commuter wrote a letter to Tower Transit: “It feels great to know that he recognised me and my regular destination.”

Through the years, Mr Kumaran has also built unspoken bonds with commuters, including a woman in her 50s who boards from the bus stop at Yusof Ishak Secondary School. A year or two ago, she became wheelchair-bound because of illness. “My heart broke … to see her like that,” he said.

Mr Kumaran, a Malaysia-born permanent resident, also used to bag service excellence and courtesy awards when he was at SMRT. With regard to his latest prize, the father-of-five plans to take his 27-year-old technician son on the London trip next year.

Tower Transit rewards a bus captain for good service with an overseas trip annually. Every month, 10 drivers are recognised for their work, and given S$50 or S$100 vouchers and certificates.

However, it isn't the only transport operator that rewards its top-performing staff in such a manner. From vacations and overseas learning trips to cash, vouchers and durians, transport operators here are rewarding their stellar bus drivers in various ways. 

Next year, SBS Transit plans to send about 10 of its top-performing employees, including bus captains, on an overseas learning trip to a country where its parent company ComfortDelGro operates, such as the United Kingdom or Australia, said its spokesperson Tammy Tan. This year, the firm sponsored two drivers on a trip to Hong Kong, worth S$2,500 with cash incentives, to receive a customer service award. Other initiatives include monetary rewards for exemplary service.

At Go-Ahead Singapore, bus captains have been given free durians and badges as recognition. With Christmas around the corner, its drivers will also soon get a box of pastries as a token of appreciation, a company spokesperson said.