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Incentives a way to keep bus operators on their toes

The writer’s view in “Incentives to reward bus operators puzzling” (May 16) is that the operators should not be rewarded for improving services. He uses the analogy of rewarding a teacher every time students perform very well in their examinations.

The writer’s view in “Incentives to reward bus operators puzzling” (May 16) is that the operators should not be rewarded for improving services. He uses the analogy of rewarding a teacher every time students perform very well in their examinations.

Let us take a more holistic view of the Bus Service Reliability Framework: SBS Transit and SMRT not only receive incentives for improvements in waiting times, they are also penalised for underperformance.

Many misconceive the intention of giving the operators the large sums of money. The framework keeps them on their toes in terms of meeting user expectations for waiting times. The Land Transport Authority is not merely giving out money.

Similarly, teachers have key performance indicators to meet, part of which would be their pupils’ performance, and they are rewarded accordingly when their pupils improve and do well in examinations.

It is not uncommon in Singapore to receive rewards for improvements. This unhappiness with rewarding SBS Transit and SMRT, however, probably stems from unhappiness with public transport services here — for being expensive or inefficient.

As with other systems here, bus operators should be rewarded for improvements assessed within the service reliability framework.

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