Exempt Taxi Drivers who have Taken Medical Assessments for Personal Licence from Retaking Same Tests for Vocational Licence within Same Year
Ministry of TransportSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Er Dr Lee Bee Wah’s proposal to exempt taxi drivers aged 65 and above from duplicating medical assessments for their personal and vocational licences. Senior Minister of State Dr Janil Puthucheary responded that the Land Transport Authority is working to align these processes by year-end, allowing vocational medical results to be used for personal licence renewals. Senior Minister of State Dr Janil Puthucheary also stated that the Ministry will review high proficiency test fees and monitor the effectiveness of COVID-19 support measures for the taxi industry. He explained that while more stringent checks are necessary due to higher mileage, the alignment will reduce costs, and the Ministry will evaluate if further interventions like rental reductions are required. These efforts aim to support drivers facing reduced income while ensuring the safety of the commuting public through continued health certifications.
Transcript
1 Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Transport whether taxi drivers aged 65 and above who have taken their medical assessments for their personal driving licence may be exempted from retaking the same tests for their vocational licence within the same year.
The Senior Minister of State for Transport (Dr Janil Puthucheary) (for the Minister for Transport): Mr Speaker, Traffic Police require all drivers aged 65 and above to pass a medical examination to certify their fitness to drive a private car once every three years, in order to retain their Class 3 personal driving licences. Among these older drivers who wish to drive a taxi, LTA requires them to also pass a medical examination with additional occupation-related health checks to certify their fitness to renew their Taxi Driver Vocational Licences (TDVL). We subject taxi drivers to more stringent medical assessment as they clock a much higher mileage than other motorists. This is to protect the commuting public.
LTA is working with the Traffic Police to align the two medical assessment processes. Before the end of this year, taxi drivers who have passed their TDVL medical assessments should be able to use them to renew their Class 3 personal driving licences.
Mr Speaker: Er Dr Lee Bee Wah.
Er Dr Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon): Thank you, Sir. I would like to thank the Senior Minister of State. I am very happy to hear that these will be aligned. It will definitely cost less to our residents. I have two supplementary questions.
According to my resident, for Class 4 and 5, Traffic Police's enhanced Heavy Vehicle Proficiency Test fee is about $450. LTA's enhanced Taxi Driver's Vocational Licence test is $136. Both require separate medical examinations for both licence-holders aged 69 to 74 years. Residents feel that this is very expensive, very heavy on them. I welcome the alignment and I would also like to urge that the test fee can be further reduced. Four hundred fifty dollars is very high to many of them.
The second question is, at this difficult period of the COVID-19 crisis, would the Ministry work with taxi companies to work on rental reduction? Many of them have given feedback that their incomes have been reduced by as much as 50%.
Dr Janil Puthucheary: Mr Speaker, for the test fees, we are continually looking at the process of how we do these medical assessments. We will take the test fees into consideration. I thank the Member for her suggestion. We will have a look at this.
In terms of the broader issue of the taxi operators, we have announced some measures to help the taxi industry – some are directed at the drivers and some are directed at the operators. We will continue to work closely with the association, in line with the tripartite model, to look and see what is the effectiveness of the interventions we put in place and to see whether or not further interventions are necessary.