Proposal for Mandatory Rest Break for Drivers to Mitigate Health and Safety Concerns
Ministry of ManpowerSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns MP Mr Gan Thiam Poh’s proposal for the Ministry of Manpower to study maximum daily work hours and implement mandatory rest breaks for vocational drivers to address fatigue-related safety risks. Minister Dr Tan See Leng responded that the Workplace Safety and Health Council recommends 15-minute breaks every two hours and limiting shifts to 12 hours under existing guidelines. Instead of mandating these limits, the Council focuses on education and providing grant support for safety technologies like the Advanced Driver Assistance System and Driver Status Monitoring System. These technologies, adopted by 171 companies since 2020, help detect driver fatigue and distractions to improve situational awareness and warn of potential collision risks. Minister Dr Tan See Leng noted that industry fatigue management is improving, as preliminary investigations into recent fatal work-related traffic accidents indicate fatigue was not the cause.
Transcript
57 Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Ministry will study the maximum number of hours that drivers of buses, taxis, private hire cars, trucks and delivery vehicles should work each day to mitigate the health and safety concerns relating to driver fatigue; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider implementing a compulsory rest break for these drivers after a certain number of hours of continuous driving.
Dr Tan See Leng: MOM last studied the issue of long driving hours together with industry partners in 2019, in an effort to reduce Work-Related Traffic Accidents (WRTA) involving vocational drivers.
The tripartite Workplace Safety and Health Council has issued the Guidelines on Fatigue Management in 2010, updated the Workplace Traffic Safety Management Guidelines in 2014, and more recently in 2021, revised its Guide to Safe Riding. The guidelines include recommendations on preventing fatigue. For example, the guidelines recommend that in addition to limiting shifts to no more than 12 hours including overtime, drivers should take scheduled breaks such as 15 minutes of rest for every two hours of driving.
The Council considered whether to mandate its recommendations or reduce the current limit of 12 hours of work a day permissible under the Employment Act. It decided to focus instead on addressing the core attitudes and mindsets towards safety. The Council also stepped up measures to educate employers and drivers on the risk factors and share recommendations on the good practices that can be adopted to prevent fatigue.
MOM has also worked with IMDA and ESG to provide grant support to adopt vehicular safety technology such as the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) to improve the situational awareness of drivers and warn of collision risks, and the Driver Status Monitoring System (DSM) to detect fatigue and distractions such as handphone usage or not looking ahead for extended periods. Since September 2020, 171 companies have taken up the grant to install vehicular safety technology and we urge more to come on board. Businesses can refer to these solutions under Fleet Safety Management System in the Productivity Solutions Grant for more information.
The industry has generally shown that it has been improving in managing fatigue over the years. Preliminary investigations into the four fatal WRTA that have occurred thus far this year indicate that fatigue was not the cause.