No more idling with the Check Car, Check Body health screening for cabbies

It's tough driving for hours on end.

Tan Xing Qi| December 18, 08:46 AM

Read a well-shared story about a Straits Times journalist's week as a Singaporean taxi uncle?

Now, read about a story about a real taxi uncle instead.

Taxi driver Patrick Chia used to spend one full day every month just waiting to get his taxi serviced in Comfort Delgro Engineering Centre at Loyang.

But now, he has a better way to spend his time.

Since June 2014, the “One for One: Check Car, Check Body!” health screening and intervention programme has conducted basic health screening for diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol for drivers at the Loyang service centre.

Taxi drivers can spend the whole day waiting for their vehicles to be serviced. Taxi drivers can spend the whole day waiting for their vehicles to be serviced.

 

Introduced by the Health Promotion Board and ComfortDelgro to keep mature workers healthy, the programme is also backed by the National Taxi Association, whose chief Ang Hin Kee says is a good use of the pragmatic taxi drivers' down-time during the mandatory vehicle inspection period.

The company’s 16,800 strong taxi fleet needs to undergo compulsory servicing at least once a month. Depending on the type of maintenance, drivers have to spend anything from three to eight hours just whiling the hours away.

Before the inception of this health checkup, drivers used to spend the time to “refuel”.

Taxi2

Others fancy a trim.

Taxi3

A handful of them prefer to catch up with news that have been making rounds in the grapevine.

Taxi4

Or just lounge.

Taxi5

Now, they have a better way to spend their down time.

Chia loves the idea of a health-screening centre at the service centre. He tells Mothership.sg: “Without the health screening, I wouldn’t know that I have high cholesterol.”

“Health is important,” he says “Money? You can always earn it back.”

The 10-month long programme also conducts one-to-one coaching sessions, with the hope of changing the taxi drivers’ lifestyles. This programme looks to be extended to the other four service centres in the future.

Drivers also learn good driving posture.

Taxi 12

And there are even monetary incentives for drivers who reached their health goals.

Taxi 8

Chia concedes that he was once driven by the motivation to earn more money and used to spend long hours on the road. After his consultations, the 58-year-old now goes to the gym regularly, walking on the treadmill for at least half an hour each time.

As loquacious as most taxi drivers are, Chia lets on, telling Mothership.sg that it’s tough to be on the road for long hours: “We don’t just drive from point A to point B you know? We drive for a few hours straight and sometimes I will just blank out and I think to myself ‘which road am I on now?’”

Taxi 10 Driver Patrick Chia talking to one of the healthcare professionals.

 

Without missing a beat, he continues: “It’s like going for a lecture. Imagine you cannot participate, you will fall asleep right? Your concentration level is no longer at 100 per cent.”

He added that taxi drivers suffer from many ailments and he is happy that there’s such a health programme for taxi drivers.

To compound the problem, under the Taxi Availability framework by the Land Transport Authority, 85 per cent of taxi drivers in Singapore will have to meet a daily minimum mileage of 250km on weekdays from next year.

This regulation is likely to further strain the drivers’ already packed schedule, giving them less time to go for a health checkup.

And for some they can’t stop even if they want to.

Giving the wall clock a quick glance, Chia apologises to this writer, saying he needs to start working so that he can cover his daily rental.

And off he goes, out of the deserted Loyang and back to his job. At least, he leaves knowing that he is doing something to maintain his health.

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