HPB AND COMFORTDELGRO BRING HEALTHCARE INITIATIVES TO THE DOORSTEPS OF TAXI DRIVERS
24 June 2014, Singapore – The Health Promotion Board (HPB) has partnered with ComfortDelGro to bring innovative workplace health initiatives to taxi drivers at the ComfortDelGro Taxi Service Centre.
As part of the initiatives to keep mature workers healthy and active in the workplace, HPB and ComfortDelGro have introduced a 10-month “One for One: Check Car, Check Body!” Health Screening and Intervention Programme. This programme will provide taxi drivers with health screening, and a seven-month long health counselling and coaching programme that is customised to their health conditions. To make it more convenient for taxi drivers, the programme is carried out at the ComfortDelGro Taxi Service Centre so that taxi drivers can participate in the programme whilst they wait for their cars to be serviced. The key thrust of the programme is to motivate drivers to adopt good health behaviours by allowing them to better understand their health status. They can then take simple and manageable steps to keep themselves healthy at the end of the programme.
Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health, who chairs the Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Health, said, “Mature workers are an integral part of our workforce. It is important to help them remain healthy so that they can continue to work if they want to. However, many mature workers have difficulties finding time to participate in health programmes. Hence, we are finding creative ways to bring the health programmes to their workplaces to make these more convenient and accessible. We are starting first with the taxi drivers, as many of them are mature workers, and we intend to expand such programmes to more sectors. We hope that these customised health programmes will encourage our mature workers to take good care of their health even as they work hard.”
Mr Yang Ban Seng, ComfortDelGro CEO (Taxi Business), shared the reason why the company embarked on this initiative, “We want our drivers to be aware of how to better manage their health. By collaborating with HPB, we will have complimentary health checks and follow up health coaching sessions over seven months. Our drivers will not feel inconvenienced as the health checks are scheduled during the drivers’ monthly preventive maintenance service.”
The Health Promotion Board (HPB)
The Health Promotion Board was established as a statutory board under the Ministry of Health, Singapore, in 2001 with the vision of building “A Nation of Healthy People”. HPB aims to empower the people of Singapore to attain optimal health, increase the quality and years of healthy life and prevent illness, disability and premature death. As the key driver of national health promotion and disease prevention programmes, HPB spearheads health education, promotion and prevention programmes as well as creates a health-supportive environment in Singapore. It develops and organises relevant health promotion and disease prevention programmes, reaching out to the healthy, the at-risk and the unhealthy at all stages of life – children, youths, adults and older Singapore residents. Its health promotion programmes include nutrition, mental health, physical activity, smoking control and communicable disease education. HPB also promotes healthy ageing, integrated health screening, and chronic disease education and management.
ComfortDelGro
ComfortDelGro is one of the world’s largest land transport companies with a total fleet size of 46,100 buses, taxis and rental vehicles. Headquartered in Singapore, the Group also has operations in China, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Vietnam and Malaysia. ComfortDelGro operates about 16,600 Comfort and CityCab taxis in Singapore.