TCM announces salary hike, claims operation losses

A statement was released by the bus Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos de Macau (TCM) in the Macau Daily announcing the company’s decision to increase the salaries of its drivers. It also claimed to have been suffering losses, due to the fact that the Macau government has yet to approve its application for a higher service fee.
In the statement, TCM said that in order to thank the drivers for their efforts, the board has decided to raise their salaries by 10 percent, effective January 1 this year. As for TCM employees in other positions, the statement said that their salaries would also be adjusted “in accordance with their performance”.
Moreover, the bus operator said that it is experiencing losses because the government did not approve its applications launched in 2012 and 2013 for a higher service fee. “Since the MSAR government has yet to approve our application in 2012 and 2013 to adjust the annual service fee, our service fee… at present still remains at the 2011 level, while the salaries for drivers have accumulated a growth of 67 percent. We are operating (…) under the stress of serious losses,” it said.
Furthermore, TCM claimed that, in order to maintain sufficient financial capability to provide a stable bus service, it has been operating a bus rental service, utilizing buses that are not in operation. It also stated that all the drivers operating the rental buses are part-time drivers. TCM has confirmed that “the rental service does not have any negative impact on our provision of a bus service to the public.”
TCM deputy general manager Leong Mei Leng told Macau Daily that she hopes the salary hike can attract new drivers. She also claimed that the current average salary for TCM drivers is at least MOP3,000 higher than that for shuttle bus drivers. The company has already attracted two to three drivers. However, Leong said TCM still needs to hire around 20 more drivers, as some of their drivers will be retiring soon.
Currently, the bus service concessions of both TCM and another bus operator,  Transmac, are under the bus service operation model that came into effect in 2011. Following the 2013 bankruptcy of Reolian, the third bus operator in Macau, the government has signed a new bus operation service contract with New Era, the operator that took over Reolian. The authority claimed that it would work towards changing the contracts with TCM and Transmac as soon as possible. JPL