2015 PASSION! AWARD WINNER
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DANIEL DONNY YEO CHIN SENG / 55
Cabby
ComfortDelGro Taxi, Singapore
Length of Service: 2 years
Awards:
Thumbs Up Award
OUTSTANDING FINALIST
If someone lost his mobile phone in your cab and another passenger took it, what would you do?
Well, in Cabby Daniel Donny Yeo’s case, he went door to door, searching for the second passenger, hoping to retrieve the phone.
Cabby Yeo had, on 8 August 2015, dropped Mr Albert Ng off at Alexandra at about 10am. He then picked a family of four – a couple and two children – who alighted at their housing estate along Bishan Street 23. As the family was alighting, Cabby Yeo spotted a black smartphone on the rear seat. Thinking it belonged to the mother, he reminded her to take it, which she did.
Fifteen minutes later, Cabby Yeo received a call from the Company informing him that the smartphone belonged to Mr Ng. Without hesitation, Cabby Yeo called Mr Ng and then met him at the housing estate in Bishan.
There, they began their arduous search. They went floor by floor, starting from the highest at 11th. After an hour’s search, Cabby Yeo finally
saw the father of the family by the staircase on the fifth floor, chatting with friends at a party.
Not wanting to embarrass the father, Cabby Yeo approached him discreetly to explain. The father immediately returned to his house, and emerged with Mr Ng's smartphone. An angry Mr Ng wanted to confront the father but Cabby Yeo stopped him, not wanting them to have a row. They then left the place.
A grateful Mr Ng later wrote in to commend Cabby Yeo. He said: “I am very appreciative of what Cabby Yeo had done and felt that the Company must be informed of his great attitude and helpfulness. He is an asset to your company and had definitely gone beyond his call of duty.”
But, the modest 55-year-old said: “In the 18 months that I have been driving, I have come across an incident in which a passenger had taken a smartphone that belonged to another passenger. I told myself then I must not let that happen again. As such, I felt it was as much my responsibility to help Mr Ng find the family and to ensure he recovers his smartphone. I am glad he did.”
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2015
OUR PEOPLE, OUR PASSION
OUR PEOPLE, OUR PASSION
HUANG ZHIRUI / 36
Assistant Supervisor, Workshop Safety Inspection
Guangzhou Xin Tian Wei Transportation Development Co., Ltd, China
Length of Service: 16 years
Huang Zhirui, Workshop Safety Inspection Assistant Supervisor at Guangzhou Xin Tian Wei Transportation Development Co., Ltd, has always held onto the firm belief that if something needs to be done, one should just do it.
KINGSLEY TOMLIN / 43
Bus Driver, Willesden Junction Garage
Metroline, United Kingdom
Length of Service: 7 years
Awards:
Silver in the Top London Bus Driver of the Year category at the 2015 UK Bus Awards
Metroline Bus Driver Kingsley Tomlin is the epitome of grace under pressure.
He had just stopped his bus along St Raphael’s Estate, Wembley, when a gang of youths came up to the side of the bus, spat at it and took off. Some bus drivers would have confronted them, but not Kingsley. He kept his composure, checked that his commuters were not startled, sought their permission to let him clean the bus, before apologising to them and carrying on – unfazed!
On another occasion, the 43-year-old was also commended for staying calm when he was confronted by an irate third-party driver who had collided into the side of
the bus. The driver was verbally abusive, but Kingsley remained calm and spoke factually. In the end, the driver relented and apologised for his behaviour.
So, it did not come as a surprise when Kingsley won Silver in the Top London Bus Driver of the Year category at the 2015 UK Bus Awards.
Said Willesden Junction Garage Manager, Ms Jacqui Carter: “Kingsley is an exemplary employee and a great example of outstanding customer service, pride and passion.”
OUR PEOPLE, OUR PASSION
LIAW SU CHING / 52
“Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him.”
That is certainly true in the case of Senior Bus Captain (BC) Liaw Su Ching.
On 7 July 2015, two major MRT lines broke down at about 7pm, leaving scores of commuters stranded.
It was about 15 minutes to midnight when Senior BC Liaw entered the Yio Chu Kang Bus Interchange. He had been looking forward to going home after a long 10-hour shift.
But then he saw a snaking queue of commuters waiting for Service 70A/70M. These were the train commuters who were still struggling to get home. He realised that their wait would be in vain as the last scheduled bus had left minutes ago.
Despite being tired, Senior BC Liaw immediately volunteered to operate Service 70A/70M – even though it meant adding two more hours to his day.
“It was all in a day’s work. I was glad to have helped," he said.
One of the stranded passengers, Ms Belinda Ang, was so touched by what Senior BC Liaw did that she wrote in to commend him. She said: “I must compliment him for going the extra mile. It is hard to meet someone who provides service from the heart.”
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Senior Bus Captain
SBS Transit, Singapore
2015 OUTSTANDING FINALIST OUR PEOPLE, OUR PASSION
Length of Service: 19 years
MADHAVAN KRISHNAMURTHY / 58
Assistant Head of Department, Advanced Non-Destructive Testing
Setsco Services (SETSCO), Singapore
Length of Service: 13 years
For many, weekends are a time of rest and relaxation, where families get together after a hectic week at work or school for quality time together.
So, it says a lot when someone volunteers to give up two weekends a month for nine years. That is exactly what Madhavan Krishnamurthy, Assistant Head of Department for Advanced Non-Destructive Testing (ANDT) at SETSCO did.
It started in 2003, when SETSCO first won the contract to train and certify NDT personnel for a client based in Brunei. Madhavan was originally tasked to conduct the training in Brunei on weekdays. However, not wanting to disrupt his work schedule, Madhavan counterproposed to conduct the training over weekends instead.
So for the next nine years, Madhavan travelled twice a month to Brunei, where he conducted the training for eight hours over the weekends before travelling back to Singapore.
He said: “I felt that it was the right thing to do as I didn’t want the training to disrupt my normal office work. Although it meant spending less time with my family during the weekends, I would spend as much time as I could with them during the weekdays, which more than make up for it.”
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2015 OUTSTANDING FINALIST OUR PEOPLE, OUR PASSION
