Bangkok Post – Hong Kong launches first bus route with women drivers only, sets up rest facility for them

HONG KONG: Franchised bus firm KMB has launched Hong Kong’s first route with women drivers only and set up a rest facility that prioritises female workers at terminuses as part of its efforts to buck gender stereotypes.

The city’s biggest bus firm opened the rest facility that prioritises women at the Tin Shui Wai town centre bus terminus on Monday, the same day it arranged for female drivers to take over Route 69 in the New Territories, which runs between the district and Yuen Long.

It is also exploring another suitable route that women drivers can exclusively take charge of.

Kenny Kan Hok-hei, head of the firm’s corporate communications and public affairs department, said on Thursday: “When searching for jobs, most women think that to be a bus driver at KMB, you have to be male, or that we’re mostly looking for male employees.

“Through these new facilities that prioritise women, we can further encourage them to consider bus driving as a favourable job opportunity for them and change the impression that bus driving is a male-dominated role.”

The company’s head of operations, Douglas Mak Shing-pong, said that only 8% of KMB’s bus drivers were women and it hoped to raise the proportion to 10% “in the future”.

The facility located at the entrance of the Tin Shui Wai terminus is prioritised as a rest area and changing room for women – a small but significant improvement from when few such amenities were available.

Yeung Yiu-wai, head of KMB’s human resources department, said the new facility included a changing room with a full-length mirror, an armchair and a microwave oven.

Carmen Ng Ka-man, head of the customer experience department, said KMB planned to introduce another such facility at Tai Po central bus terminus “in three to four months”.

Janet Choi Bik-ching, 57, who has worked as a KMB driver for a decade, said she found the new facility convenient and helpful.

“I usually go to work in my casual clothing. Now I don’t have to go and find a restroom far away to change. I can easily use the changing room at the bus terminus right here,” she said.

She added that the provision made her feel “cared for” as a female employee.

Asked if women drivers still faced prejudice at work, her coworker Cheung Yu responded: “What our male colleagues do, we can do just as well.”