Mailbox: Any evaluation of time taken to clear travellers at checkpoints?

Singapore corporations and individuals have invested billions of dollars in businesses and properties across the Causeway in recent years.

In tandem with this, and the growth in the number of leisure travellers, traffic between Singapore and Johor has risen.

This has resulted in bottlenecks at the Tuas and Woodlands checkpoints, particularly on weekends and during school and public holidays.

We often hear of travellers waiting for two to three hours to clear Customs. The time wasted, when multiplied by the hundreds of thousands who pass through the land checkpoints every day, amounts to a significant loss of productivity.

Also, the thousands of idling vehicles cause unnecessary damage to the environment.

While there are good reasons for conducting thorough security checks, the high costs of such bottlenecks cannot be ignored.

Is there a key performance indicator on the time taken to clear each traveller during peak and off-peak hours?

Is it unreasonable to expect the authorities to provide the necessary facilities and resources to reduce the waiting time and stress faced by travellers?

Roger Tan Kia Hock

This article was published on April 2 in The Straits Times.

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