In an effort to raise productivity and to introduce a new Hawkers dining culture, customers will be required to pay for food tray deposit fees in at least 25 hawker centres according to media sources.
The new automated tray return system (ATRS) has already been picked up by the Bukit Merah Hawker Centre and the Marsiling Hawker Centre for implementation in addition to the centralized dishwashing (CDW) services they offer.
New Hawker Service Systems Aim to Improve Overall Service and Productivity of Hawker Centres
Right now, customers in the abovementioned hawker centres are charged tray deposit fees between $0.50 and $1.00 upon ordering food, which will be refunded once they return their trays at the respective ATRS stations. Because of this, cleaners can focus on clearing the tables which will allow for faster turnaround time, and in effect, increased productivity and service efficiency.
Used trays, plates, and utensils are brought to the CDW area, where they are automatically cleaned by a large-scale, heavy-duty automated dishwashing equipment.
Hawker centres pay for CDW services by the volume of dishes and utensils they use per day. In order for hawker centres to pick up this system, the National Environment Agency (NEA) offers to shoulder by as much as 70 per cent of the operational charges for the first two years of implementation.
The ATRS and CDW are among the top solutions offered by the Hawker Centre 3.0 Committee in addressing the increasing service workload and manpower shortages encountered by the industry.