Singapore's third bus operator, Tower Transit, will equip its vehicle technicians with tablets, as part of a maintenance regime to keep buses running without a hitch, reported The Straits Times.

With the tablets, technicians can input inspection and maintenance data directly to a fleet management system. The chances of error in having a separate group of people to key in data from pen-and-paper checklists will be minimised, the company said.

"What we want to avoid at all costs is buses breaking down while they are on the road in service," said Tower Transit Singapore's Chief Finance Officer, Mr Andrew Bujtor. "With the comprehensive maintenance regime we are implementing and very detailed tracking of all our buses... we are very confident we can identify issues before they happen and rectify them."

Tower Transit, which won a five-year government contract in May to run 26 bus services in the western part of the island, will start operations progressively from the second quarter of next year.