Businesses related to cross-border travel including coach operators and Covid testing laboratories are rushing to beef up their operations now that China has reopened its doors to the world but they are being held back by a manpower crunch.
Most ports between Hong Kong and Guangdong province were closed after the pandemic broke in early 2020 as business and travel came to a grinding halt.
And as a result, many workers especially drivers found new jobs.
Three ports including Shenzhen Bay, Man Kam To and Lok Ma Chau are now open to up to 50,000 travellers a day but cross-boundary coach operators are worried that once the ports are fully opened, they will not have enough workers to meet the anticipated demand.
The Hong Kong Guangdong Boundary Crossing Bus Association said that the January 8 reopening was a shot in the arm for the industry but it is short of workers.
Last month, nearly 200 drivers and 150 passenger buses were hired in anticipation of reopening so that operators they could resume operation quickly.
However, the capacity can only reach a maximum of 10,000 passengers per day, but if the cross-border quota is removed, the current manpower would not be able to handle the cross-border transportation.
The association is finding it hard to hire new staff as a fifth of these drivers are now too old to be hired under current laws, making it even more difficult to fully resume operations.
Meanwhile, insurance and maintenance costs have risen, while most companies can only offer salaries of about HK$22,000 a month amid stiff competition.
The HKGBCBA says elderly drivers to be allowed to resume their jobs and hopes the government will also temporarily allow mainlanders to drive buses into Hong Kong.
Chan, a cross-boundary bus driver who has switched to construction work, says that 90 percent of the drivers changed jobs in the last three years after the border closed.
He says there were 2,000 drivers before the pandemic but now only 10 percent of them have returned to work, while companies are offering high prices to hire more employees.
A cross-border coach operator was reportedly offering a wage of HK$30,000 monthly - almost 50 percent above the market rate, to hire drivers.
Another operator of cross-border school buses said some peers are paying 30 percent more than the market prices to woo workers.
Covid-19 nucleic acid testing laboratories are also facing an employee crunch.
As visitors from Hong Kong to the mainland are required to produce a negative RT-PCR test 48 hours before travel, demand for the tests are increasing sharply.
One lab points out that if the entry quota to the mainland is relaxed to more than 100,000 people per day, there will be further pressure for testing and higher salaries will have to be offered to compete for employees.
Data from the Medical Laboratory Technologists Board shows nearly a third of the city's 4,300-odd medical laboratory technologists now work for the Hospital Authority, adding to staffing pressures at private labs.
Alex Li Wai-chun, the chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Medical Laboratories, says that during the fifth wave of the pandemic last year, some large labs were hiring technicians and assistants at salaries that were 30 percent higher than the going price.
He says they should be allowed to hire mainlanders to alleviate the problem if necessary, just like when Beijing sent medical workers from the mainland to help battle the fifth wave in the city.
Around 52,000 people headed north while 25,000 crossed into Hong Kong in the first two days of the reopening but the numbers are expected to rise in the run-up to the Chinese New Year. This means the bus operators and labs will continue to face more challenges unless the manpower shortage is resolved.
Meanwhile, high-speed rail trains resumed running yesterday between Hong kong and the mainland but with only four services to Shenzhen and Guangzhou, with the MTRC deploying staff from other MTR stations amid a manpower shortage to support the resumption of the service in the early stages.
GEARING FOR GROWTH: The cross-border bus terminal at Austin Road.
