Govt Proposes Cap of 10,000 Ride-hailing Licenses, Earliest Issuance from End-Nov

The Transport and Logistics Bureau submitted a document on the regulation of ride-hailing services, proposing to set an upper limit of 10,000 vehicle permits at the current stage. It is expected that ride-hailing service licenses could be granted progressively as early as end-Nov this year, allowing licensed platforms to begin preparatory work. The authorities proposed charging platforms an annual license fee of HKD1.2 million. For vehicle and driver licenses, each vehicle permit with a validity period of not more than 12 months will cost HKD1,560, while each driver permit valid for five years will cost HKD410.

The authorities said that assuming each ride-hailing driver operates an average of about six hours per day and completes two trips per hour, each driver could complete about 12 trips per day on average. Based on 10,000 ride-hailing vehicles, around 120,000 trips could be provided daily in total, which would broadly meet current public demand for ride-hailing services.

The government will submit four related pieces of subsidiary legislation to the Legislative Council today (27th) under the "negative vetting" procedure. The authorities proposed that the remaining provisions targeting vehicles and drivers be implemented starting from August 22 next year, meaning that from that date all ride-hailing passenger services must be provided by licensed vehicles and drivers and booked through licensed platforms. Operating an unlicensed ride-hailing platform will constitute an illegal act. (mn/j)