Opinion | Hong Kong’s driving licence bottlenecks undermine its car travel scheme

Name: Hong Kong moves test-free driver’s licence ticketing online after long queues
Uploaded: 2026-01-12T01:30:09.000Z
Description: Hong Kong moves test-free driver’s licence ticketing online after long queues

Overnight queues and a complicated application system open to abuse expose gaps between Hong Kong’s policy ambition and execution

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People queue overnight for test-free driving licence applications outside the Transport Department’s licensing office at United Centre, Admiralty, on January 7. Photo: Sam Tsang

Alice Wu

Published: 9:30am, 12 Jan 2026

If Hong Kong’s Transport Department couldn’t see that road signs needed to be at eye level when it opened the Yau Ma Tei section of the Central Kowloon Bypass, it makes sense that it couldn’t anticipate the increased demand for test-free driving licences with the launch of the southbound travel scheme.

Under the scheme, drivers of Guangdong vehicles can enter via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to either park at a designated car park – transferring to the airport for a flight or to local transport into Hong Kong – or drive straight into the urban areas. Quotas have been set to ensure enough parking and prevent the swamping of our already congested roads.

Applicants have to go through a complex process to satisfy the requirements of mainland and Hong Kong departments, which include vehicle inspections, third-party risk insurance and a valid Hong Kong driving licence. Naturally, applications for test-free driving licences for Hong Kong have gone up.

The Transport Department didn’t quite anticipate this, for reasons that befuddle us. Official statistics show demand for test-free licences has increased significantly: from 27,000 in 2021 to over 84,000 last year.

The abuse of the queuing system is a known problem. The department had rolled out stricter identification requirements last August to combat queuing gangs. But a fully upgraded online application system that extends counter services for test-free licences to all four licensing offices in Hong Kong is still not available.

With the recent increased demand, the Admiralty licensing office – the only licensing office handling test-free licence applications now – found itself dealing with overnight queues for its 140 same-day application tickets. Such walk-in applications have now been cancelled to further deter the queuing syndicates.

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Hong Kong moves test-free driver’s licence ticketing online after long queues

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Overnight queues and a complicated application system open to abuse expose gaps between Hong Kong’s policy ambition and execution

Overnight queues and a complicated application system open to abuse expose gaps between Hong Kong’s policy ambition and execution