Official Taxi Fleet Licences to be issued in July to offer quality taxi services to public (with photos)
******************************************************************************************
A spokesman for the TD said, "The TD issued provisional grants of the Taxi Fleet Licence to five selected operators in end-July 2024. All five fleets have now commenced trial operations, and have provided a total of nearly 120,000 trips to date. The public's feedback on the taxi fleet services has been positive. We have, after careful consideration, decided to adopt a flexible licensing approach to provide the public with an early opportunity to experience high-quality taxi fleet services. Taxi fleets are a new mode of operation. Upon the official launch of the fleets, we believe that through a series of promotions, positive feedback from passengers, benefits for fleet drivers, and the gradual evolvement of the trade's image, more passengers will come to know and use the taxi fleet services. This will, in turn, provide fleet drivers with a more favourable and stable income, which will help attract more taxi drivers to join the fleets and gradually enhance the fleets' capacity."
The spokesman continued that issuing official taxi fleet licenses enables the TD to effectively oversee the operations and services of the fleets in accordance with licence conditions and requirements, thereby achieving the objective of enhancing and ensuring service quality through the introduction of the taxi fleet regime.
After obtaining the licences, all five fleet operators can officially use about 80 designated taxi fleet stopping places across 13 locations, such as the airport, certain cross-boundary control points and other tourist hotspots to pick up passengers with pre-booked trips. Signage, information plates, and display panels will be erected at these locations. The TD will also distribute leaflets and display posters featuring QR codes for each taxi fleet's online hailing service to facilitate reservations by the public and tourists. The Government will also promote the taxi fleet services to the public and tourists through various channels, including the TD's HKeMobility mobile application, and the networks of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the Airport Authority, and the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.
Since July last year, the five selected operators have been conducting gearing-up work with great endeavour, including procuring new vehicles and carrying out modifications, installing in-vehicle safety devices, setting up electronic payment systems, developing and testing online hailing applications and providing training to drivers. Each fleet has also implemented different measures to recruit taxi owners and drivers, such as participating in a one-stop taxi fleet drivers thematic job fair, hosting fleet introduction sessions and recruitment events, organising activities to showcase the new taxi models and providing new fleet management approaches to taxi owners, etc.
The TD has been holding regular meetings with the fleets to actively promote and assist their gearing-up work, while co-ordinating and providing support based on their needs during the preparatory stage. For example, in response to the need of various operators to acquire new models of vehicles for use as fleet taxis, the TD has, on the premise of ensuring road safety, streamlined procedures by introducing batch applications and vehicle examinations, and providing facilitating measures in respect of the vehicle examination arrangements. The TD also opened designated stopping places within the prohibited zones of the two control points on May 30 to facilitate the fleets under trial operation in picking up passengers with pre-booked trips.
After issuing the official Taxi Fleet Licences, the TD will continue to urge fleet operators to proactively recruit taxi owners and drivers in order to achieve the committed fleet size. The TD will also closely monitor the service performances of the fleets to ensure that the service quality meets the public's aspirations.
Ends/Friday, June 27, 2025
Issued at HKT 16:19
Issued at HKT 16:19
NNNN
