Government welcomes passage of Road Traffic (Amendment) (Ride-hailing Service) Bill 2025
The Government welcomed the passage of the Road Traffic (Amendment) (Ride-Hailing Service) Bill 2025 today (October 15), which marks a significant milestone in introducing a regulatory regime for ride-hailing services, providing the public with safer, more reliable, and diverse personalised point-to-point transport services.
The Road Traffic (Amendment) (Ride-hailing Service) Ordinance 2025 (the Ordinance) introduces a regulatory framework for ride-hailing services, requiring platforms, vehicles, and drivers providing ride-hailing services to obtain licences or permits. Platforms holding ride-hailing service licences must maintain proper and efficient services and conduct due diligence on their vehicles and drivers. Ride-hailing vehicles must meet various requirements, including holding appropriate third-party risk insurance, complying with the requirements on the age and inspection of vehicles, and being linked to the driver (i.e. the vehicle must be registered in the name of an individual and be driven by its registered owner to provide ride-hailing passenger services). Also, ride-hailing vehicle drivers must meet specified conditions, such as being at least 21 years old, having no serious traffic convictions within the past five years, and have passed a relevant test.
In addition to regulating ride-hailing services, the Ordinance also strengthens penalties and arrangements related to illegal carriage of passengers for reward. This includes specifying that convicted drivers should be disqualified from driving for not less than 12 months (and not more than three years), and strengthening arrangements for the temporary suspension of vehicle licences and vehicle impoundments, enabling enforcement agencies to impound vehicles involved, even if the driver involved cannot be identified for the purpose of instituting criminal proceedings, thereby further combating illegal carriage of passengers for reward.
The Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan, said, "The Government is determined to introduce a legal framework for regulating ride-hailing services. This will address the long-standing controversies surrounding such services and provide the public with more travel options that are safer and lawful, while promoting the modernisation and rejuvenation of the point-to-point transport trade, thereby achieving a win-win situation for the public, taxis and ride-hailing services.
"The Ordinance represents a crucial step forward in the Government's legislative work. By first establishing the fundamental regulatory principles, it lays a solid legal foundation for establishing the technical details in the next stage. We will immediately proceed with the next stage of work, including discussing in a focused manner with stakeholders and finalising the regulatory details through subsidiary legislation and licence/permit conditions. We will continue to listen to the views and suggestions from all parties, with a view to adopting a 'people-oriented and win-win' approach," she added.
The Ordinance will be gazetted on October 24. The Government plans to submit the subsidiary legislation detailing regulatory requirements to the Legislative Council for scrutiny in the first half of next year, with a view to completing the relevant legislative procedures in mid-2026. Subject to the preparatory work of the platforms that are granted ride-hailing service licences, it is expected that the licensed platforms may commence operations in the fourth quarter of next year.
Source: AI-found images
