Hong Kong transport chief urges urgent fix to licence application queues

2 days ago7 min read

The scene outside the Hong Kong Licensing Office in Kowloon this week was one of administrative gridlock turned public spectacle, as hundreds of residents formed serpentine overnight queues, some camping on sidewalks with folding chairs and blankets, all desperate to secure one of the limited daily tickets for a test-free driving licence application. This tangible manifestation of systemic strain prompted Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan to issue a rare, public directive on Wednesday, demanding her department find urgent solutions to the prolonged queues and potential abuses of the application process.The immediate trigger was the daily quota system for same-day application tickets, a stopgap measure that has, paradoxically, created a secondary market of queue-holders and highlighted the fragility of the city’s digital transition. Chan’s mandate includes ensuring a promised, enhanced online booking system is operational before further backlog exacerbates public frustration, a task easier ordered than executed given the deep-seated challenges within Hong Kong’s civil service digital infrastructure.This is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a broader pattern; similar queues have plagued passport renewal services and public housing applications in recent years, revealing a persistent gap between government service delivery and public expectation in a city that prides itself on efficiency. The test-free licence scheme itself, which allows holders of overseas driving licences from recognised countries to convert to a local licence without a practical test, has seen surging demand post-pandemic amid an influx of returning residents and new arrivals under various talent schemes, placing unprecedented pressure on a system designed for a different era.Experts point to a perfect storm of factors: legacy IT systems that buckle under peak demand, rigid procedural workflows resistant to agile reform, and a cultural inertia within certain bureaucratic silos. The risk here extends beyond mere inconvenience; such visible breakdowns in basic service provision erode public trust in governance and fuel narratives of administrative decline, which opposition voices are quick to amplify.Furthermore, the spectacle of citizens sacrificing sleep for a government ticket undermines Hong Kong’s image as Asia’s world city, sending a negative signal to the international businesses and professionals it seeks to attract. The Transport Department now faces a dual challenge: to rapidly deploy a technical fix that can handle high-volume, bot-resistant online bookings, and to fundamentally rethink the customer journey for all licensing services, perhaps looking to models in Singapore or South Korea where digital ID integration has streamlined similar processes.Failure to act decisively will not only see the queues return but could precipitate a wider crisis of confidence in the government’s ability to execute its own smart city blueprints, where the promise of digital convenience crashes against the reality of analog queues. The coming weeks will be a critical test of whether Hong Kong’s bureaucracy can pivot from reactive firefighting to proactive, user-centric service design, with Mable Chan’s urgent fix serving as the first, telling benchmark.

#Hong Kong

#driving licence

#application queues

#Transport Department

#online booking

#weeks picks news