Source: Hong Kong Information Services
The Government welcomed the passage of the Road Traffic (Amendment) (Ride-Hailing Service) Bill 2025 today, which marks a significant milestone in introducing a regulatory regime for ride-hailing services that aims to provide the public with safer, more reliable, and diverse personalised point-to-point transport services.
The Road Traffic (Amendment) (Ride-hailing Service) Ordinance 2025 introduces a regulatory framework for ride-hailing services, requiring platforms, vehicles, and drivers providing ride-hailing services to obtain licences or permits.
In addition, the ordinance strengthens penalties and arrangements related to illegal carriage of passengers for reward.
Secretary for Transport & Logistics Mable Chan said the Government is determined to introduce a legal framework for regulating ride-hailing services, in order to address the long-standing controversies surrounding such services, and achieve 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.”
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, the Government expects that the licensed platforms may start operating in the fourth quarter of next year.