A coalition of private driving instructors yesterday protested against favourable treatment the Transport Department is giving to driving schools. Twenty cars, vans and buses drove from Tsuen Wan to the Cheung Sha Wan government offices to protest about how the two designated driving schools - Hong Kong School of Motoring and Tsuen Wan Driving School - enjoyed shorter waiting queues for tests for driving buses. About 30 other vehicles trailed the protesters. Organisers had asked permission for a 100-vehicle protest but the police approved only 20 vehicles. 'It has always been the case that the schools get better treatment, but it was not as outrageous before,' said Chang Shui-hung, chairman of the coalition which represents 1,000 private instructors. The coalition is protesting against being told last month that their clients would have to wait five months for a bus-driving test. In comparison, students of the driving schools had only a two-month wait. Raymond Leung Sheung-yee, a Transport Department senior executive officer, admitted there was a difference in waiting times. He said the department had slowed the number of bus-driving tests because of falling demand. But requests had surged recently and it could not react quickly enough to accommodate private instructors' students. While the wait has been shortened to four months, the two driving schools still have an advantage with only an 80-day wait. 'Our aim is to bring them close but we cannot make them the same because we cannot control the number of applicants,' Mr Leung said. Students of the two designated driving schools have a shorter wait time because they are tested on the schools' property. They go on a different queue from those of private instructors, whose students are tested at a government location.
