Editorial | Shake-up of licensing regime needed for Hong Kong’s ageing taxi drivers
- The city’s cabbies have to show that they are fit to drive and no danger to themselves, passengers and public
The ageing of Hong Kong’s taxi drivers has to be seen as a worrying road safety statistic, without waiting for more accidents to happen. In March, 1,713 people aged 80 and above held taxi driving licences, an increase of about 500 over five years.
Nearly 30,000 aged 70 to 79 held licences. In 2020, more than half of the city’s 203,027 cabbies were over 60.
Those over 55 accounted for nearly twice as many of the 2,320 accidents involving cabbies that year than younger drivers.
There is no retirement age. To keep their licences, drivers over 70 must furnish a satisfactory medical report from a registered doctor every three years.
It covers safety factors including eyesight, mental state, skeletal and muscular system, balance and coordination and hearing. It would be very reassuring to have confidence that such a range of tests can be conducted thoroughly in one appointment with one practitioner, or that there is no doctor shopping.
Livelihoods depend on passing these tests. Taxi driving has become accepted as an aged occupation, without any age-related dispensation for hours worked.