Hong Kong’s Transport Department has said it is appealing against a High Court ruling that quashed a tribunal’s decision to refuse hire car permits to two prospective Uber drivers.
In a reply to HKFP on Friday, the department said it had decided to appeal after “closely considering the [court’s] points of law and the operation of the current hire car system.”
Last month, the High Court ruled in favour of two prospective Uber drivers who applied for hire car permits but were rejected in 2018.
In Hong Kong, hire car permits allow drivers to operate vehicles offering a service, such as hotel buses and limousines.
By law, drivers of ride-hailing apps are also required to have a hire car permit, but this is a legal grey area. While drivers have been arrested, police have not conducted any major crackdowns. Drivers and customers have few issues offering or using ride-hailing services.
The two applicants challenged the rejection at the Transport Tribunal after being turned down by the department, which handles appeals against the department’s decisions. But the tribunal sided with the department.
In his judgment, High Court Judge Russell Coleman said that based on the policy’s “legislative history,” the hire car system did not appear to exclude private cars from offering personalised point-to-point service to the public generally.
Coleman also rejected the department’s view that an applicant had to prove that their services were “unique,” or not substitutable by other drivers.
Referring to the head of the Transport Department, the judge said that “the Commissioner’s position lacks consistency, in that the Commissioner has routinely granted HCPs [hire car permits] to operators open for booking by members of the public.”
He continued, “The fact that a wedding car is booked for a wedding, or a limousine by a corporate executive, or a private car for a person going fishing, does not create any categorical distinction between that vehicle and one booked using an e-hailing app.”
Regulating ride-hailing services
The Transport Department’s decision to appeal against the High Court ruling comes as the government has proposed a framework for regulating ride-hailing services like Uber in Hong Kong.
The Transport and Logistics Bureau submitted its proposal to the Legislative Council last month. It suggested issuing licences to ride-hailing platforms that would be valid for five years and renewable based on the platform’s service performance.
The popularity of services such as Uber has risen amid long-standing dissatisfaction with taxi service standards, while the cab industry is calling for tougher action against Uber and the like, saying that its livelihood has been adversely affected by ride-hailing services.
A taxi union has called for allowing ride-hailing services to operate only during peak hours. The government plans to cap the number of licences but has not given details of the specific limit.
The Transport Department said in its reply on Friday that the government would continue its “relevant legislative work” in regulating ride-hailing platforms.
