Biennial review on the need to issue new private driving instructors’ licences
Driver training policy
Mr CHAN Chun-ying pointed out that the number of test forms sold to on-street learner drivers vis-à-vis the average number of valid PDIs’ licences might not truly reflect the demand of learner drivers to receive driving instructions from PDIs. As example, Mr CHAN pointed out that learner drivers taught by RDIs of DDSs might receive further driver training from PDIs after passing the tests. Since such PDIs’ identities would not be recorded in the students’ test forms, they might be regarded as “inactive” and hence the actual driving training demand might be underestimated.
In response, USTH and AC/A&L said that the number of test forms sold to on-street learner drivers was in general a useful indicator of driver training demand as each learner driver was required to buy a test form for each driving test attempt. TD had also examined the “PDI licence to test form ratio” which reflected the average number of driving tests handled by a PDI. It was found that there was a growing trend in the driver training demand for Group 1 vehicles in the past years while the demand for driver training in Group 2 and Group 3 vehicles had been declining.
Private driving instructors’ licences and restricted driving instructors’ licences
Mr CHAN Chun-ying enquired whether DDSs were able to recruit holders of PDIs’ licences as driving instructors under the current driver training policy. He also expressed concern about the total number of RDIs’ licences issued by TD to the driver instructors employed by DDSs. In reply, AC/A&L explained that DDSs might recruit PDIs’ licensees or RDIs’ licensees as driving instructors. About 500 RDIs’ licences had been issued by TD to the driver instructors employed by DDSs and there was no restriction on the number of RDIs’ licensees.