1.2 Eligibility & Disqualifying Convictions

Before you memorise taximeter rules or hospital locations, confirm that you are allowed to apply and sit. The Guide to Taxi Written Test sets eligibility and disqualification rules that protect passengers and align taxi entitlement with commercial-driver standards. Failing an eligibility check wastes both study time and the non-refundable fee path if you become disqualified close to test day.

Age Requirement

The Transport Department's commercial vehicle driving test eligibility criteria — restated on the GovHK Online Booking for Driving Tests page — require applicants to be aged 21 or above. Treat 21+ as a hard gate for planning. If you are under 21, do not assume a private-car full licence alone will open taxi entitlement—the taxi written pathway is a commercial track with a higher age floor.

Age is checked against your identity documents at application and again as part of normal test-day identity control. If your birthday falls near an application deadline under a closing regime (see Section 1.3), ensure the application date itself satisfies the age rule as TD applies it.

Driving Licence Prerequisites (PC or LGV)

You must hold a valid full private car (PC) driving licence or a valid full light goods vehicle (LGV) driving licence, and you must satisfy TD’s experience period rule. The Guide’s wording is precise; study both acceptable paths rather than inventing a third hybrid.

Path A — Full Licence Already Free of Probation

You hold a full PC or LGV licence without probation, and you have held that full status for at least one year immediately preceding the application.

Plain English: by application day, your full PC/LGV entitlement has already been “clean full” (not probationary) for a continuous year just before you apply.

Path B — Probation Completed, Full Licence Held on Application Date

You have completed a probationary period of at least one year for PC or LGV, and on the application date you hold a valid full PC or LGV licence.

Plain English: you finished the required probationary year, upgraded (or already hold) full PC/LGV status, and that full licence is valid when you lodge the application.

What These Paths Are Guarding

TD wants evidence of mature licensed driving experience in light vehicles before granting a path toward taxi entitlement. The one-year rule is not a suggestion; applications that cannot show the required period should expect rejection or delay. Keep photocopies or digital images of licence faces ready, and know your full-licence issue / end-of-probation dates before you complete TD 321.

Practical Checklist for Licence Status

• Licence class is full PC and/or full LGV (not only motorcycle, not only a foreign permit without local full status as TD requires)
• Licence is valid on application day (not expired)
• Either ≥1 year full without probation immediately before application, or ≥1 year probation completed with full PC/LGV held on application date
• Name and identity match your Hong Kong Identity Card / accepted ID documents

If your history includes suspension, cancellation, or class restrictions, resolve those issues before paying for a commercial test form.

Disqualifying Convictions (Preceding 5 Years)

Even with age and licence experience satisfied, TD disqualifies candidates who have been convicted in the preceding five years of certain serious offences under the Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap. 374). These offences target dangerous driving with severe harm, drink and drug driving, and failures to comply with alcohol/drug testing powers.

Listed Cap. 374 Provisions (Learn the Themes)

The Guide identifies convictions under provisions including the following. You do not need to litigate the sections in court to sit the exam, but you must recognise them as hard bars for five years after conviction:

How to Read the Five-Year Window

• The bar is about conviction within the preceding five years, not about whether you personally feel rehabilitated.
• These are serious road-safety offences. Taxi passengers are a captive audience; TD will not admit recent high-risk convicts into the written-test pipeline.
• Minor parking tickets or unrelated non-listed offences are not automatically the same as this list—but never self-diagnose a borderline criminal record. If you have any Cap. 374 conviction history, obtain professional legal or TD guidance before applying.

Study Tip Without Memorising Every Subsection Number Blindly

Group the list into three clusters for recall:

1. Dangerous driving harm — death (s.36) and GBH (s.36A)
2. Alcohol and general drink/drug influence — s.39, s.39A, breath/specimen compliance s.39B/s.39C
3. Illicit and other drugs + test failures — s.39J, s.39K, s.39L, s.39O(1), s.39S

If a practice question asks which conviction type blocks the taxi written test, choose the option that matches these serious Cap. 374 themes rather than a generic “any traffic ticket.”

Court-Suspended Licence Before the Test

A separate but critical rule: if a court has suspended your driving licence and that suspension is in force before the test, you are disqualified from taking the Taxi Written Test. TD’s practical consequence is blunt: the fee is not refunded.

Why This Rule Exists

The written test sits inside a driving-licence entitlement process. A driver under court suspension is not in good standing to advance commercial testing. TD will not convert a suspended-status candidate into a tested taxi applicant simply because a booking slot exists.

Candidate Actions

• Check for any pending summonses, drink-driving cases, or dangerous-driving proceedings that could produce a suspension before your booked date
• If suspension is imposed, do not assume the written-test appointment will still be usable
• Expect no refund of the paid test-form fee when disqualification for suspension applies
• Re-plan eligibility only after licence status is lawfully restored and other Guide conditions are met

Putting Eligibility Together

Think of eligibility as four gates in series:

1. Age — 21+
2. Licence class & validity — full PC or full LGV, currently valid
3. Experience path — Path A (≥1 year full without probation immediately preceding application) or Path B (≥1 year probation completed and full PC/LGV held on application date)
4. Clean serious-offence record + no blocking suspension — no listed Cap. 374 convictions in the preceding 5 years; no court licence suspension that disqualifies you from the test sitting

Only after these gates open should you invest heavily in Part A location tables and Part B RUC drills. The next section covers how to apply, what you pay, how long the form lasts, and the 2026 application-status change that every candidate must understand factually.