1.1 Purpose, Owner & Why the Test Exists

The Hong Kong Taxi and Ride-hailing Vehicle Combined Written Test is the Transport Department’s current knowledge test for applicants following the taxi driving-licence or ride-hailing vehicle driving-permit pathway. New applications opened on 3 August 2026, and first tests began in mid-September 2026. The older standalone Taxi Written Test closed to new applications; this guide retains its familiar taxi URL while using the current combined format. A written pass is one licensing requirement, not permission by itself to carry passengers for hire or reward.

Who Owns the Test

The Transport Department (TD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region designs, publishes, and runs the test. TD decides the syllabus, issues the official booklets, sets the written-test centre, collects the driving-test form fee, and records results against your commercial driving-test application.

On the exam and in this guide you will see three linked ideas that all belong to TD:

• Owner / administrator — Transport Department
• Legal backbone — Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap. 374) and subsidiary legislation, especially Cap. 374A (Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations) and Cap. 374D (Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) Regulations), whose relevant topics are extracted into the official booklet
• Study publications — the documents listed below, which TD posts on its website and updates by revision date

If a commercial website, coach, or practice bank conflicts with TD’s current PDFs, TD wins. Always re-check the latest Guide and booklet before test day.

Why the Test Exists

Hong Kong taxis carry strangers, luggage, tourists, night workers, and hospital patients across a dense road network. Passengers rely on the driver for safety, fair fares, and correct destinations. The written test exists to screen out applicants who cannot yet demonstrate three public-interest aims:

1. Safe professional driving — knowing the Road Users’ Code well enough to protect passengers, pedestrians, and other road users
2. Hong Kong location knowledge — recognizing major hospitals, hotels, tourist spots, government buildings, malls, estates, and campuses so passengers are not misled or driven aimlessly
3. Taxi and ride-hailing law and practice — taxi and ride-hailing permissions, platform and owner-driver requirements, fares, receipts, passenger service, baggage, Journey Recording Systems, and Taxi-Driver-Offence Points

The pass marks are 25/30 (83.3%) for Part A and 30/35 (85.7%) for Part B. Both must be passed in the same sitting; meeting only one threshold does not produce an overall pass.

Official Source Documents (Memorize These Names)

TD points candidates to a short official stack. Use the English titles exactly as TD markets them:

How to Use Each Source

• Read the Guide first so you understand who may sit, how to apply, how long the form lasts, and how scoring works.
• Study the current Taxi and Ride-hailing Vehicle Operation Booklet as your Part A textbook. Do not treat the former taxi-only booklet as complete coverage of the new ride-hailing material.
• Study the Road Users’ Code as your Part B textbook. Do not assume private-car experience is enough; commercial drivers are expected to apply RUC rules under passenger-carrying pressure.

Two-Part Structure You Must Internalize

The official exam is one computerized sitting with 65 multiple-choice questions and 45 minutes total. Content is split into two scored parts:

Part A — Taxi and Ride-hailing Vehicle Operation (30 questions)

Part A covers taxi and ride-hailing operation, locations and routes. TD’s published structure is:

• 20 questions on taxi and ride-hailing operation (taximeter, receipts, JRS, stands, fares, baggage, conduct, TDOP, and related duties)
• 9 location questions drawn from the official landmark categories (hospitals, tourist spots, hotels, government sites, commercial buildings, shopping malls, residential areas, higher education, and similar)
• 1 route-planning question asking for a sensible, direct route under normal traffic conditions between named places

Pass mark: 25 or more correct out of 30 (you may miss at most 5).

Part B — Road Users’ Code (35 questions)

Part B checks general road knowledge and safe driving as set out in the Road Users’ Code. Topics include fitness to drive, speed and following distance, overtaking and lane discipline, junctions and priority, pedestrians and crossings, signs and markings, stopping and parking restrictions, weather and night driving, breakdowns and accidents, and professional-driver duties.

Pass mark: 30 or more correct out of 35 (you may miss at most 5).

Both Parts Required

A strong Part A score cannot rescue a weak Part B, and the reverse is also true. TD treats the two parts as independent thresholds. On test day you answer both within the single 45-minute clock; after scoring, you either meet both cut-offs or you fail the combined written test overall.

How This Guide Maps to the Syllabus

This study guide follows the same split TD uses:

• Early chapters teach application, eligibility, test logistics, and results
• Middle chapters provide taxi-operation foundations (equipment, stands, fares, passengers, TDOP, locations and routes). Also study the current combined booklet’s ride-hailing requirements; the former taxi-only material is not the full current Part A scope
• Later chapters teach Road Users’ Code topics at the depth commercial candidates need

When a later section quotes a rule, treat it as teaching alongside the current Taxi and Ride-hailing Vehicle Operation Booklet or Road Users’ Code unless it is clearly labelled as application logistics from the Guide.

Practical Mindset for Candidates

Taxi knowledge is operational, not decorative. Exam writers expect you to know what a driver must do—start the taximeter, print a receipt, accept hire at a stand, take the most direct practicable route, report lost property—not only to recognize the name of a regulation. Location items reward district memory, not vague tourism trivia. RUC items reward priority and safety choices, not memorizing chapter numbers alone.

If you only have limited study time, protect the three aims in order of failure risk:

1. Master current Part A operation requirements, including taxi and ride-hailing permissions, fares, receipts, passenger duties and TDOP
2. Drill official locations and one route method
3. Cover RUC high-yield clusters (junctions, crossings, signs/markings, stopping restrictions, weather)

Use the official composition to allocate revision across operation, locations, routes and road safety. This is study advice, not a separate TD weighting for individual operation topics.

Distinguish the Two Operating Pathways

For ride-hailing passenger services, the current booklet requires a permitted private car, a driver holding a ride-hailing vehicle driving permit, and booking through a platform holding a ride-hailing service licence. The car must be registered to an individual and driven by that registered owner for the service. A taxi driving licence, taxi vehicle licence and optional taxi fleet licence serve different purposes and must not be substituted for those three ride-hailing permissions. Licensed platforms verify drivers before and during operation and disclose the driver’s photo and relevant details, such as surname, when confirming a passenger booking.

The combined written pass does not remove the relevant pre-service course or licence/permit application requirements. An existing holder of a valid full taxi driving licence has a separate direct route to apply for a ride-hailing vehicle driving permit, without another combined test or pre-service course. Follow TD’s current application instructions for the permission you actually need.