8.2 Advice Notices & Taxi Service Improvement Course

8.2 Advice Notices & Taxi Service Improvement Course

Quick Answer: In any two-year period: ≥8 and <15 points → Commissioner issues Advice of Taxi-Driver-Offence Points (record + consequences + improve-service reminder). ≥10 points → Notice of Obligatory Attendance of the Taxi Service Improvement Course (TSIC) — attend and complete at own cost within the specified period; fail without reasonable excuse → $5,000 fine + 1 month imprisonment. After attend + complete + pass exam + certificate: deduct 3 points if total >3 before deduction, or all points if total ≤3. No deduction on completion day if: failed exam; 0 points; total ≥15; or already deducted for a previous TSIC in the two years before completion day.

Section 8.1 listed the 11 offences and 10 / 5 / 3 values. This section explains what the Commissioner for Transport does when your running total inside two years crosses the advice and TSIC thresholds — and how a successful course can reduce points.

Threshold Map (Learn as a Ladder)

Read the ladder carefully:

• 8 starts the advice band.
• 10 starts obligatory TSIC — while still below 15, you may already be in both the advice world and the TSIC world depending on exact totals and timing of notices.
• 15 moves you into disqualification liability, which has its own rules and blocks TSIC point deduction on completion day if you still stand at ≥15 (see no-deduction list below).

Exam stems often isolate one threshold. Do not collapse “advice,” “TSIC,” and “disqualification” into one vague “warning.”

Advice of Taxi-Driver-Offence Points (≥8 and <15)

When a driver incurs 8 or more but less than 15 points within the relevant two-year period, the Commissioner issues an Advice of Taxi-Driver-Offence Points.

What the Advice Does

The advice is not a “soft letter you can ignore.” It is a formal notice that typically:

1. Records the driver’s TDOP point position (the running total / relevant entries as the scheme requires).
2. Explains the consequences of incurring further points (including the path toward obligatory course attendance and, higher still, disqualification liability).
3. Reminds the driver to improve service quality — the policy purpose of the whole TDOP scheme.

Study Framing

• Threshold: ≥8 and <15 (eight inclusive; fifteen not yet the advice band’s upper inclusive end for this particular notice type as taught).
• Issuer: Commissioner (for Transport).
• Purpose: inform + warn + urge improvement, not yet the same legal instrument as a disqualification order.
• If a question asks for the first formal TDOP paper consequence at eight points, choose the Advice, not automatic licence cancellation and not imprisonment without process.

Notice of Obligatory Attendance — TSIC (≥10 Points)

When a driver incurs 10 points or more within the relevant two-year period, the Commissioner issues a Notice of Obligatory Attendance of Taxi Service Improvement Course (TSIC).

What the Driver Must Do

1. Attend the Taxi Service Improvement Course.
2. Complete it within the specified period stated in the notice regime.
3. Bear the cost personally — the course is attended and completed at the driver’s own cost.

TSIC is a service-quality rehabilitation tool. It is not optional once the obligatory notice applies. “Busy with airport runs” is not a free pass; only a reasonable excuse can justify failure to attend and complete within the period (and even then you must still deal with the obligation lawfully).

Failure Without Reasonable Excuse

A driver who, without reasonable excuse, fails to attend and complete the required TSIC within the specified period commits an offence and is liable to:

• a fine of $5,000, and
• imprisonment for one month.

Exam traps:

• Treating non-attendance as “only another TDOP point” — wrong; the Booklet states a criminal fine-and-imprisonment framing.
• Inventing a tiny administrative fee as the only sanction.
• Claiming experience or years of driving cancel the notice.

Point Deduction After Successful TSIC

Completing the course is not automatic point erasure. The Booklet sets a success chain and then an arithmetic rule.

Success Chain (All Required for Deduction Eligibility)

The driver must:

1. Attend the course,
2. Complete the course,
3. Pass the examination associated with the course, and
4. Obtain the certificate of completion / success as the scheme provides.

Only then does the deduction rule apply — and only if none of the no-deduction situations exist on completion day.

Deduction Arithmetic

Look at the driver’s total points immediately before deduction on the relevant completion logic:

Examples for study (illustrative arithmetic only):

• Total 12 before deduction → deduct 3 → 9 remaining (subject to no-deduction blockers).
• Total 5 before deduction → deduct 3 → 2 remaining.
• Total 3 before deduction → deduct all → 0.
• Total 2 before deduction → deduct all → 0.

There is no rule that successful TSIC always wipes the slate clean when the total is high. High totals lose three points only, unless the pre-deduction total is already ≤3.

Four No-Deduction Situations (Completion Day)

Even if the driver attended the course, no points are deducted on the completion day if any of the following apply:

How to Memorise the Four Blockers

Use the acronym F-Z-F-P in study notes only if it helps you:

• Fail exam
• Zero points
• Fifteen or more
• Previous TSIC deduction already taken in the prior two years

Or simply drill the four stems as true/false until automatic.

Why ≥15 Blocks Deduction

Section 8.3 teaches that ≥15 points creates disqualification liability. The TSIC deduction rule refuses to shave points on completion day while the driver still sits at ≥15. Do not invent a strategy of “take the course and ignore court disqualification process.” Course attendance and court/administrative disqualification tracks serve different stages of the ladder.

Why Previous Deduction Blocks Another Deduction

The scheme allows a points reduction benefit tied to successful TSIC, but not an endless loop of course-and-erase inside the same two-year logic. If a previous TSIC already produced a deduction within the two-year period before the current completion day, a further completion does not grant another deduction under rule (d).

Overlap of Advice Band and TSIC Band

A driver at 10, 11, 12, 13, or 14 points is:

• inside the ≥8 and <15 advice zone (so advice machinery applies in that band), and
• at or above the ≥10 TSIC obligatory-attendance threshold.

A driver at 8 or 9 points is in the advice band but not yet at the ≥10 TSIC notice threshold.

A driver at 15+ is in disqualification liability territory (8.3) and, for TSIC deduction purposes, sits in no-deduction case (c) if still ≥15 on completion day.

Sketch for recall:

Points:  0 .... 7 | 8 .... 9 | 10 ........ 14 | 15 ......
                  | Advice----| Advice+TSIC---| DQ liability
                  |           | (own-cost course)

Practical Service Message (Exam + Livelihood)

TDOP is designed so that early accumulation produces advice and training, not only punishment. The exam expects you to know that Hong Kong links service improvement to continued ability to earn as a taxi driver. Treat every 3-, 5-, or 10-point offence as both a legal risk and a livelihood risk long before 15 points.

Candidate habits that protect both score and career:

1. Accept lawful hires; do not “pick and choose” destinations for convenience.
2. Use the meter correctly; never overcharge.
3. Take the most direct practicable route; answer fare/route questions honestly.
4. Issue receipts; do not solicit; do not add unauthorised passengers.
5. If an advice or TSIC notice arrives, read the deadlines, book the course early, and pass the exam — attendance without a pass earns no deduction.

Closing Checklist for Section 8.2

1. ≥8 and <15 → Advice of Taxi-Driver-Offence Points (record, consequences, improve service).
2. ≥10 → Obligatory TSIC notice; attend + complete at own cost in time.
3. Skip TSIC without reasonable excuse → $5,000 + 1 month imprisonment liability.
4. Success path for deduction: attend + complete + pass exam + certificate.
5. Deduct 3 if total >3; deduct all if total ≤3.
6. No deduction if fail exam / 0 points / ≥15 / previous TSIC deduction already in the two-year window before completion day.

Next: 8.3 Disqualification & Two-tier Penalties — the ≥15 points court disqualification periods and the elevated criminal maxima for the four serious 10-point offences.