The counter service of the Licensing Office of the Transport Department was temporarily suspended due to the epidemic. After reopening on April 21, there were long queues at the Kowloon Licensing Office in Cheung Sha Wan.
The latest audit report pointed out that the Kowloon Licensing Office and the Hong Kong Licensing Office in Admiralty handle 1.5 times more cases than each staff member of the Kwun Tong and Shatin Licensing Offices. After waiting for the pilot program, it was decided not to proceed on the grounds that the overall benefit was not obvious.
Even though online renewal of full driving licenses and vehicle licenses has been available for many years, the utilization rates were only 32% and 3.7% respectively last year.
Audit recommends that the Transport Department should review the manpower needs, explore the establishment of a distribution system and expand the booking service, and strengthen the publicity of the online licence application service.
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The number of license processing cases has fallen, but the manpower has not decreased but increased
The Audit Commission reviewed the manpower requirements of the Licensing Office and found that during the period from 2019 to 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the number of matters to be handled by the Licensing Office decreased by 644,000, or about 17.5%, but the manpower increased instead of falling. From 289 on April 1 to 358 in April 2021, an increase of 24%.
The Transport Department explained that due to the suspension of counter services for more than 6 months during the epidemic, the number of applications received by drop boxes, mail and the Internet has increased significantly, and the processing time is also longer than the counter form, so the department has purchased more license services The contract is to increase manpower, which means that the procurement expenditure is subsidized by the Anti-epidemic Fund established by the government.
Even though the manpower has increased with the workload, there are still long queues after the reopening of the Kowloon Licensing Office and the Hong Kong Licensing Office.
The audit report pointed out that the Transport Department did not maintain the individual workload statistics of the four licensing offices, and could only estimate the figures for the period from 26 to 30 and 5 July 2021, and found that the Hong Kong Licensing Office and the Kowloon License The number of cases handled by each staff member of the Office is 1.5 times that of the Licensing Offices in Kwun Tong and Shatin, and the Hong Kong and Kowloon Licensing Offices handled 81% of the cases in total.
Audit considers that the workload of the four licensing offices should be monitored and the manpower of each office should be deployed flexibly.
(Hong Kong 01 cartography)
Transport Department refuses to recommend distribution service online application rate as low as 3.7%
In response to the queuing problem at the Kowloon Licensing Office and the Hong Kong Licensing Office, the audit report recommends exploring the feasibility of establishing a dispatch queuing system. The Transport Department conducted two rounds of dispatch queuing trials at the Hong Kong Licensing Office in 2015 and 2016. Although 78.5% of the respondents were satisfied with the plan, they also confirmed that it is technically feasible.
However, the Transport Department decided not to carry out the distribution arrangement, and explained that the licensing services provided by the Licensing Office are of various types, which are often handled by agents, and the complex nature of the services related to different types of vehicles. We will strive to promote the online application service for licences and shorten the waiting time for applicants.
However, in the online license application service, the Audit Office found that the utilization rate is low. As of June 2021, the online renewal of vehicle licenses only accounted for 3.7% of the total renewal applications, and only 15,258 times were used; Although online applications are more common, they only accounted for 32% of total renewal applications during the same period.
The occupancy rate of reservations for an international driving permit is only 5% (picture from the audit report)
The Transport Department also offers reservation services, covering the five most popular licence services. Except for the 83% and 74% reservation quota utilisation rates for renewal of vehicle licences/application for transfer of vehicle ownership and retention/transfer of vehicle registration marks, the rest The utilization rate of service reservation places is less than 50%.
Audit considers that the Transport Department needs to re-evaluate how to allocate reservation service places for various licensing services and licensing offices in light of the current service demand.
The multi-storey Transport Department Vehicle Inspection Complex has been commissioned.
(Photo by the Information Services Department)
Car inspections are accused of suboptimal
In terms of vehicle inspection, the work of the Transport Department has not been satisfactory. According to the guidelines of the Vehicle Inspection Office, the Office should issue a vehicle inspection order to the vehicle owner within 5 working days as far as possible after receiving a report involving a vehicle in question. , and arrange a vehicle inspection within 3 weeks.
However, 716 vehicles were inspected in 2020, more than 3 weeks after the report was received, accounting for 14% of the overall inspection.
In one of the reported cases in March 2021, the office took 21 working days to issue a vehicle inspection order, and the two times were delayed for a total of 26 weeks due to the fact that no documents were required. The vehicle received a report from the Complaint Team of the TAC, and was finally confirmed to pass the inspection after more than half a year.
In addition, on June 17 last year, the vehicle inspection complex of the Transport Department was suspected of being attacked by hackers, which made the system unable to log in and use. The online reservation system has not been restarted since the suspension.
On June 17 last year, the Vehicle Inspection Complex of the Transport Department was suspected of being attacked by hackers, and the online reservation system has not been restarted until now.
(Photo by the Information Services Department)
Audit encourages the Licensing Office of the Transport Department to allocate funds
Audit recommends that the Licensing Office of the Transport Department should review the manpower requirements, and explore the establishment of an allocation system, re-evaluate the number of service appointments, and strengthen the promotion of online license application services. In vehicle inspections, actions should also be taken to ensure vehicle inspections. There is a time limit set by the guidelines, and the online inspection system will be restarted as soon as possible.
The Transport Department agrees with the audit recommendation and points out that it will consider including applicants who have made an appointment in the survey on waiting time, improve the process of handling licensing services in the form of non-counter, so as to enhance the efficiency of handling non-counter services, etc.
300 people queuing up at the Licensing Office of the Transport Department People waiting in line with their chairs: Queue from 10:00 to 6:00 to go through the formalities Transport Department Licensing Office beat snake cakes in Cheung Sha Wan for 7 hours, driver approval, no diversion, chaos, Transport Department computer system suspected of being hacked Intrusion leakage appointment inspection vehicle owner information emergency stop online appointment
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