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Aspiring drivers are currently having to wait at least 290 days for a license examination - a hangover from a three-month suspension caused by the fifth wave of the Covid pandemic that is now setting off gripes.
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The average waiting time for the combined exam - a road test plus parking checks - for a private car license is 294 days, the Transport Department says.
But people who want to take the exam in Kowloon or the New Territories - seen as easier than being tested on Hong Kong Island with its more concentrated traffic and narrower roads - must wait 313 days.
And it is 315 days on average for the light goods vehicle road and parking checks.
If candidates fail either part of the combined exam they must repeat it, with the average waiting time for the most challenging road test being 284 days.
That would mean a driver hopeful who fails at the first try needs at least 578 days - about 18 months - to obtain a license the second time out.
The long waiting times upset citizens.
"You fail and you'll wait for more than 300 days," one noted in an angry online message."The waiting time was six months some years ago, which was already too long," another said. "Now it's a year."
The message to the moaners from the Transport Department was that people who need a second try could try for a repeater's early test appointment. One repeater in the line, Chen, said he failed his first exam in April and faces many months for a second chance.
"I signed up for the driving exam in April last year and the exam was scheduled in late January," he said. "However, driving exams were suspended due to the pandemic in late January, so my exam was postponed to late April. Unfortunately, I failed the exam in April and have to re-take it in early December."
Chen added that he failed his first test because a taxi suddenly blocked his way when he was changing lanes and the examiner pressed the brake pedal.
He will be nervous the second time, Chen added, as he finds it difficult to pay attention to many things at one time.
The waiting time for the exam is too long, he went on, though he is accustomed to delays in public services. Still, he is not too bothered as he will not be buying a car anytime soon.
Another driver-hopeful, Goh, said he failed the driving exam twice in 2020 and eventually decided to take the test in the mainland, where he is now works.
He intends to apply for a Hong Kong license using the mainland one after he returns to the SAR.
The president of Hong Kong Automobile Association, Ringo Lee Yiu-pui, told The Standard yesterday that around 100 people had been scheduled to take road exams each day when the exams were suspended in January, indicating as many as 8,000 people were affected by the three-month break.
So a backlog was to be expected, Lee said, particularly as the Transport Department had many examiners infected during the latest Covid wave.
But Lee also called on the department to adjust operating hours to tackle the backlog and thus shorten the queue gradually.
"Currently, road exams are scheduled from Mondays to Fridays so the Transport Department could consider also working on Saturdays," he said, otherwise "the queue will only get longer and longer."
And applicants for driving licenses may need to adjust their thinking, Lee added.
They usually start to learn to drive on roads two to three months prior to the license exams, he said, but if they have to wait for a long time for the tests their driving skills and knowledge may become rusty.
