The Vehicle Safety and Standards Division of the Transport Department seeks to ensure the safety of vehicles through controlling design requirements and encouraging proper maintenance. All vehicles to be registered in Hong Kong are required to go through type approval and / or pre-registration examination to ensure that they meet the requirements as stipulated in the Road Traffic Ordinance. All commercial vehicles including goods vehicles, buses, light buses, taxis and trailers are required to undergo a pre-registration examination, and roadworthiness examinations annually thereafter. Moreover, all private cars aged over 6 years old are required to pass examination every year.
There are four Government-owned Vehicle Examination Centres providing examination services for motorcycles, motor tricycles, private cars, buses, light buses, taxis, goods vehicles, trailers and special purpose vehicles. Three of them are operated by the Transport Department and one is operated by a contractor. There are also 45 privately-owned designated Car Testing Centres, conducting annual examination for private cars and light goods vehicles not exceeding 1.9 tonnes. In 2017, about 535,000 vehicle inspections were carried out at the above centres.
The Vehicle Safety and Standards Division monitors the maintenance of franchised buses and conducts Certificate of Fitness and Certificate of Roadworthiness examinations and spot checks on in-service franchised buses to ensure their safety and roadworthiness.