ENG-2002 — Page 306

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TRANSPORT

help to reduce peak hour demand for other public transport services. At year-end, there were 7 058 licensed non-franchised buses in operation.

Minibuses

Hong Kong's minibuses are licensed to carry a maximum of 16 passengers. At year- end, there were 6 276 licensed minibuses. Of these, 4 346 were public light buses (PLBs), and 1930 were private light buses. Private light buses are authorised to carry only group passengers and are not allowed to collect separate fares.

There are two types of PLBs: 'green' and 'red' minibuses. Green minibuses (GMB) provide scheduled services with fixed routeing, fares, vehicle allocation and timetables stipulated by the Transport Department. There were 2 540 green minibuses operating 341 routes which recorded a daily average of 1 100 000 passengers trips in 2002. Red minibuses are not required to operate on fixed routes or timetables and they may set their own fares, but they are subject to certain restrictions on their operating areas. There were 1 806 red minibuses in operation and they recorded a daily average of 507 000 passengers trips during the year.

In 2002, the Transport Department and the Quality Public Light Bus Service Steering Committee continued to launch a series of project initiatives to improve the quality of PLB service. To enhance operators' training and management skills, a workshop on 'Staff Performance Management' and a seminar on 'Basic Financial Management' were held in February and November, respectively. In addition, the 'Quality PLB Driver Award 2002' was held from April to June to commend, and give incentives to, PLB drivers who provided quality service to passengers. The response to the award scheme was good with over 4000 nominations received. A total of 144 drivers were designated as 'Outstanding', 'Merits' or 'Quality' drivers.

The department also published PLB Newsletters every four months to enhance communications between the trade and the Government. The department continued to promote and facilitate the provision of on-board facilities for passengers including electronic payment systems, passenger call bells, driver name plates and display of passenger hotlines numbers.

The Government introduced incentive schemes in August to encourage the early replacement of diesel light buses by vehicles operating on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or electricity. PLB owners who replace their diesel vehicles with those using LPG or electricity may apply for a one-off grant of $60,000 or $80,000, respectively. Owners of diesel private light buses who opt to switch to LPG vehicles will be exempted from the first registration tax (electricity-driven vehicles are already exempted from the tax). The deadlines for applications are the end of 2004 for diesel light buses that are 10 years old or over and the end of 2005 for those that are less than 10 years old at the time of de-registration. At year-end, 307 LPG public light buses and 37 LPG private light buses were operating on the roads. One electricity- driven private light bus was in operation.

Taxis

At year-end, there were 15 250 urban taxis (coloured red), 2 838 New Territories taxis (green) and 50 Lantau taxis (blue) in operation, and they recorded a daily average of 1.1 million, 0.2 million and 13 000 passengers trips, respectively.

During the year, the Transport Department and the Quality Taxi Services Steering Committee (QTSSC) continued to launch schemes to improve the quality of taxi