The Transport Department today launched the electronic driving licence (eDL) to bring greater convenience and flexibility to some 2.5 million driving licence holders who can display the eDL through their smartphones.

From today, driving licence holders can download the department's “Electronic Driving Licence” mobile application (eDL app) for free and authenticate with “iAM Smart” or the department's e-Licensing Portal account to log in and access their eDLs, covering full, learner's, probationary and temporary DLs, as well as the driving instructor's licence.

The eDL is an alternative to the physical DL to fulfil the statutory requirements of carrying or producing a DL for examination or inspection by law enforcement officers.

The eDL provides data in sync with the information contained in the physical licence, including the holder's name, the licence number, the classes of vehicle permitted to drive and the expiry dates.

The status of the eDL is indicated in blue, yellow or red, showing a valid, a partially valid or an expired licence respectively.

The eDL can only be displayed via the department's eDL app in the specified form with multiple security features to avoid counterfeiting, including identity authentication, a dynamic department logo, the disabled screen capture function and an encrypted time-limited QR code.

Each licence holder can only register one eDL account, and each mobile phone can only be used to bind to one account at a time.

The department said that the current arrangement of issuing the physical licence remains unchanged and holders may use it at their preference.

If applicants submit licence applications online, they can immediately access their eDLs via the eDL app conveniently and swiftly upon approval and do not need to wait for the physical licence sent by post.

Since August, the department has been briefing representatives of the transport sector, comprising the goods vehicle, taxi, public light bus, non-franchised bus and cross-boundary coach trades, as well as driving schools, on the use of the eDL, and maintained close liaison with law enforcement agencies and relevant departments.

The department will also notify the relevant Mainland and overseas authorities or consulates in Hong Kong of the launch of the eDL.

The eDL app supports iOS and Android operating systems, and can be downloaded and used for free from the Apple App Store, Google Play or Huawei AppGallery.