Hong Kong Driver License OCR API with Python

Reading the Hong Kong driving licence

The Transport Department licence is bilingual in Chinese and English and is tied to the holder’s HKID number. Typing these fields by hand slows down rental, onboarding, and fleet workflows and introduces formatting errors.

Structured Fields from One API Call

The Driver License OCR API returns the licence number, holder name, dates, issuing authority, address, and vehicle class when they are printed and legible; missing fields are null. Try a sample with the free driver license scanner. For coverage, pricing, and the full field list, see the driver license OCR API overview.

Common Integration Scenarios

• Vehicle rental: Pre-fill Hong Kong licence details before handover and keep the agent’s confirmation step.
• Driver onboarding: Move licence fields into a review queue without retyping the card.
• Fleet records: Track licence classes and expiry dates for internal compliance reminders.

Hong Kong Driver License OCR API with Python

The official Python SDK reads a local file and calls /v1/driver-license from your backend.

Prerequisite: `pip install structocr`; set the server-side `STRUCTOCR_API_KEY` environment variable.

Prefer another stack? Open the Node.js SDK + Express integration.

import os
from structocr import StructOCR

client = StructOCR(os.environ["STRUCTOCR_API_KEY"])
result = client.scan_driver_license("driver-license.jpg")

if result.get("success"):
    data = result["data"]
    print(data.get("document_number"))
    print(data.get("given_names"), data.get("surname"))
else:
    print(result.get("error"))

JSON Response Example

Fictional values showing the normalized shape; fields not present on the card are null.

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "type": "drivers_license",
    "country_code": "HKG",
    "region": "Hong Kong",
    "personal_number": null,
    "surname": "CHAN",
    "given_names": "TAI MAN",
    "sex": null,
    "date_of_birth": "1990-04-12",
    "place_of_birth": null,
    "date_of_issue": "2023-05-02",
    "date_of_expiry": "2033-05-01",
    "date_of_first_issue": null,
    "issuing_authority": "TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT",
    "address": null,
    "vehicle_class": "1 2",
    "extra_details": {},
    "document_number": "A000000(0)"
  }
}