Results from 360 HLA‐DR and ‐DQ ‘low‐resolution’ typings with polymerase chain reaction sequence‐specific primers (PCR‐SSP), performed by nine laboratories, were analysed for their overall utility in routinely defining the HLA‐DR1–DR18, DR51–DR53 and DQ1–DQ9 specificities in less than 2.5 h. Thirty EDTA blood samples and 10 DNA samples were distributed and analysed by each laboratory. DNA was extracted using a rapid bromide salt extraction protocol. Complete HLA‐DR and ‐DQ typings were performed, three by three, on pre‐aliquoted 96‐tube PCR trays. When compared with reference typing, 351/360 (98%) correct DR typings were obtained, whereas 320/360 (89%) of the DQ phenotypes were correctly assigned. The time for three complete HLA‐DR and ‐DQ ‘low‐resolution’ typings, including DNA extraction, ranged from 2.0 h to 2.3 h. Unfortunately, an unusually high level of PCR amplification failures was observed (3%), probably due to diffusion and a significant volume loss from some of the pre‐aliquoted primer mixes. Consequently, only 52% of the typings were without any amplification failure, and 0–2 amplification failures where found in 88% of the PCR‐SSP typings performed. The number of HLA‐DR–DQ retypings needed was 7 and 8%, respectively, reflecting the low number of typings where allelic identification was directly affected by the relatively high level of amplification failures in this study. Thus, a 91–98% success rate of correctly identified HLA‐DR and ‐DQ alleles could be maintained, even under suboptimal typing conditions.