Corfu driving schools set to hold protests
protest
31 Jan 2022
/ 14:05
CORFU. "We waited when we were asked to, but now it΄s a matter of survival and we will be taking protest action."
There has been no improvement regarding the lack of staff of the Corfu Transport Department, despite the repeated complaints of the driving schools for the long delays in the testing of candidates. The Directors of the Corfu driving schools are referring to the issue once again with a new statement, calling for the recruitment of staff in the overburdened Department, as well as the recruitment of driving examiners in order to finally serve the candidate drivers, who are still on hold.
They made the following statement: “Once again, we, the driving school owners, are facing a disruption in the testing process of candidate drivers for obtaining a driving license.
In the last four years, unfortunately, this has been happening regularly because of the situation in the Corfu Communications and Transport Department, which does not have the necessary number of employees for its proper functioning.
In particular, we are experiencing delays in all procedures and, as a result, many of them are pending. For example, the process for a driving license to be renewed takes about 6 months, the conversion of driving licenses of Albanian citizens to Greek ones takes 1.5 years, the examination forms in order for the candidate drivers to be able to take part in the theoretical and practical tests can take from 2 weeks to 2 months. Also, there have only been a few tests of professional drivers in the last 2 years, while for motorcycles and cars, only 2 to 6 people are being tested per category each month.
An entire sector is collapsing, hundreds of citizens are on hold and despite the promises of the Region that at least a temporary solution will be found, no action has been taken yet. We waited when we were asked to, but now it is a matter of survival and we will be taking protest action
We are asking for recruitment of staff in the overburdened Corfu Transport Department. We are asking for recruitment of driving examiners in order to finally serve the candidate drivers, who are still on hold.”
They made the following statement: “Once again, we, the driving school owners, are facing a disruption in the testing process of candidate drivers for obtaining a driving license.
In the last four years, unfortunately, this has been happening regularly because of the situation in the Corfu Communications and Transport Department, which does not have the necessary number of employees for its proper functioning.
In particular, we are experiencing delays in all procedures and, as a result, many of them are pending. For example, the process for a driving license to be renewed takes about 6 months, the conversion of driving licenses of Albanian citizens to Greek ones takes 1.5 years, the examination forms in order for the candidate drivers to be able to take part in the theoretical and practical tests can take from 2 weeks to 2 months. Also, there have only been a few tests of professional drivers in the last 2 years, while for motorcycles and cars, only 2 to 6 people are being tested per category each month.
An entire sector is collapsing, hundreds of citizens are on hold and despite the promises of the Region that at least a temporary solution will be found, no action has been taken yet. We waited when we were asked to, but now it is a matter of survival and we will be taking protest action
We are asking for recruitment of staff in the overburdened Corfu Transport Department. We are asking for recruitment of driving examiners in order to finally serve the candidate drivers, who are still on hold.”
