Corfu Association of Professional Passenger Hire Vehicles with Driver requests strict legislation for operation of transfer services
CORFU. Opposition to the operation of Uber in Corfu.
The Corfu Association of Professional Passenger Hire Vehicles with Driver is requesting the establishment of a single law that will govern the operation of transfer services, setting even stricter requirements. This is due to the operation of Uber on the island of Corfu. In fact, the president of the Association, Marinos Mikalef, pointed out during a press conference on Thursday morning that a non-member company operaings on the island has already registered its vehicles on the platform.
The Board of the Association provided a complete briefing on the car with driver hire service during the press conference. Candidates for the upcoming elections in Corfu, Dimitris Biangis from PASOK-KINAL and Spyros Krokidis from Nea Dimokratia, as well as the Deputy Mayor of Tourism Panos Varouchas, a representative of the Prefectural Election Committee of PASOK-KINAL, and P. Kalogeros from DEEP responded positively to the invitation.
Circumvention
As they pointed out, rented cars with drivers have as a basic requirement (Law 4530, article 21) the start of the route from the headquarters of each company. However, this does not apply to Uber, which picks up customers from any point, as through its application, the customer can see the nearest rental vehicle.
"As long as an intermediary agency can legally obtain its licence and operate, we have no problem as long as it complies with the law," said Association President Marinos Mikalef. "There is a blatant violation of article 21 of Law 4530 by a specific company that uses a platform that essentially violates the requirement of starting the route from the headquarters. No platform can offer the option to the customer to find a vehicle on the street and take it."
The Association is ready to resort to legal means if it finds documented evidence of unfair competition. "We are open to any player who wants to enter the market," Mr. Mikalef said. "However, they must follow the same rules and not engage in unfair competition. So if we observe and can prove that there is unfair competition, we are able to examine every action through the legal route, in order to protect the operation of our own businesses."
Basic features
The Vice President of the Board of Directors, Spyros Kontos, clarified the basic features of the car hire service with a driver are regarding the licensing from the Greek National Tourism Organisation (EOT) and the deposit of a financial guarantee letter to the Organisation, the possession of new technology vehicles with a maximum age limit of 10 years for each vehicle, a clean criminal record for the driver, and proficiency in a language other than Greek, among others.
In addition to the above, the legislator imposes obligations on tourist businesses for their operation. These include posting the contract of each rental in the digital registry maintained by the Ministry of Transportation and the prohibition of hiring vehicles on the road without a pre-booking.
"Those vehicles are not allowed to start a rental from a starting point not registered with EOT nor to collect fares," said Mr. Kontos. "These vehicles receive a fee for the services they offer.Moreover, as he said, the Corfu Association (which has 57 companies with 140 vehicles) in cooperation with the other associations throughout Greece, mainly those of the Cyclades and the Dodecanese, has submitted their proposals several times to the government with the sole purpose of creating a single law governing the operation and regulations of car rentals throughout the country.
