With 50,000 driver’s license applicants in limbo, chamber calls for reopening of schools

Over 50,000 applicants for a driver’s license are in limbo as driving schools remain closed since last November, the Athens Chamber of Tradesmen said in a letter to Deputy Infrastructure and Transport Minister Yiannis Kefalogiannis on Friday, while calling for their immediate reopening.

The chamber said that lessons have not restarted, while sector staff has been left without income for about four months.

In addition, 80 pct of instructors in driving schools do not have access to funding tools or even to repayable loans other professionals had, while the sector faces unemployment and financial catastrophe, it underlined. 

“What is more infuriating is that some professionals like taxi drivers have been operating normally all this time with a maximum of three people in their vehicles, while driving classes only require two people in the car, the trainer and the trainee, and while contact tracing is very easy, as appointments are set ahead of time,” the chamber said in its letter.

[ANA[