Limos’ legal status in limbo but passengers needn’t worry
By Nassos Stylianou
THE LEGAL status of professional limousines may be in limbo but passengers riding in them can rest assured that they are insured.
The issue came to light when recent media reports said the companies were operating illegally but the General manager of the Motor Insurance Fund, Andreas Charalambides, says this isn’t necessarily so. As long as a limousine has been brought in from the EU, then they were covered by insurance.
“If limousines have come from the UK, as I believe most have done, European law considers them insured. If their number plates are English then police cannot check for their insurance as they are insured in the UK,” he said.
Charalambides said the problem of insurance could arise if they did not have any number plates.
“If they do not have any recognised number plates then this would be a problem and they should not have been allowed in the island. The police would then be required to deal with the matter,” he told the Mail.
Though there is currently no law regarding limousine services, Director of the Road Transport Department, Soteris Kolettas, said it was not accurate to say they are operating illegally.
“At the moment there is no law that covers the services of these types of vehicles. Therefore to simply say that they are working illegally is not enough; there is no legislation that either allows them or that bans them,” he said.
He also said that if they were found to be collecting fares, given that there was no existing legislation for them, this was a matter for the police to deal with and not his department.
The manager of Cyprus Limousines, a company that advertises on the internet, backed bp Kolettas, saying the recent media hype was factually wrong.
“Attempts are ongoing to finally pass a bill on the issue. The legislation is reportedly the same one that the Communications Ministry attempted to pass back in 2000, but it was put on ice due to opposition from taxi companies and a host of MPs,” Lazaros Papachristoforou told the Mail.
“We had a meeting with the Road Transport Department last Thursday and the proposed bill was
discussed. I cannot say when it will be adopted as we do not have any indication,” he said.
The manager and owner of the company, which works via a booking service, added that despite the fact that they did not have a permit from the Road Transport Department, insurance was in place for people using his limousines.
Kolettas rejected reports that the new law would force them to take fares like taxis, saying that it was up to each individually to arrange the payment with the customers themselves.
Papachristoforou told us that his company normally charges per hour, but for customers looking to book a vehicle for a longer period than a few hours, other arrangements would be made.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.ph ... 0&cat_id=1
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