New regulations

[lissa]

New regulations from the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications will come in to effect on 1st November 2018.
The regulations apply to a range of transportation businesses  that provide passenger transport services, such as airport transfers, day trips Landrover off road days and tours.

The new regulations are part of the Transportation Electronic Monitoring & Control System (Ulaştırma Elektronik Takip ve Denetim Sistemi) - also known as U-ETDS.

U-ETDS requires businesses involved in tourism related transport services to provide certain details to the authorities.  Specifically they will submit the following details for all planned road journeys:

- Transport company name
- Car registration number
- Driver details
- Passenger names
- Passenger passport numbers or TC/kimlik numbers

The regulations apply not just to airport transfers but to all planned trips and tours.  Tour operators must submit the required information at least one hour before the planned journey, so you can expect them to ask for your personal details well in advance.  They won’t want to leave it to the last minute.
It's understood that this new regulation is ostensibly being introduced for security reasons but it will also make it more difficult for businesses who are not properly registered to operate.
Tour operators must be registered with the Ministry of Transport to provide passenger services.  They require an A1 certificate to operate cars and a D2 certificate to operate a minibus.  They should also be registered with TURSAB.

[KKOB]

Abim seni izliyor.

[lissa]

Possibily KKOB, but in a country where it seems to be easy to set up and run tours etc and when people's safety is at stake, maybe not so bad. Travel agencies doing transfers have had to carry a name list of passengers, though admittedly not passport numbers, for years. Together with registration number  and drivers name etc.
We can only hope it improves safety generally, certainly with jeeps. Should ensure they are all licensed at the least.