Knesset Takes Aim at Illegal Car Repair Garages

YERUSHALAYIM
Car repair. Photo by Nati Shohat / FLASH90.
A car repairer. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

The Knesset Economic Committee on Sunday continued preparing a law that would update the government’s licensing scheme for garages and car-repair shops. According to data supplied by the Transport Ministry, there are exactly ten inspectors whose job it is to make sure that garages observe regulations – and they need to regulate 5,300 licensed garages.

According to the Ministry, there are also an additional 300 to 500 “pirate” repair shops that are not licensed.

Committee chairperson MK Eitan Cabel (Zionist Camp) sharply criticized the current situation, and demanded that the Ministry devise a plan to expand the number of inspectors, and to create a system to shut down pirate repair shops. “Battling these illegal repair shops is an inseperable part of fighting road accidents. If we do not see action on this in the near future we may have to take matters into our own hands.”

According to Ministry experts, an additional eight inspectors are needed to cover the workload. Cabel said that the problem had first come to his attention a decade ago, and that efforts to change matters had been rebuffed. “Auto costs are for most Israeli households their second biggest cost,” said Cabel. “We need laws that will better regulate the process by which repair shops provide estimates, in order to makes things clearer for the customer.”

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