Who May Legally Drive You in Greece

Two regulated categories, and they are not interchangeable. A taxi holds a public-use licence and may be hailed. A chauffeur-driven private car, known in Greek as ΕΙΧ with driver, works under a rental contract agreed in advance. It may never charge a fare and may not pick anybody up in the street. The company behind it notifies its activity to the Regional Tourism Service. Its cars must meet emissions and age limits, and its drivers must have held a licence for years rather than months. The black car waiting at arrivals is legal because of paperwork done before you landed.

In short

A taxi is a public-use vehicle that may be hailed. A chauffeur-driven private car works only on a rental contract agreed in advance.
A chauffeur-driven car may never charge a fare. It is paid under the contract, and charging by the ride is what makes it an illegal taxi.
The operating company notifies its activity to the Regional Tourism Service. The notification runs for 5 years and is decided in 15 days. If the service has not answered by then, the activity is permitted.
Vehicles must meet EURO 5 or V standards or newer and are retired 10 years after first registration, or 12 years for convertibles.
A company running more than 10 cars must hold parking for at least half its fleet, at 6 square metres a vehicle.
Minimum contract durations are set by ministerial decision and differ between the mainland and the islands, where a shorter minimum applies through the season.

Two categories, not one

Greece licenses two ways of being driven by somebody else, and each has its own rules.

The taxi is a public-use vehicle. It may wait at a taxi rank, be hailed in the street and charge a metered fare. Its driver holds a special driving licence for the category.

The chauffeur-driven private car, known in Greek as ΕΙΧ with driver, is a private vehicle let with a driver under a rental contract agreed before the journey. It may not be hailed, it may not wait for passers-by, and it may not charge a fare.

That last point is the whole distinction, and the authorities enforce it. The client pays for the vehicle and the driver over a period, under a contract. A payment by the ride would make the car a taxi operating without a taxi licence.

What the company must hold

The company must notify the authorities of its activity. It files a notification with the Regional Tourism Service, with supporting documents, and the notification runs for 5 years.

Two parts of the procedure explain how the market behaves. The service decides within 15 days, and if it does not respond in that time, the activity is permitted: silence counts as approval. The operator must also have no final conviction for a felony or for theft, embezzlement or fraud, and must not be bankrupt.

There is a fleet condition too. A company operating more than 10 vehicles must own or lease parking for at least half of them, at 6 square metres a vehicle. It is a plain rule, and one of the few objective tests of whether a transfer company is a real company or only a telephone number.

What the car must be

Two conditions do most of the work.

Emissions. Vehicles must meet EURO 5 or V standards, or newer.

Age. A vehicle leaves service 10 years after its first registration, or 12 years for a convertible. Each vehicle carries a classification certificate and its registration document, and a client can ask to see both.

The age limit explains why the fleets at Athens arrivals look the way they do, and it genuinely protects the passenger. A 14-year-old saloon with 400,000 kilometres on it cannot do this work.

The booking has to exist first

The arrangement is a contract rather than a fare, so it has to be agreed before the journey begins. A ministerial decision sets the terms of that agreement.

There are separate decisions for island Greece, excluding Crete and Evia, and for the mainland, Crete and Evia. On the islands a substantially shorter minimum contract applies through the season, from the start of April to the end of October, with a longer minimum outside it. The mainland has its own decision. Both require the booking to be made in advance and recorded in the digital registry before the service starts. The company may not let the vehicle to anybody else until the contracted period has run, even if the first client releases it early.

The terms change. The current island decision was published in the Government Gazette in May 2026. Ask what applies on your dates, not what applied last summer.

The driver

The driver has conditions of their own. They must have held a category B licence for at least 24 months before employment, and must have a clean criminal record certificate and a medical certificate. The company holds all three on file and must produce them on inspection.

None of this tells you whether the driver is any good, and that is the question that decides the day. Licensing sets a minimum. A certificate does not show experience of the road between Kalamata and the Mani, or of getting a party to a quay before a boat leaves.

What to ask before a transfer

Which category is this: a taxi or a chauffeur-driven car? They are priced and regulated differently. A company that is vague about the answer is telling you something.
Whether the booking is registered, and for what period.
Whether the same vehicle and driver stay with you, or whether the company passes the work to whoever is free.
What happens when a flight is late. Under a contract for a set period, a delayed arrival is a real question, and the company should answer it before the day.
Who is driving on the island, if the itinerary crosses to one. A mainland company frequently subcontracts the work there, and the subcontractor is the one who meets you.

The same care applies to the person who shows you a site rather than drives you to it: see licensed guides in Greece.