Mayor Tigran Avinyan is dissatisfied with the pace of hiring new drivers at Yerevan Bus LLC
The Mayor of Yerevan, Tigran Avinyan, expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of hiring new drivers at Yerevan Bus LLC. He discussed this issue during the city hall’s operational meeting on January 13.
The director of Yerevan Bus, Beglar Kirakosyan, reported that there are currently 225 vacant driver positions, and in the last week, 90 drivers have been hired.
In response, Avinyan stated that the new batch of buses arrived in November of the previous year, and the LLC could have addressed the driver issue earlier. Kirakosyan clarified that they were waiting for the government’s decision and the customs clearance of the buses.
We are now making significant changes to the ticketing system, and these changes are difficult because the system is being completely transformed. We tell the people that we are bringing new buses, replacing the old Hyundais, and the Gazelles are no longer in service as of 2023, we are doing all this to improve quality, but what people see in January are incomplete bus routes. This is not really the city hall’s problem to solve. Now, it’s a government decision and staffing schedule… you should have proposed the staffing list sooner, registered people earlier, and scheduled 600 people, hiring 340 by January 3, – said the mayor, emphasizing that the buses had been available since November, it was clear which routes would change in January, and there was also an issue with recruitment.
The mayor noted that there are 50,000 people in Armenia with a Category D driver’s license. Tigran Avinyan has instructed that the recruitment of drivers be completed by the end of January.