By Laura Loguercio
Taxi drivers’ unions have fiercely opposed any transfer to extend the variety of licences essential to apply the career.
When you’ve ever tried catching a taxi in Italy, it’s seemingly you’ll suppose twice earlier than making an attempt to repeat the expertise. Regardless of the heatwave that’s presently gripping the nation, lengthy queues of individuals may be seen every single day outdoors prepare stations or on the principal golf equipment at night time, ready in useless for a white automobile to take them round. Cellphone calls to operators typically stay unanswered, and charges may be surprisingly excessive.
As taxi drivers hold opposing any try to reform, the service stays regulated by outdated norms and isn’t capable of meet a rising demand coming from each residents and vacationers.
A part of the issue lies with the taxi licence system.
Italian taxis are legally thought-about a way of public transport: they’re regulated by a legislation initially authorised in 1992 which, amongst different issues, supplies that solely licensed professionals can work as taxi drivers. Licences must be granted by native authorities via recurring public requires bids. Nevertheless, these functions are extraordinarily uncommon and usually supply a restricted quantity of latest permissions.
These days, the best strategy to receive a licence is to purchase one from a former taxi driver who doesn’t want it anymore: over time, this technique has fostered a parallel market with extremely inflated costs, the place the price of a single licence can attain tons of of hundreds of euros, in accordance with a number of investigative reviews.
Historically, taxi drivers’ unions oppose the sale of latest licences, fearing that the paperwork they spent a lot cash on may lose worth: as in fundamental financial rules, the scarcer a commodity is, the extra priceless it turns into.
Moreover, in accordance with commerce unions, the introduction of latest licences wouldn’t clear up the larger subject of mobility and public transportation within the nation: “The nationwide authorities and native directors are utilizing taxi drivers as scapegoats for the inefficiency of different companies,” Nicola Di Giacobbe, nationwide secretary for the commerce union Unica Cgil, advised Euronews.
A number of governments over the previous a long time have tried reforming the sector, however the agency opposition of the taxi drivers’ foyer – thought-about some of the highly effective and problematic in Italy, together with seashore resorts’ homeowners – succeeded in blocking each attainable change.
A widespread downside
At the moment, solely 4,853 taxi licences can be found in Milan — the second most populous metropolis within the nation. That is the identical quantity as in 2003 when the final name for bids granted about 300 new permissions.
But since then town’s inhabitants has swelled by about 100,000 to succeed in over 1.3 million and the tourism flows have additionally elevated considerably.
“The truth that we want extra taxis is crystal clear. Through the busiest hours, like nights or weekends, calling a taxi can take 15 to twenty minutes, and that’s unacceptable,” Arianna Censi, Milan mobility and transports councilor, advised Euronews.
This month, town’s authorities requested the Lombardy Area to grant 1,000 new licences.
A report carried out by the municipality in 2019 – which stays probably the most up to date one – confirmed that nearly 30% of requests for a taxi made between 7pm and 9pm remained unanswered, whereas at night time the quantity went as much as 42%.
“If it’s a must to name a taxi a number of instances, and wait hours for it, you’ll cease utilizing the service,” Censi stated. Nevertheless, commerce unions criticized the report, stating that it’s primarily based on incomplete information and that it doesn’t consider rides made with out a name, when passengers get on board from the road or from designated parking areas. Censi agrees that the research is incomplete, however claims that many taxi associations didn’t present the requested information.
The scenario will not be a lot totally different in Rome. The capital counts about 7,800 licences for practically 2.9 million inhabitants and about 10 million overseas and home vacationers per 12 months. The final name for bids was in 2006.
Whereas the quantity is already inadequate, in all chance it received’t be capable of meet the elevated demand anticipated for the subsequent Catholic Church Jubilee held in 2025. As such, town is searching for methods to extend licences, however native authorities are struggling to strike a take care of commerce unions.
Preventing Uber
In comparison with the inhabitants, Rome has about 270 taxi licenses for 100,000 folks, an quantity a lot decrease than in different European capitals: Paris, as an illustration, counts greater than 800 licenses for 100,000 folks, and Madrid about 470. Moreover, customers in lots of main European cities also can rely on non-public, digital platforms like Uber or Lyft, which provide a really restricted service in Italy and over time have been focused by a number of authorized actions and protests.
“In Italy, Uber will not be what you anticipate,” stated Ariadna Bakhmatova-Pinnarelli, a Ukrainian lady who in 2022 moved from London to Milan to observe her Italian husband. Dwelling within the outskirts of town and with out the chance to drive, taxis typically signify her solely choice to maneuver round. Nevertheless, Bakhmatova was dissatisfied with the service, claiming that many apps are shady in regards to the fees and that drivers may be arduous to search out.
Uber began working in Italy in 2013, and has been preventing the opposition of the drivers’ foyer ever since. In the meanwhile, the corporate can solely supply the “UberBlack” service, the most costly one underneath which drivers should be legally recognised as chauffeurs. The “UberPop” choice, which allowed everybody to drive, was banned in 2015.
In July 2022, the union IT Taxi signed a take care of Uber which permits customers in dozens of cities to ebook rides with conventional taxis via the Uber app. Nevertheless, a 12 months later, it appears like this tried answer was not very useful, in accordance with each residents and vacationers.
“Getting a taxi in Lake Garda [in Northern Italy] is unimaginable,” Dave Johnson, a British citizen who typically travels to Italy, advised Euronews. Final week, after calling three totally different suppliers, he and his household needed to wait an hour to come up with a automobile. “The automobile was good ultimately, however the experience was costly,” he stated.
His expertise was not an exception, sadly.