Survey on taxis in Italy

We asked the top 50 cities in Italy for access to taxi licensing documents. Discovering that there are those who haven't issued a tender to renew them since 1977. That in Rome and Milan the sector has been at a standstill for 20 years. And that in Florence and Bologna a new license costs 175 thousand euros. But 140 thousand go to other taxi drivers. All the numbers

From the inspection activity on taxis launched by the Antitrust in the cities of Rome, Milan and Naples up to the decree of the Meloni government which introduced temporary licenses and allowed an increase of up to 20% in the capitals and cities with international airports. Without forgetting the now usual controversies linked to the number of taxis available, the costs of use and the payment methods. Going as far as the project to offer free rides outside nightclubs to those who have been drinking by the Minister of Transport, Matteo Salvini.

The past summer was not a quiet one for taxi drivers and their passengers. Wired decided to delve deeper into the issue starting from the data, i.e. by collecting the numbers of white car licenses but also of NCC (rental with driver). Thus discovering that there are cities in which the latter are present in greater numbers than the former. And that the last time the number of taxis was increased in Florence, in 2016, each taxi driver earned almost 14 thousand euros.

Taxi in Milan

The Region does not want to say how many taxis there are in Lombardy

Wired's request for transparency of white car licensing data was ignored. Meanwhile in Milan 14% of calls remain unanswered

The data collected

At the end of June, Wired addressed a Foia request (acronym for Freedom of information act, in bureaucratic generalized access request, ed.) to the 50 most populous Italian cities. The request is to provide the number of taxi and NCC licenses issued, the municipal regulations governing the matter and above all the latest announcement for the assignment of licenses. Document necessary to understand how long the white car market has been at a standstill in each city, but also whether the latest licenses were issued free of charge or in exchange for payment by aspiring taxi drivers.

At the time of writing, responses from five cities are missing. These are Bergamo, Salerno and Catania, which did not respond to either the request for access or the subsequent request for review. There aren't even any data from Andria: the municipal officials asked for the payment of 40 euros to release the requested information: we will have the opportunity to delve deeper into the topic later. And finally, the municipality of Parma is missing to which, due to the writer's mistake, the request was only sent on 9 August. And which, as of the date of writing, has not received a response. It must be said that, even among the 45 municipalities that provided feedback, not all provided all the information requested.

A similar request, although limited to the number of licenses issued, was also addressed to the regions and autonomous provinces. This is because there are cases, one of these is Lombardy, in which the region authorizes the municipality to increase the number of taxis in circulation. Since Lombardy is not a common practice, 11 regions simply replied that they did not have the data. Others, such as Molise, Valle d'Aosta and Lombardy themselves, did not respond. Still others provided the requested data. In-depth studies will be dedicated to the latter, as well as to Lazio and Lombardy which, together with Rome and Milan, are the regions with the highest number of licenses over the next few weeks.

Taxi

How much do taxis earn and how much do municipalities lose from the increase in licenses decided by the government

The government has established a potential increase in taxi licenses of 20%, but the proceeds will all go to the owners of white cars. Wired's projection based on the most recent tenders: the choice would earn already active taxi drivers 35 thousand euros. The municipality of Rome would lose 55 million, Milan 34

Taxis in circulation

And let's go with the numbers, then. How many taxis are there in circulation? With 7,838 licenses, Rome is the city with the highest number of taxis available, followed by Milan with 4,855 and Naples with 2,364. However, these are absolute numbers, which as such do not allow a comparison between the different realities. More interesting is to compare the number of white cars to the number of inhabitants, information available thanks to Istat. In the graph below, what emerges from the first comparison.

With 35.85 taxis per 10,000 inhabitants, Milan is the Italian city with the highest incidence of white cars, followed by Rome with 28.52 and Naples with 25.88. If you calculate them in this way you can see how the Milanese situation is better, or less worse depending on your point of view, than that of the capital. It is certainly worse if the comparison is extended to other European realities, as we visualize in the graph below.

Only Berlin, among the capitals of the main European countries, has a lower incidence of taxis compared to the population than that seen in the three largest Italian cities. It must be said that in the German capital there are 9 subway lines and that here, as in all the other areas considered, there is Uber, whose arrival in Italy resulted in a protest by taxi drivers at the Wired Next Fest in Milan in 2014.

Taxi in Rome

Rome is among the European capitals with the fewest taxis

And taxi drivers ask for an extra 3 euros per ride to compensate for traffic caused by the works. While knowing how many white cars there are in Lazio seems impossible: the Region claims not to have the data

London has a presence of white cars (even if here they are black, ed.) compared to the population, triple that of Milan, quadruple compared to Rome, Paris is very close to these proportions. In short, there are few taxis in Italy compared to the European market. And, further aggravating, they haven't changed in number for years. Indeed, they often have not increased for decades.

A frozen market

Which sector has remained the same in terms of operators present on the market as it was in the 90s, or even 80s of the last century? In some Italian cities, that of taxis. Yes, because while air transport has seen the advent of low cost operators, rail transport has put an end to monopolies with high speed and road transport has seen the entry of operators that allow you to reach foreign cities at low costs , in Genoa no new licenses have been issued since 1980. In Livorno even since 1977. In that year the responsibility simply passed from the police station to the municipality, which in 45 years has never deemed it necessary to increase the number.

The city that has seen the most recent increase in taxi licenses is Venice, where last year they increased by 12 units, reaching 108. Also quite recent is the increase in Bologna, the city of taxi driver Roberto Mantovani, threatened because he chose to publish his daily earnings on his Twitter account. Here in 2018 the municipality issued a tender for 36 new licenses, so that the number of white cars in the Emilian capital rose to 656.

Source Wired.it   2024/03/11