Taxi drivers still on a war footing. The drivers of the white cars will cross their arms throughout Italy on Thursday 23 March from 8 to 22, to protest against the feared concessions to Uber e NCC. The last strike of the category at national level dates back to 2012, when the Monti government was in office.
The center of the protests will be Roma, where there is a concentration of white cars under the Colosseum and an assembly in Piazza Venezia, which risks paralyzing traffic in the capital, but there are also those who might be thinking of blocking sections of some motorways.
However, not all the category acronyms will join the protest, called by Fit Cisl taxi, Uil Trasporti taxi, Ugl taxi, Federtaxi Cisal, Usb taxi, which called the strike with Uti, Unica Cgil and Unimpresa. Indeed, Uri, Uritaxi, Casartigiani and Confartigianato did not sign the document, while other acronyms reserved the right to join later.
Government news
The crux of the protest is the reorganization of the sector under study Government, a decree that taxi drivers do not trust even before they have read it and which would have three key points. The first is the definition of the free areas for NCCs, which should thus no longer return to the garage of departure, but in a precise territorial area, it is not yet known whether they are of regional or more restricted scope.
The second is that on the introduction of non-invasive rules for the control, including fiscal, of Apps like Uber. An opening by the government that is seen by taxi drivers as a way to come to terms with an organization that should, in their opinion, be considered illegal.
The third main change concerns the white cars, for which the Government would be foreseeing the possible elimination of restrictions on the accumulation of licenses, which would give the possibility of exercising the activity also in the form of a business, and greater flexibility on prices, without prejudice to the constraints on the maximum tariffs, as well as the possibility of offering supplementary services such ascollective use of taxis.
A series of openings that are not appreciated by Italian taxi drivers, who have also deserted the invitation to a confrontation by Uber, (which today will have a meeting at the Ministry of Transport) and who point the finger at the executive: "Another time we were humiliated. The government has been unable to provide any kind of answer to simple questions, hiding behind the sovereignty of parliament." Their protest shows no sign of abating.
Prices
Prices that are in Milan and Rome among the tallest in the world. According to a study by the Swiss bank UBS, in fact, Milan and Rome are respectively the eighth and eighteenth most expensive cities in the world in terms of taxis, in a ranking led by the Norwegian Oslo. The two Italian cities are significantly more expensive than Paris, London and New York.
Prices that would be justified, according to the data released by Cgia of Mestre, from the increased costs that Italian taxi drivers have to bear. In fact, in the main expenditure items, there would always be a significant difference with respect to the Eurozone average: +13,4% in diesel costs, +4,1% in taxes, +57,2% in the average annual premium of insurance and +1,2% in the price of cars.
