On the one hand the taxi drivers, who have been waiting for nine years for the law on hirers with drivers to come into force, on the other the Nccs who instead try to block the arrival of rules which, according to them, would upset 80 thousand companies. At the center is the Government, which tries to shuffle the cards trying to please everyone with the – concrete – risk of infuriating both sides.
The clash between taxis and ncc it is nothing new, nor are the harsh tones and street protests, but it is precisely in these days of the Christmas holidays, less than two weeks from the possible entry into force of the new legislation, that the controversies are likely to explode definitively . An "in or out" that could paralyze a capital already in difficulty in the period between Christmas and New Year. The date to mark in red on the calendar is January 1st: Will the new – which is not new – legislation on NCCs arrive or not?
TAXI AND NCC, HISTORY FROM THE BEGINNING: THE GASPARRI LAW
To understand the reasons for so much bitterness between taxis and NCCs, we need to take a step back almost 10 years. In fact, the story begins with the Gasparri law (it was 2009) which established very stringent rules for transport aimed at placating the excesses of taxi drivers ever since, who have always been against entering the NCC market.
In detail, the law provided for the obligation for hirers with driver to return to the garage at the end of a journey and before the start of the next one. However, this rule has never entered into force and has been the subject of numerous extensions which have postponed the obligation for years and years.
TAXI AND NCC: THE GOVERNMENT AMENDMENT
For three days, both sides have been protesting the same amendment to the Maneuver, while the Government is trying to get by. The Executive has presented to the Senate Budget Committee a rule which, from 1 January, will bring into force the rules for NCCs extended for nine years: each renter, between one trip and another, will have to return to the garage. “Where is the problem?”, many will ask. The problem lies in the fact that the remittance in question is located in the municipality that issued the licence, but in the vast majority of cases the latter does not coincide with the municipality where the NCCs work. Simply put, the garage to which many charterers will be forced to return is not in Rome - where they operate - but in the neighboring municipalities and regions. Having to go back and forth, they would lose hours and hours of work and therefore gains.
TAXI DRIVER PROTESTS
Rumors have been circulating since yesterday that, after the protests of the Nccs, the Government has decided to backtrack on the amendment, softening the measures contained therein. News that has agitated taxi drivers who mobilized on 19 December with a garrison under Palazzo Madama, simultaneously paralyzing the service with very heavy repercussions on the "Leonardo da Vinci" airport and Termini station. The protests also continued on December 20 in Piazza Venezia. In this context, it should be remembered, among other things, that taxi drivers represent a very important electoral pool for the M5s, which has always been attentive to their needs.
"The news of a possible rethinking by the Government of the text of the amendment presented at yesterday's meeting by Deputy Minister Rixi and on which he had shared, generates confusion and if confirmed it would be yet another and very serious violation of commitments formally taken. The situation is even more unacceptable if we consider that the text of the amendment had been prepared by the Government and armored to any modification requested both by the trade union organizations of the renters and of the taxi drivers", reads a joint note from Uri, Confartigianato and Unica Taxi Cgil.
“It has been too many years now that commitments formally taken by successive governments are then not respected and contradicted by the facts and the hypothesis of a yielding also by this government to the pressures and threats of the street, incredibly confirms it to the previous ones. – continues the note – If this government is truly 'the government of change', in line with the text of the amendment presented yesterday, it has a unique and unrepeatable opportunity to demonstrate it”, continues the note.
THE REASONS OF NCC
Car hire companies with drivers, for their part, are sounding the alarm: if the Government goes ahead with the amendment, it will put "80 businesses and 200 workers" at risk.
Then the attack on the taxis: "A lobby, the latter, which in 2008 - say the NCC trade associations - without following a parliamentary process guaranteed by the Constitution, obtained a change to the framework law of the charterers leading to very strict restrictions against us".
