They are few, they are old and there is no certainty about their rates. Italy has a – big – problem with taxis. To understand this, just look at the queues in kilometers present in the airports and in the main stations of the big cities, Rome and Milan first of all, where tourists and citizens are forced to wait hours for the arrival of a white car to take them to their destination.
The latest testimony in chronological order comes from Termini station in Rome, with a video posted by Dagospia showing a very long queue of people waiting for a taxi. The only consolation for the Romans, according to the site, is that “a Milan are even worse”. And, looking at social media, it's hard to say otherwise. Thousands of users protest every day against the inefficiency of what should be an essential public service and which is instead turning into a nightmare for anyone who needs to travel even a few kilometers in a taxi.
Not to mention the repeated reports regarding the refusal to accept payments with the Pos despite the obligation of the law and of the news that every day fill the news pages of the newspapers. Just today, Thursday 15 September, the Carabinieri of the stations of Capri and Anacapri to protect tourists and workers on the island fined 30 taxi drivers out of the 50 checked for violations related to failure to display the tariff, to the taximeter off, to failure to display the taxi driver's identification card and the number to contact for any complaints. To these 30 penalties are added another 14 for not wearing a seat belt.
Taxi: data from the Transport Authority
The data contained in the Annual report presented to Parliament by the Transport Authority which, although it does not contain assessments of the situation, shows numbers that speak for themselves. Well, according to the document, based on the monitoring of 144 Italian municipalities, it is available in Italy one taxi for every two thousand inhabitants and only a quarter of cities have above-average endowments. In Spain and France they are, respectively, one for every 1.025 and one for every 1.157. Double, underlines Repubblica.
Let's move on toage of the car park present on the road. Out of over 21 taxis taken into consideration, half (10.989) are less than 4 years old, more than 7 are between 5 and 9 years old, 3.321 have already blown out their tenth candle.
Not to mention the price difference existing among the various Municipalities of the country. A short ride of 5 km to Sorrento costs 22 euros, to Lignano Sabbiadoro 13,6 euros, to Taormina 10. The average price is 12,18 euros. What if you need to go further? For a 10 km ride in Venice you spend over 28 euros, in Naples 19,2 euros, in Udine, 13,2 euros. In short, the city you go, the fare you find. The average price is still 20,65 euros.
Liberalizations and the Competition Law
The problems, therefore, are many and difficult to solve. The Draghi government had tried to improve, at least partially, the situation with the famous Article 10 of the Competition Law which provided for the liberalization of licenses and non-scheduled public transport services, namely taxis. A rule, among other things, requested by Brussels in the context of the Recovery Plan and the Pnrr.
But what happened is history. The very heavy protests by taxi drivers, endorsed by centre-right parties, were one of the reasons for friction within the majority. With the fall of the Draghi government, hit by the crossfire of Lega, Forza Italia and Movimento 5 Stelle, the only way to get the Competition law (today law) has been to delete article 10, keeping everything like this with me, including disservices. To date, therefore, there does not seem to be any solution on the horizon, nor the political will to find it. There will always be too few taxis and the problems that citizens will have to face in increasing numbers.
