Taxis, new Antitrust warning: more licences and cars equipped for the disabled

After Rome, Milan and Naples, FlorenceandPalermo are also in the crosshairs of the Competition and Market Authority, which has sent the two municipalities a report on taxi services. Under fire are "the serious inefficiencies encountered by users", to be corrected with a series of measures such as the adjustment "of the number of licences to demand", taking it "beyond the 20% ceiling set as an extraordinary measure in the so-called Asset decree (...), to this end adopting public tenders for the assignment of new licences as soon as possible", explains a note from the Authority.

The reports also point out how it is 'necessary to make monitoring of the quality of the service stable and effective, by requesting, at least annually, from the taxi cooperatives the information necessary to establish whether the number of active licences is sufficient to meet demand, and making the outcome of the monitoring public'. But the Antitrust Authority also shines a spotlight on the severely disabled transport service. In particular, the Antitrust Authority recommends that municipalities issue taxi licences for vehicles equipped to provide this service.

Among the remarks was the flexibility of shifts, which should be improved with the use of double drivers. In its note, the Authority lists, among the additional measures that the 'signalled' municipalities should adopt to improve the taxi service, also 'the regulation of the institution of double-drivers, the implementation of taxi sharing and the streamlining of shifts'. In this regard, the Antitrust Authority cites the example of Florence, where "during periods of greater demand, taxi drivers can perform their services with more flexibility and the municipal administration can issue temporary licences".

The cab dossier on the Antitrust Authority's table opened in August 2023 with a request for information addressed to the municipalities of Rome, Milan and Naples, which was followed in November by a first report addressed to the three administrations. In the same month, a second request for information was sent to the municipalities and taxi cooperatives of Florence, Palermo, Bologna, Genoa and Turin. For the last three, 'no particular criticalities emerged in the offer of the service', so no communication was sent to them. Palermo and Florence, on the other hand, are among the administrations subject to an Antitrust warning, with an invitation to correct the focus on the taxi service guaranteed to citizens. The Antitrust Authority's warnings were among the factors that in recent months have led some local administrations to prioritise the issuing of new taxi licences, in particular Rome and Milan.