Taxi, Milan's call for tenders on the launch pad: 450 licences for 96,000 euro

Alert for Milan's would-be taxi drivers: between Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 March - or at any rate next week - in the calls and tender notices section of the municipality's online site will appear the long-awaited call for 450 new taxi licences, for a fee, announced by Mayor Sala in the autumn. In order not to waste time, and to guarantee more white cars on the streets before the summer, the Milanese administration has therefore decided to proceed with the extraordinary competition (according to DL Asset 104/2023) without waiting for the ruling of the Lombardy Regional Administrative Court on the appeals presented by the category, initially set for 15 March but then postponed to 18 April. In the run-up to what can be defined as a call for applications: the municipality should set the deadline for submitting applications for the end of April.

The cost of each licence, agreed with the Transport Regulatory Authority (Art), will be 96,000 euro each (thus below the achieved on the secondary market for licences, which is around 160,000 euro). The total revenue will be distributed as compensation among the more than 4,800 taxi drivers operating in Milan. The same announcement will also set out the requirements for 450 non-family 'second guides', from which the City Council expects to gather at least a hundred adhesions in the short term.

"I believe it is correct to continue with administrative activity", without waiting for the judge's judgement, explained Assessora alla Mobilità Arianna Censi on the sidelines of the last municipal council meeting, "otherwise any appeal could represent a stop" to Palazzo Marino's action: "Issuing new licences could help, because at the moment the taxi service is not up to the mark in this city". Also for this reason, the aspiring taxi drivers 'will be asked to make their cars available for transporting the disabled' and to take shifts at the times when there is the greatest shortage of taxis on the streets, 'therefore at weekends and at night'.

In fact, for 150 of the 450 new permits, there will be a discount on the cost for those who use vehicles equipped for transporting the disabled (50), for those who undertake to carry out the service for five years at the times of greatest demand, i.e. nights and weekends (50), and for those who meet both parameters (50). In the first case, the discount on the total contribution of EUR 96,500 will be 20 per cent, in the second 30 per cent, and in the third 40 per cent. In the event of non-compliance with the commitments made in the application, the municipality will proceed to revoke the licence.