Taxi, in Rome, service failed even by tourists: for 85% it is insufficient
Among the criticalities of the non-scheduled public service revealed by the Caracciolo Foundation study are endless waits, the difficulty of making electronic payments and the refusal of rides
by Flavia Landolfi and Vittorio Nuti
For a city with a very high tourist vocation such as Rome, this should sound like an alarm bell: 85% of taxi and Ncc users who are not resident in the city - therefore, mainly tourists and business customers - consider the availability of white and black cars, the means of non-scheduled public transport, to be insufficient. The same category of users, the 'richest' in terms of average expenditure and destinations, declares in 63.6% of cases that they have waited longer than expected to be able to take a ride in the city.
Less pronounced, but still substantial is the dissatisfaction rate of users residents in the Capital: at 58.4% for the availability of cars on demand, at 47% for prolonged waits before having a car available.
This time, framing the limitations of the taxi and Ncc signalled and experienced in recent years by tourists and citizens is a survey by the Fondazione Filippo Caracciolo, the study centre of the Aci Federation, presented today at the Automobile Club Roma. In addition to the nodes of availability and expectations, the survey, conducted in 2024 on a sample of 1,567 Aci members, also highlights two critical issues that are only apparently minor, because they are specifically linked to the experienced quality of service. We are talking about the difficulty in paying for rides with electronic payment systems (credit/debit cards), noted by 32% of Romans and 57% of tourists.
The detailed answer on possible cases of refusal to pay electronically by credit card shows that positive experiences ("It has never happened to me that I have been refused payment by credit card") stand at 57.6% for Roman respondents and 30.4% for non-Roman respondents, but when added together, the negative answers "Yes, several times" and "Yes, sometimes" represent over 32% of Roman cases and 57% of non-resident respondents.
Running refusal
Another critical profile, the refusal of rides: although it is not the main problem, it is detected by 16.5% of residents and 21.1% of non-residents as behaviour that undermines the perception of fairness and availability of the service. "Fortunately, the cases recorded among respondents are few," notes the study, "but they are still relevant because they constitute a serious breach of the duty to provide a public service.
