Rome, Italy, is set to grow a vast new fleet of taxis, solving a shortage that has gone on for 18 years.
Ride-hailing apps such as Uber have until now failed to penetrate the Italian market, which is dominated by a powerful taxi lobby. In fact, no new taxi licences have been issued in the Italian capital since 2006, in an impasse between workers and users.
The city’s existing 7,800 taxi drivers claim that there is not enough business in low season to keep more of their kind in work, while tourists and residents regularly complain that it is almost impossible to get a ride. To make matters worse, there are only 1,000 Ubers to complement the cabs, and they serve the top end of the market in executive private hire vehicles.
The well-reputated public service of #taxi in Rome, #Termini railway station, around 9pm pic.twitter.com/bK9T8ug006
— Innocenzo Genna (@InnoGenna) June 10, 2024
Looking at 2020 figures for comparison purposes, The Independent notes that Paris had 18,500 taxis and 30,000 licensed private hire vehicles. London boasted 19,000 taxis and a colossal 96,000 private hire vehicles at that time.
Now finally, Rome’s city authorities are about to open the flood gates. Tenders to operate 1,000 new taxi licences and 2,000 new Ubers will be up for grabs next month.
“We have been paralysed by the bureaucracy, but things are finally moving,” the city’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri said, announcing the move on Friday 21 June. He went on to promise the new taxis would be in operation for the start of the Roman Catholic Holy Year in December.
Approximately 30 million Catholic pilgrims are expected to descend upon the Italian capital in 2025, to mark the Church’s Jubilee year, an event anticipated to place pressure on city infrastructure. Taxi drivers have blamed public transport for the city’s mobility problems, and even Eugenio Patane, Rome’s head of mobility, has warned that more cabs on the streets is a fix-all solution. He has called for “a comprehensive overhaul at a national level”.
Effettivamente hanno ragione i pendolari della Stazione Termini, oggi ore 19:30 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ zero taxi, “ma Uber no perche queste maledette multinazionali“ @gualtierieurope @QuinziUgo @eugenio_patane pic.twitter.com/O1QszKLA7n
— mcaccia (@mcacciaglia64) June 12, 2023
But Gualtieri seems determined to go ahead and has said ongoing taxi drivers’ protests would not slow the pace of change. “We cannot wait any longer,” he said.
A bit like shareholders facing a new partner, the already-licensed cab drivers, who are at liberty to sell on their own license, fear their stake in the city’s transport system will be diluted by the influx of new licenses. They will be compensated by receiving a share of the estimated 70-million-euro dividend the city will gain from the new license sales.
