Madness in Milan: taxis cannot be found but the Lombardy Region is moving towards the refusal of the 1000 new licenses requested by the Municipality
Mayor Beppe Sala’s proposal to solve the shortage of taxi in milan moved back not dry from the Lombardy region, which has the final say on increasing vehicles. The owner of Palazzo Marino had requested 1,000 additional licenses, but from Pirellone they replied that they preferred to examine other solutions, without excluding the hypothesis of licenses in the future, even if on much lower numbers (a few hundred at most). While waiting for this back and forth between the Commune and the Region to be resolved, in which political interests come into play (the two entities are administered by majorities of different colours), the situation of extreme discomfort remains for users who often they have a hard time finding a free taxi in milanespecially on weekend nights.
MILAN TAXI: THE CITY REQUESTS 1,000 MORE LICENSES
A few days ago, during the presentation of the new measures to improve traffic and promote public transport, the Milan City Council published data, collected on the pre-pandemic taxi service, from which the gap between supply and demand for services. In particular, it appears that, faced with an increase in the number of annual taxi calls, a increase in the percentage of unanswered callsa value that is around 30% on weekend nights and 8% on weekdays.
The reopening of the call for family collaborations (the so-called second guides) and the remodulation of shifts they weren’t enough significantly improve the service.
For this reason, the Council, having recognized that the current structure of the taxi service offer is not yet adapted to satisfy the city’s demand, presented a formal request to the Lombardy Region, competent in the matter, a increase of 1,000 licenses for the Municipality of Milan.
NEW TAXI LICENSES IN MILAN: THE LOMBARDY REGION IS DOWN
The “unofficial” response from the Lombardy Region has arrived by return mail and there is no good news for Milan. As Repubblica anticipates, thelicense increaseif there will be, there will be much lower numbers, of the order of a few hundred, and not of the thousand invoked by Sala. But that’s only as a last resort. For the Region, in fact, increasing the number of taxis in circulation is an emergency solution that will eventually be adopted. only after taking other routes. The regional councilor for Mobility, Franco Lucente, explained it without too many words:
“On the part of the Region, there is no opposition whatever the increase in licenses, even if 1000 is too much. We are ready to dialogue and confront the Municipality and the categories of taxi drivers: before increasing the licenses, however, there are other viable solutions that should be experimented with. I have already told Mayor Sala in person”.
The alternative solutions that the Lombardy Region would evaluate to increase travel relate to the double guidesopen not only to family partnerships but also to third parties, and the liberalization change. Two different ways, according to Pirellone’s hopes, of having no more taxis on the street and cover different times of the day, without increasing the number of cars. In this regard, remember that the Municipality of Milan reopened the call for family collaborations last April, but at the end of June only 71 were authorized, an insufficient number to solve the shortage of cars.
TAXI PROBLEM IN ITALY: YOU NEED TO COPY FROM POLAND
The problem, as we know, is not only Milanese and Lombard, but national. In Rome, they are probably even worse off. However, it is not easy to get out of it. In fact, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport should take up the file, whose owner, Matteo Salvini, has always took the side of the professional associations of taxi drivers, for example by sinking Draghi’s proposal contained in the Ddl 2021 Competition to open up to private managers. However, it would seem that within the center-right majority something is changing, with many voices convinced of the need to at least partially revise the legislation on the taxi service. We will see what will happen, perhaps it would be enough to follow the example of Poland, a country governed by political forces ideologically close to the executive of Meloni. This post explains very well what we are talking about.
Source : Sicur Auto
