(Finance) – “We are at work for an overall reform, which has been awaited for years, and to have more cars on the road immediately”. That’s what the said Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini during the discussion table at MIT which involved more than thirty trade unions to deal with the taxi dossier. Present at the table were the deputy ministers Galeazzo Bignami and Edoardo Rixi, the undersecretary Tullio Ferrante, the technicians of the Porta Pia dicastery and that of Enterprise and Made in Italy led by Adolfo Urso. “From the procurement code to the new highway code, in this ministry we have always chosen to dialogue and confront each other so as not to impose but to share” said the deputy prime minister.
Salvini – the MIT informs in a note – underlined the “need, also in the light of relevant future appointments, already fixed or potential (for Rome the Jubilee or Expo 2030, for Milan the Olympics) to find solutions to improve the service in the interest of the citizens”. The minister – underlines the Ministry – “listened with the utmost attention to the observations of the category, promising to examine them to study the best possible solutions”. The determination of MIT – Salvini reiterated – “is to materialize a comprehensive reform to ensure better service”.
Among the issues on the table there is also that of licenses with MIT which announced, at the end of the discussion, an in-depth analysis to verify the updated numbers. According to the most recent figures reported by Ansa, currently Rome has nearly 7,800 taxi licenses and the last announcement dates back to 2006, at the time of mayor Walter Veltroni. It goes without saying that in 17 years the demand for white cars has increased, also due to an ever-increasing influx of foreign visitors. This, together with the boulder represented by the chronic disservices of public transport, makes it difficult to move around the city in periods and bands with a strong demand for mobility. In Rome the mayor Roberto Gualtieri bet on double guide, or the possibility of appointing another driver thus carrying out a second shift, allowing the same car to carry out the service up to 20 hours a day. The mayor invited the category to join the initiative launched by the Municipality on 23 June.
Milan instead it can count on around 4,800 licenses against a similar boom in tourists. For this reason, last week the City Council resolved to ask for 1,000 more licenses from the Lombardy Region, which owns them.
The discussion will continue tomorrow, with a similar meeting scheduled with the rental with driver associations (NCC).