Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

The Municipality's proposal to the category representatives

Milan, 1 August 2019 – The Municipality's proposal for the reform of the public car service was presented today to the taxi drivers' representatives, which provides for the strengthening of the service in the face of an increase in demand from users. The application process will start in the next few days.

"We have analyzed the current situation - declares Marco Granelli, Councilor for Mobility of the Municipality - and all the indicators tell us that in recent years the need for taxis has increased greatly. Our proposals, which start today, go towards this sense, to bridge the imbalance between supply and demand by offering an increasingly efficient and sustainable service without penalizing operators".

Among the indicators examined are the increase in the resident population, the presence of tourists, the mobility measures such as Area C which reduce the number of private vehicles circulating in the city, the increase in the number of public transport users, the personal income tax per capita. Data that cross-references with a survey carried out with Amat, the Agency for Mobility and the Environment, which also takes into account the findings of the taxi switchboards and from which emerges an average daily demand through radio taxis of 33.400 calls, 4.600 of which – equal to 14% - unpaid. The analysis also highlights time slots in which the percentage of lack of service increases: on weekdays between 8 and 10.00am (with 15% of unanswered calls), between 19pm and 21pm (27%), on Saturdays and Sunday between 19pm and 21.00pm (31%) and between midnight and 5am (42% of unanswered calls).

An undersizing of supply which causes inconvenience to the city and encourages illegal construction. For this reason, also following various meetings with representatives of taxi drivers, the Municipality has developed a six-point proposal. We start with the stable launch of a comparison, in-depth analysis and monitoring of the taxi service, in addition to the regional conference. The table, composed of the Municipality and representatives of the trade unions, could be structured thematically, in particular on roads. 

We then propose the revision of shifts, the management of exchange rates and the promotion of night shifts, during which a greater shortage has been recorded. The Municipality will ask the Region to verify the new shift system already applied with the aim of possibly reducing the number of taxis on shift to encourage greater flexibility of the service. Furthermore, taking up a request from taxi drivers who report some unpleasant behavior during night shifts by users, to charge the authors the costs of restoring the dirty vehicle to the clean conditions.

The Administration then proposes to increase the possibility for taxi drivers to resort to family collaborations for up to 16 hours, so with the same licenses it will be possible to have more hours of service and greater employment. Furthermore, the activation of 80 new double guides is envisaged, as well as the possibility for license holders to associate another taxi driver with them, without charges, for a total of 16 hours of service per license compared to the 12 hours of the single shift. Today there are 240 double guides and 320 family collaborations active. On the one hand, this makes it possible to enhance family businesses and encourage new jobs, and on the other to strengthen public services.

Another innovation concerns the introduction of taxi sharing. A first experiment with a shared taxi is the one underway on the Milan-Malpensa route after the closure of Linate. In agreement with Sea, two urban stops have been established, in via Sammartini (Central station) and in via (Milano Congressi), where several people can share the same vehicle and divide the costs. To establish the taxi sharing service, the Municipality will start the necessary process to introduce changes to the current regional regulation.

To definitively improve the service, however, it is necessary to expand the contingent currently in service in the Milan area by 450 new licenses, 280 of which with electric vehicles and tied for the first 5 years to shifts between 18pm and 5.00am and with shifts for at least 25% on Saturday and Sunday; 170 licenses with vehicle authorized to transport disabled people powered by Euro 6 petrol or alternatively LPG, methane, hybrid electric or electric.

The latest proposal concerns the publication of a 400 thousand euro tender aimed at holders of taxi and NCC licenses to encourage the replacement of more polluted vehicles towards more sustainable ones. Given the spread of electric vehicles, the Municipality will implement the infrastructure of the charging network on public land.