Taxi versus NCC, what the hell is going on again
Why taxi drivers strike against an article of the Competition bill. Facts, insights and controversies
The hot summer of transport does not only concern those traveling by plane but also those who simply want to move around the city. The 48-hour mobilization of taxi drivers protesting against Article 10 of the Competition Bill was confirmed. The taxi drivers will cross their arms on Tuesday 5 July and Wednesday 6 July, in Rome there will be a demonstration , in Milan of the principals . The only defection was that of UIL transport, satisfied by the meeting with the Government.
The taxi drivers of Confartigianato, Csa Casartigiani, Cna Fita, Legacoop Produzione e Servizi and Confcooperative Lavoro e Servizi still guarantee minimum services such as social services for people in need, for the handicapped and for any need out of the ordinary, such as that to go to the hospital.
WHAT SAYS ARTICLE 10 OF THE COMPETITION DDL
The new competition bill opens up to a greater form of free market in the non-scheduled urban public transport sector, ie taxis and chauffeured cars. Taxi drivers focus on two points of article 10 of the competition bill . In the first, the law entrusts the government with a mandate regarding the "adaptation of the offer of services to forms of mobility that take place through the use of web applications that use technological platforms for the interconnection of passengers and drivers". This means that the government will have to regulate new forms of transport that use applications and that put passengers and drivers in direct contact. The second contested point is the one calling for "promotion of competition, also in the granting of licenses, in order to stimulate higher quality standards". It therefore allows publicity to be given to the presence of alternatives to regular taxis.
"NO TO LOW COMPETITION"
Taxi drivers don't want to compete with transportation giants like Uber and Lyft because they are systems in which anyone, even without a license or permit of any kind, could transport people from one point of the country to another. In practice it is private car transport through a mobile application , which connects passengers and drivers directly. “We are a regulated market – explains Alessandro Nordio, head of Confartigianato Taxi – and in this area we cannot speak of competition, but of transparency and professionalism. We are not against platforms, as long as they comply with regional and municipal regulations, within which there are also advantageous conditions for users , such as special rates for the elderly. Let me be clear, we are not saying no to technology, but to downward competition. It would be like giving the possibility to a platform to mediate on the bus ticket ”.
"A FUTURE IN WHICH THREE SUBJECTS WILL SHARE THE MARKET"
The frontal clash between the Government and trade associations has opened on the question of "advertising" for "alternative" forms of private transport. The sector associations warn politicians stating that this rule, in addition to burying the approximately 40 thousand operators in the sector , opens up a future in which "three subjects who share the entire market, to exploit the work and impose disadvantageous conditions on users ”said Nicola Di Giacobbe , secretary of Unica Taxi Cgil.
THE GOVERNMENT – TRADE UNION NEGOTIATION
The government has not closed the door to negotiations with taxi drivers. The meeting between Deputy Minister Teresa Bellanova and the taxi driver unions, which lasted a long time, did not lead to the cancellation of the strike because the government does not want to "remove article 10 from the competition bill but only revise the text in the non-substantial parts – they explain the trade unions -. There are no reassurances but we are increasingly convinced that the rewriting of the rules to improve the sector must take place not with a proxy law inserted in a competition bill but through a comparison procedure between category, government and trade unions ".
THE POINTS ON WHICH THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO DEAL
The points the government is willing to discuss are different. " We have expressed our willingness to rewrite article 10 without distorting the structure of the bill ", said Deputy Minister Bellanova, reiterating the intention to open a "permanent table for the sector, with mutual trust and the aim of scheduling monthly meetings for the implementation of the enabling law ". The Government, first of all, is ready to review the distinction between taxi and NCC, an area in which Uber falls. The idea under consideration is to underline the differentiation, in the regulation, of the intermediation platforms from those created by taxi drivers, also adopting systems to combat technological abusiveness and administrative simplifications . Another opening concerns the territorial scope of NCC operations. Furthermore, the national IT register of operators could be recovered, provided for by law 12/2019, and remained frozen following the sentence of the Constitutional Court 56 of 2020 which reported uncertainty in the general regulation of the sector.
WHO, AMONG THE POLITICIANS, DOESN'T WANT REFORM
It is not only taxi drivers who do not want the reform introduced by the competition bill. In the Productive Activities Committee, in the Chamber, several amendments were deposited in support of the suppression by Lega, Pd, Leu and FdI. The Democratic Party has conflicting positions: on the one hand there is the proposal of Umberto Del Basso De Caro and Davide Gariglio for the suppression, on the other that of Enza Bruno Bossio which aims to clarify that non-scheduled public transport is not included within the scope of the Bolkestein directive and that the government is required to adopt the pending implementing decrees on digital intermediation platforms and the IT register of operators. The taxi drivers also collect ila solidarity from Governor Fontana : "We believe that this measure is not appropriate and above all it turns out to be a damage for the entire category".
NCC IN FAVOR OF THE COMPETITION DDL
The 15 acronyms representing the workers in the rental with driver sector remain on opposite positions to taxi drivers, defending the system of article 10 of the Ddl and calling for a broad reform. “ In reality, even we charterers do not want liberalization and the article in question relates to a delegation from the government on competition matters. – explain the national associations of NCC – All with the aim of revisiting the law number 21 of January 15, 1992, now anachronistic: just think that back then there were no smartphones. Taxis protest but those who lose are tourists and citizens . The responsibility of the regulatory loop lies with some national taxi representatives who have made part of the law unconstitutional ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia-on-demand/taxi-contro-ncc-che-diavolo-sta-succedendo-di-nuovo/ on Tue, 05 Jul 2022 10:21:17 +0000.