Roberto Mantovani, a taxi driver in Bologna, Italy, has been publishing his daily income on social media, in an unusual attempt to bring transparency to a profession that’s become a symbol of just how difficult it is to open up competition in the country.
(Bloomberg) — Roberto Mantovani, a taxi driver in Bologna, Italy, has been publishing his daily income on social media, in an unusual attempt to bring transparency to a profession that’s become a symbol of just how difficult it is to open up competition in the country.
His daily posts showing earnings often exceeding 500 euros ($551.92) net of fuel costs have drawn the ire of colleagues, with insults and threats both online and offline. On Monday, Mantovani found his car with three flat tires, apparently slashed. He said he would report the event to police.
Taxi drivers’ groups have cited their profession’s low incomes as a reason behind their resistance to open up the sector and to issuing more permits — a claim that now risks being undermined by Mantovani’s campaign. In his online posts, Mantovani points the finger at colleagues who resist electronic payments.
But money isn’t the only issue at stake.
Italy had slightly more than 23,000 permits for taxi drivers in 2019, according to the latest data from Italy’s transportation authority. The group, though, carries outsized political influence and it’s historically considered close to Italy’s far-right parties.
Repeated attempts by governments to increase the number of permits have been met with protests by taxi drivers associations blocking city centers, sometimes violently. After extensive lobbying by taxi drivers, ridesharing apps such as Uber can only enroll licensed private drivers, while individuals are barred.
The latest such protest took place last summer in Rome, aimed at then-Prime Minster Mario Draghi’s plans to liberalize the sector. He didn’t back down despite requests from parties within his coalition to water down his plans, and this was one of the issues that eventually led him to resign.
His successor, Giorgia Meloni, and the parties that support her have taken the taxi drivers’ side during protests and the reform has been put on hold.
Mantovani’s case is emblematic of just how hard it is to pass a competition reform in Italy, among contrasting interests of different lobbies and corporations.
Another sector where European laws requiring more competition are being resisted by sector groups and by the government, even at the risk of forefeiting billions of euros of European aid money, is the management of beach concessions. The European Union’s top court in April ordered Meloni’s government to open up the running of thousands of beaches to competition, after licenses worth billions of euros in revenue were doled out for years without fair tendering processes.
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