In these days of returning from vacation, weighed down by luggage, it happens to more people to try to take a taxi at the station or at the airport, instead of the bus or the subway. So I would like to say a word in favor of the average Italian taxi driver. I am talking about the average of the category, according to the Revenue Agency, and not about those who rigorously declare their earnings and expenses to the tax office down to the last drop of gasoline.

I am referring to the national average, which declares a monthly income of 1250 euros gross. When, very rarely given the municipal rates, I sit in certain white Mercedes and Priuses costing 40 thousand euros or in certain SUVs that are even more expensive, I imagine the altruism of the driver who surely pays out of his own pocket to take me to my destination. How can they maintain a luxury car with a thousand two hundred and fifty euros gross per month, if they don’t pay out of their own pocket?

Queuing at night without a taxi at Linate (video)

It is therefore normal that there are never enough taxis: how many can boast of family wealth enough to work at a loss, for the benefit of others, that is, all of us? If you land late at night at Milan Linate, when the European capital of the Democratic Party is asleep and public transport is all parked in the garage, the queue for taxis grows several hundred and hundreds of metres, for a patient duration of hours. What a contribution to health, thanks to taxi drivers, who thus force all of us to breathe fresh air until almost dawn, against the sultry heat of the day. Take a look at the video below (source X).

I imagine that the 7 euro surcharge that they charge us in Rome just to sit in a taxi after ten o’clock at night is rightly used to buy branded products to polish the rims or the leather of the seats. And the 5 euro surcharge for holidays is only a minimal contribution for fuel and maintenance.

The overcharge game: up to 11 euros more

And if we then look for a taxi with a radio taxi, it’s 4 euros more as a fixed call fee, even if you have to stay on the phone for an hour and sometimes no one comes. With a call to a radio taxi after ten in the evening, it’s: 7+4 equals 11 euros of surcharge, without driving a single kilometer. The rest is established by the taximeter, which starts from the moment the taxi driver accepts the ride.

But why complain? This is also a contribution of solidarity to the category, or rather to the corporation, since it has to support itself, its vehicles and its dependent families with 1250 euros gross. In front of the Termini station in Rome, the taxi stop, in view of the works for the holy Jubilee, has been moved close to a construction site panel scorched by the sun: I don’t understand why the long queue of sweaty tourists isn’t already waiting on their knees, as a respectful sign of genuflection towards a corporation of freelance professionals so much oppressed.

A comparison between Rome, Milan and seaside resorts

Milan is no exception. I tried, through one of the many apps, to calculate the cost of an 11 kilometer ride. From the Central Station to a peripheral destination of the metropolitan city, as anyone would do returning from vacation: at 4 on a weekday afternoon the considerable figure of 34.59 euros came out for a travel time of 28 minutes. That’s about 3 euros per kilometer, 1.25 per minute. And then, how could we savor the cool climate of the night in Milan, with hours of waiting at Linate airport, without the sacrifice of the majority of taxi drivers who resign themselves to driving in the scorching heat of the day (photo below).

This year I also went to the seaside by train. And from the station to my destination, in a place in the South, I had to book a taxi. There, to travel about twenty kilometers, I spent 35 euros, 1.75 per kilometer, almost half as much as in Milan: for the taxi driver, however, it becomes 40 kilometers with the return trip empty, so he gets 80 cents per kilometer. While in a big city there is always someone to pick up to avoid a wasted ride. And yet in seaside resorts the season lasts a maximum of two months. In Rome and Milan, all year round.

Complaints and the reality of the profession in a tourist city

Matteo Hallissey, secretary of the Italian Radicals, has long been denouncing the cunning of some professional categories. Among them, taxi drivers. Perhaps he does not understand their generosity, given that the average declares an income of 1250 euros gross per month. So I tried to ask a friend who drives a taxi in Florence and, I am sure because of the nice person he is, he regularly declares how much he earns.

The national gross average is 15 thousand euros per year: “Here in Florence – he explains – the average income is 24-30 thousand euros per year, net of expenses for the car, the license, maintenance. I speak for Florence. Then each municipality is a team of its own. Because the taxi service is regulated by the municipalities, which issue the license. The fact is that there are cities that live in their own way. Both for the rules, and for everything else. The rest is often sampled there and all of us never make a good impression, both for education, dirty cars and, last but not least, the tax return. Then there is also a good deal of steering in favor of multinationals who try in every way to get in”.

In what sense? “Illegal taxis have been rampant everywhere in recent years,” replies the taxi driver from Florence, who asks to remain anonymous. “You can find rental companies with drivers in all the municipalities in the most desirable locations thanks to the apps of the multinationals. In Florence it’s full.” But in the end, what is the hourly wage of a taxi driver in a city? Let’s exclude drivers who live in smaller towns: there, usually, only the rental companies survive, with the “blue cars” that also serve local businesses and, on weekends, ceremonies and weddings. But we can find an answer to the question in the price list of the Municipality of Rome.

Here’s the minimum wage in the city: at least 28 euros per hour

In the Capital, the “time charge” applicable for speeds under 20 kilometers per hour recognizes taxi drivers a gross rate of 28 euros per hour, which is the minimum that we pay and that they have agreed with the Municipality (photo above). Assuming for safety in a large tourist city six hours of work at full load per day, the takings are at least 168 euros. Multiplied by the 26 working days, they are approximately 4300 euros gross per month. And it is the minimum, since with the taxi moving at more than 20 kilometers per hour the rates increase between 1.14 and 1.66 euros per kilometer and in Milan they reach 3 euros. In short, a little more than the declared national average: after deducting expenses, it is at least the income confirmed by my colleague in Florence. Perhaps it would be appropriate for the Municipalities, responsible for issuing licenses, to begin to verify compliance with tax obligations. Even though the Revenue Agency had guaranteed that with the ISA, the synthetic reliability indices, it would be easier to control tax evaders.

It is true that the Italian public debt does not depend only on the lack of revenue from taxis. But it always starts with small goals. First of all, a thank you to taxi drivers: at least to those who, despite unfair competition from their colleagues, respect the rules. And a thought about how much traffic we could eliminate from cities, if the average of the category were truly a public service (with a number of licenses adequate to demand and affordable rates) and not a private caste ready, with blockades and protests, to take cities and mayors hostage as soon as it is pointed out that something is not working.

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