Uber, whose regular ride-hailing service is banned in Italy as unfair competition for the taxi industry has decided to follow the old adage ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ with a new agreement which lets Uber users use the app to call a taxi.
The deal, between IT Taxi, one of the country’s biggest taxi dispatch services, is so far operating only in Rome and Milan but plans call for it to expand to dozens more towns and cities. Uber also operates a higher-price service, Uber Black, in a number of cities, but it is not part of the arrangement.
The app will call a taxi, and give an estimate of the cost, as it does elsewhere, but the final total billed through the app will be based on the meter, not the estimate.
Taxi drivers are still unhappy about the arrangement and about giving Uber a foot in the door; their opposition may slow down the implementation in more locations.
