Hello, everyone. I promised to tell you about Rome's social taxi service, and here I am. Before I explain how it works, I want to thank Vittorio Scelzo, who told Giulia Cirillo about it, and Giulia, who passed the information on to me. So, what is it exactly?
To apply for the social taxi, you go to a Roma Mobilità office and submit an application (along with your ISEE form, your Law 104 certificate, your medical assessment report, your vehicle registration card, proof of residency, and family status documentation). You can deliver it by hand or by email, but I ran into problems with email, so I ended up delivering mine in person. Put all the documents in a sealed envelope with the address from the last page of the application. I also had to go back once to add more information because of an issue with my vehicle card. On the bureaucratic side, I'll say this: prepare carefully, because you have to renew this application every three years.
The first time I took a social taxi, I felt free as a butterfly, because for the first time I didn't depend on anyone. I'm fortunate to have friends who help me out when I'm in a bind, but psychologically, this was different. For the first time, I could do things I'd never done before. I really did feel like a butterfly! I could hardly believe it. Usually I went everywhere with my mother or friends—I'd never gone anywhere on my own before, using a different means of transport.
So how does the social taxi actually work? Once your application is approved, they send you a code by email and tell you to download an app called STID. Your account gets credited with a balance that lasts three months. If you don't use it all, it disappears. On the first day of the fourth month, whatever balance is left gets wiped out and you get a full new credit. For example, on January 1st they loaded my account for January, February, and March; on April 1st, they loaded April, May, and June. And so on.
When you call a taxi, you have to specify that you want a social taxi—because if you just say "I need a taxi," you might get a regular one, which you can't pay for with the app. Most drivers are kind, of course. At least that's what I thought until recently. But a few weeks ago, on the last day of March, I called a taxi and the driver wasn't very kind to me. I won't get into details because I don't want to make a fuss, but it wasn't a good experience (I did file a complaint with Roma Mobilità about it).
The other day I got back to Rome and discovered something that my sister and I hadn't quite understood: the city says that to guarantee the service, you need to book taxis well in advance because there aren't enough of them (especially on holidays). But the three cooperatives involved don't always accept reservations, which means you have to call at the last minute—risking being left stranded! Social taxis are easy to spot: they have a tablet inside with STID installed. One thing to watch out for, though: before you start the app, calculate your distance first, because drivers sometimes cheat. They start the app early and charge you more than they should.
Anyway, I came back to Rome by train (a story I'll tell you next time), and when I got to Termini station, we called a social taxi and were told that social taxis aren't allowed to stop there. That's strange because our contract says the taxi can't leave the city, but it can pick us up anywhere in Rome. Luckily my mother and sister were with me, but what if I'd taken the train alone and needed a taxi, thinking one was coming, and then it wasn't? What do I do—just wait there?
The service is really convenient, don't get me wrong, but you can imagine how careful you have to be in some situations. In the end, we called 3570—the taxi cooperative that has vehicles equipped for wheelchair users—and they came. The driver told us that until a few years ago, they also ran the social taxi service, but the city put out a new contract and these three cooperatives won it. They have minibuses for us now, but they lost the social taxi contract. That's all for today. See you next time.