From your driving licence to your first ride: what you need, what it costs, how long it takes and how customers find you. Written for people starting from zero.
Published on 12 July 2026 · Updated on 19 September 2026 · Reading time: 20 minutes
National rules are the same for everyone, but calls for applications, exams and regulations vary by Region and Comune (municipality), and the law keeps changing. The costs and timings you read here are indicative and refer to 2026. Before spending anything, check with your Comune and your Chamber of Commerce.
NCC stands for noleggio con conducente, hire with driver. You carry people in your car, on booking, at a price agreed before departure. No meter and no waiting at a rank in the square: the customer looks for you, writes to you or books on your website, you confirm and set off from your garage.
It is the job behind airport transfers, drivers for companies and hotels, weddings, day tours and hourly hire. In Italy it is governed by framework law 21 of 1992, which defines it as a non-scheduled public service, like taxis but with different rules.
To work you need three separate things, and beginners often confuse them: the professional certificate to drive for a living (the CAP KB), registration in the ruolo dei conducenti (the drivers' register) and the authorisation from the Comune, which is what everyone knows as the NCC licence.
Sources: law 21/1992, Highway Code, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
They are two trades governed by the same law, with two different titles: a taxi works with a licence, an NCC with an authorisation. In everyday speech people say NCC licence, and that is fine, but on the Comune's documents you will find it written as authorisation.
| NCC | Taxi | |
|---|---|---|
| How the customer finds you | Only by booking: website, phone, email, agencies, hotels | At the rank, on the street, by radio or app |
| Price | Agreed before departure | Meter, fares set by the Comune |
| Where it waits | In the garage. Waiting for customers in the square is forbidden | At reserved public ranks |
| Where it can go | Anywhere, in Italy and abroad, if the ride is booked | Departs from the Comune of the licence |
| Hours | You decide, based on bookings | Shifts set by the Comune |
| Vehicle | No mandatory colour: usually dark sedans and vans | White, with an illuminated sign |
| On-board document | Service sheet for every ride | No service sheet |
| Typical customers | Tourists, companies, hotels, agencies, events | Anyone who needs a car right now |
In practice: taxis live on immediate demand, NCCs on bookings. That is why an NCC driver has to build their own channels, and why further on we talk about a website and online booking.
You do not have to become a lawyer. You just need to know where the rules you will follow every day come from, and that they have changed several times in recent years.
The framework is born: drivers' register, municipal authorisation through a public call, mandatory garage, bookings taken at the registered office.
Rewrites several rules: service sheet in electronic format, garage also in other Comuni of the same province or metropolitan city, national register of companies (RENT), temporary stop on new authorisations.
The obligation to return to the garage before every new service falls: for the Court it was an unreasonable empty trip. Booking and the garage remain the basis.
The block on issuing new authorisations falls too. Comuni can publish calls again. The same year the decrees on RENT and the electronic service sheet arrive.
Decree 226/2024 on the electronic service sheet is annulled, including the 20-minute pause between booking and departure. The service sheet remains mandatory: what changes is how you fill it in.
Since April the definitive version of the national electronic register of taxis and NCCs is active: every authorisation and every vehicle must be registered and kept up to date.
Sources: Gazzetta Ufficiale, Constitutional Court, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, trade press. Situation as of September 2026: before you start, check whether anything has changed.
Tick what you already have. What is left is your to-do list, in the order it makes sense to do it.
Some websites mention a category B licence held for at least three years or an age limit of 55. These are not national rules: if you find them, they come from a call or a local regulation. Always read your Comune's text.
They are two different steps, in two different offices. First the KB, then the register: without the first you cannot sign up for the second.
Motorizzazione (licensing office)
Chamber of Commerce
A practical tip: sign up for the register exam as soon as you have the KB in hand. Dates are rare and missing a session can cost you half a year. You find the exam syllabus and dates on your Chamber of Commerce's website by searching for ruolo conducenti.
Sources: Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Portale dell'Automobilista, Chambers of Commerce. Indicative amounts, 2026.
Authorisations are limited in number: each Comune decides how many are needed in its territory. To work you have three options, very different in cost and timing.
The Comune publishes a competition and assigns the authorisations on qualifications, sometimes with a test.
Pros
Cons
You take over the authorisation of someone selling their business. It is the route most used by people who want to start with certain timing.
Pros
Cons
You get hired by, or collaborate with, an NCC company that already has authorisations and cars.
Pros
Cons
Who can transfer. Law 21/1992 (article 9) allows the holder to transfer the authorisation if they have held it for at least five years, if they have turned sixty or if they have become unfit for service. On death it passes to an heir or to a person named by the heirs. Whoever transfers it cannot obtain another for five years. Whoever takes over must be on the register and meet all the requirements.
Where to find the calls. The albo pretorio (official notice board) and the calls and competitions section of your Comune and the nearby ones, the Region's bulletin, the trade associations. An authorisation from a small Comune in your province is worth as much as one from the provincial capital: the only difference is where you have to keep your garage.
Beware of rentals. You will find listings of NCC licences for rent. The authorisation is personal and the Comune must know who is using it: the possible arrangements (business lease, joining a cooperative or consortium) must be checked with the Comune and with a professional before you sign.
Let us split the bill in two. First everything you need to start, excluding the authorisation. Then the authorisation, which on its own can be worth more than everything else.
Each bar shows the range: the dark part is the minimum, the light part goes up to the maximum.
There is no price list: the local market sets the price. These are the ranges seen in sale listings and in the trade press.
For a takeover add the notary (roughly 1,000-2,000 EUR) and, if you go through an intermediary, their fee. Before paying, always ask the Comune whether the authorisation is in order, registered in RENT and free of sanctions.
Indicative amounts, year 2026. Sources: public fees of the Motorizzazione and Chambers of Commerce, insurance quotes, sale listings and trade press 2023-2026. These are not official statistics: always ask for a real quote.
With a takeover, someone starting today with nothing in hand gets to their first ride in six to twelve months. With a public call the timing does not depend on you. Here is the realistic calendar.
You study the quizzes, get the medical check, book the exam at the Motorizzazione. Meanwhile you start looking at sale listings and calls.
Application to the Chamber of Commerce and waiting for the exam session. It is the step that stretches the timing the most.
Agreement with the seller, deed at the notary, transfer application to the Comune. In the meantime you open your Partita IVA and register as a business.
Registration for NCC use, insurance, garage contract, RENT registration.
You put the website with online booking live, load the routes and prices of your area, open your Google Business Profile.
The first direct bookings and the first collaborations with hotels, agencies and colleagues arrive.
Indicative timing: it varies a lot with the exam calendar of your Chamber of Commerce and the timing of your Comune.
They are the two concrete things the Comune checks: which car you work with and where you depart from.
Sedan or van up to 9 seats
The base of your service
Sources: Highway Code (articles 80 and 85), law 21/1992 as amended by law 12/2019, Constitutional Court ruling 56/2020.
There is no NCC salary: there is a profit and loss account. Let us do it together for a typical month, with one car and an owner who drives. Change the numbers to yours and the method still holds.
3 rides a day × 22 days × 70 EUR average price
Costs for the month: 2.270 EUR
What you keep, before taxes and social contributions
2.350 EUROn what is left you pay taxes and INPS social contributions, which depend on your tax regime: have your accountant do the sums before signing a takeover.
Three things move the result more than anything else. The area: airports, ports, art cities and mountain or seaside resorts bring long, well-paid rides. The season: in many areas six months are worth the whole year. And above all where the rides come from: whoever books on your website is your customer, who comes back and recommends you to others.
As a reference: the trade press reports annual revenue between 50,000 and 100,000 EUR for an owner with a single car, and an indicative pay between 1,400 and 2,000 EUR net a month for an employed driver.
Indicative example, year 2026: it is not a market average. References from trade press and job listings 2023-2026.
Many start by driving for a company and go self-employed after one or two years. It is not a fallback: it is the cheapest way to find out whether the trade is for you.
You are the holder of the authorisation, the car and the customers.
Pros
Cons
You drive the cars of an NCC company, with an employment contract.
Pros
Cons
There is also a middle way: joining a cooperative or an NCC consortium as a member, forms provided for by law 21/1992. You share costs and the booking centre, but you follow the group's rules.
There is no special licence for luxury: the authorisation is the same. What changes is the car, the service and the customers, and therefore the prices. It is the segment where the average ride price rises the most, but also the one where a mistake costs you the customer.
Executive sedan or high-end van, recent, dark, immaculate inside. Water, chargers and on-board wifi are the minimum.
English is truly needed, a second language makes the difference with foreign hotels and agencies.
Dark suit, punctuality to the minute, name sign at arrivals, discretion. Flight tracking and waiting time included.
Five-star hotels, event and bespoke travel agencies, companies, professional firms, wedding planners.
Hourly hire, day tours with stops, roadshows, long transfers between art cities, lakes and mountain resorts.
Someone spending 400 EUR on a transfer looks at your website first: real photos of the cars, clear prices, booking in English, card payment.
The daily work has few rules, but all of them must be followed: roadside checks start from the service sheet and the authorisation.
Every ride starts from a request received beforehand: website, email, phone, agency. No customers picked up on the spot.
For every ride: number plate, driver, client, place and time of departure and arrival, kilometres. It is kept on board and stored. The electronic format planned in 2019 is still waiting for definitive rules after the annulment of the 2024 decree: fill it in using the format your Comune accepts today.
The car is parked in the garage, not on the street. You can take customers anywhere, but you respect ZTL zones, lanes and access points according to each Comune's rules.
Authorisation and vehicle must be registered in the national electronic register and updated at every change.
Electronic invoice to companies and agencies, receipt or invoice to private customers according to your regime. Agree it with your accountant.
Whoever carries passengers for payment without a title risks fines of thousands of euros and the suspension of the vehicle registration document. A Partita IVA alone is not enough.
In the back office included in every Tosiu website, vehicle and driver deadlines sit on a single page, with a warning before they expire. See the back office
Sources: law 21/1992, law 12/2019, Highway Code (articles 80, 85 and 116), MIT decree 203/2024 on RENT.
The rules are national: requirements, KB and register are the same everywhere. Three things are local. The call, published by the individual Comune. The register exam, taken at the province's Chamber of Commerce with the Region's syllabus. And the market: where customers come from and where they go.
One fact that holds for every big city: many NCC drivers working there hold the authorisation of a Comune in the province, where calls come out more often and takeovers cost less. It is legitimate, but the access rules for ZTL zones and reserved lanes can be different for those coming from outside: read the regulation of the provincial capital.
You will not find authorisation prices city by city here, because official data do not exist: the indicative ranges in the costs section apply. For your city only two sources count: the Comune office that handles taxis and NCCs and real sale listings.
The authorisation gives you the right to work. The rides come from whoever finds you. People looking for a transfer type on Google or ask ChatGPT, look at two or three websites and book where they see a clear price and a form that works.
Malpensa Airport (MXP)
Bellagio, Lake Como
The customer types pickup and destination, sees the price for a sedan and a van, and books. In Italian and English, from their phone.
I'm an NCC driver in Como. I have an E-Class and a Vito, I work Malpensa and Linate.
Your site is ready
14 route pages created
Prices for Sedan and Van
Texts in Italian and in English
Publish the siteDescribe in two lines where you work and which cars you have. The integrated AI prepares pages, routes and prices. You check and publish.
5rides today
all assignedToday's rides, drivers, quotes, electronic invoices and vehicle and document deadlines. Included in the price.
The questions people starting from zero search for most often, with short answers.
If you get it through a municipal call for applications you only pay processing fees and stamp duties, a few hundred euros. If you take over an existing authorisation the local market sets the price: roughly from 10,000 EUR in small Comuni to over 100,000 EUR in Rome and Milan (2026 figures from sale listings and trade press, not official data). Add the notary and paperwork.
A category B driving licence and 21 years of age for the CAP KB, good-conduct requirements, registration in the ruolo dei conducenti (the drivers' register) at the Chamber of Commerce, an authorisation from the Comune, a garage, a vehicle registered for NCC use with the right insurance, and a Partita IVA (VAT number).
It is the professional driving certificate (certificato di abilitazione professionale) that lets you drive cars in NCC or taxi service. You get it at the Motorizzazione (the driver and vehicle licensing office) with a 20-question quiz in 30 minutes, with at most 2 mistakes. It costs about 150 EUR as a private candidate and 400-500 EUR through a driving school. It is renewed every 5 years.
You take it at the Chamber of Commerce of your province. The Region decides the subjects: usually law 21/1992, the municipal regulation, local geography and place names, and often a foreign language. There are only a few sessions a year: sign up as soon as you have the KB.
With a takeover, six to twelve months starting from zero: one to three months for the KB, two to six for the register, one to three for the transfer of the authorisation, plus vehicle, insurance and garage. With a public call the timing depends on the Comune.
No. Without a municipal authorisation you cannot carry passengers for payment: you risk fines of thousands of euros and the suspension of the vehicle registration document. Without an authorisation of your own you can, however, work as a driver for an NCC company, if you have the CAP KB and are on the register.
The listings exist, but the authorisation is personal and the Comune must know who is using it. The possible arrangements, such as a business lease or joining a cooperative, must be checked with the Comune and with a professional before you sign.
A taxi waits at ranks, can be hailed on the street and uses a meter. An NCC works only on booking, departs from its garage and agrees the price in advance. A taxi has a licence, an NCC an authorisation: both are issued by the Comune.
It depends on the area, the season and the channels. In the guide's example, 3 rides a day at 70 EUR for 22 days give 4,620 EUR in takings and about 2,350 EUR after costs, before taxes and social contributions. An employed driver earns roughly 1,400-2,000 EUR net a month.
No. The vehicle can be owned, leased or, since 2019, on long-term rental, as long as it is registered for noleggio con conducente use and linked to your authorisation. Ask your Comune which documents it wants to see.
With the same authorisation as everyone else. The difference is made by the executive car, the languages, the care in the service and the customers: high-end hotels, agencies, companies. And a website that presents cars and prices well in English.
You can take customers all over Italy and abroad, if the ride is booked. But the registered office and at least one garage must be in the Comune that issued the authorisation, and every city has its own rules on ZTL (limited traffic zones) and bus lanes for drivers from outside.
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