Italy's antitrust regulator has asked the local governments of Rome, Milan and Naples to issue more taxi licences and adopt new rules after noting there were not enough cabs operating in the cities, it said on Friday.

Italy's largest cities have been experiencing a shortage of cabs, with powerful taxi lobbies resisting the efforts by the municipalities to issue more permits and limiting the impact of online competitors such as Uber.

The problem has caused headaches for residents and tourists across major cities and raised doubts about Italy's ability to cope with rising influxes of tourists expected in coming years.

The authority called on the three big cities to boost the number of licences beyond a 20% increase set out for larger cities by a recent national decree regulating the matter, and to swiftly assign the licences through public tenders.

It also asked Rome, Milan and Naples to introduce taxi sharing services, the possibility of two drivers using the same licence and the adoption of more flexible shifts for taxis in order to increase the quality of service.

The regulator said that it had reached the decision after analysing data and information supplied by the local governments which showed "a widespread and structural inadequacy of the number of active licences compared to the demand for taxi services."

"This situation has resulted in a very high number of unfulfilled requests and excessively long waiting times for service provision," the competition authority added.

Rome has just under 8,000 taxis, fewer than three per 1,000 residents, Milan has just under 4,900 taxis, or 3.5 every thousand people living in the city, while Naples has slightly more than 2,300 active taxi drivers.

By contrast, London has some 19,000 taxis, according to 2020 data, while Paris has 18,500. (Reporting by Giulia Segreti Editing by Keith Weir)