For anyone who carries passengers for a living in Switzerland, 28 October 2026 is the day nothing changed. That is the news, because for ten years people had been working to change it.
That Wednesday the Federal Council took note of the consultation results on a partial revision of five road-traffic ordinances and, in its own words, "decided not to proceed with the project". It is also asking Parliament to strike off the three motions the revision grew out of.
What would have gone
The project targeted the permit for the professional transport of passengers, which the trade calls the TPP permit. Today, to carry people professionally in a category B car, that permit is mandatory: an extra theory and practical exam, one year of clean driving to show for it, medical requirements stricter than those asked of someone driving the same car without paying passengers, and periodic check-ups.
The revision would have removed all of it. No permit, no extra exam, no year of practice, no higher medical bar. An ordinary driving licence would have been enough. The package also proposed logging driving and rest time with a certified app instead of a tachograph.
Why it stopped
The consultation ran from 19 December 2025 to 3 April 2026 and drew 81 submissions: all 26 cantons, two parties, intercantonal bodies, sixteen national transport associations and others.
One question asked whether professional drivers of light vehicles should leave the working-hours ordinance and fall under the general rules. Of the 71 who filled in that part, 13 were in favour and 54 against. That is the 82% figure, and it is the answer to that specific question, not a general verdict on the reform.
The detail that says most about who objected: among the national transport associations, 12 out of 12 were against. Among cantons, 19 of the 25 that expressed a view. The reasons, writes the federal department, were "linked to road safety and the protection of workers in the taxi sector".
This was not even the radical version. Scrapping the working-time and rest rules outright had already been "largely rejected" in the past; this was the softened version, and it was rejected too.
The one element with real support was the app replacing the tachograph, at 75% in favour. The cantons, at 60%, attached conditions strict enough to remove the practical benefit.
Where it came from, and why that is ironic
The motions grew out of UberPop. The explanatory report says so plainly: when intermediation services entered the market there were "distortions of competition", some drivers had no TPP permit, no tachograph and no cantonal or communal licence, and that "allowed them to offer transport services at lower prices".
On 9 March 2016 two national councillors filed the answer: tighten nothing, loosen everything, and competition becomes fair again. Parliament accepted the motions that December.
Ten years later, justifying its own proposal, the Federal Roads Office wrote that lowering the barriers would make it practical to "offer transport services as a secondary activity or at reduced workloads using one's own private vehicle". Then this: "precisely drivers of this type are particularly interesting for intermediation platforms."
A reform born as an answer to the platforms would have produced exactly the kind of driver the platforms need. The sector noticed, and said no.
What this is not
It is not a ban, and it does not concern Uber, Bolt or any other app: platforms operating in Switzerland work with drivers who are already licensed, and the TPP permit does not touch them. It is the withdrawal of a deregulation proposal, not a crackdown.
It is also not about the taxi licence. The TPP permit is federal and attaches to the person driving. Permission to operate a taxi service in Ticino is granted by the municipalities, a separate layer this decision does not reach.
And the three motions are not struck off yet. The Federal Council proposes it; Parliament decides.
What is left on the table
For drivers, the practical answer is the simplest possible: what you needed yesterday you need tomorrow.
For anyone coordinating a fleet there is a less obvious consequence. The entry bar stays high, and a high bar works for whoever is already inside: the pool of available drivers will not widen overnight, and licensed drivers remain contested.
But read carefully what was defended. The profession was defended, meaning who may sit behind the wheel. Nothing was decided about who holds the booking, and no federal ordinance deals with that.
Original (Italian): Per portare passeggeri in Svizzera non basterà la patente B
Disclosure: I build UrbanGo, dispatch software for licensed taxi and private-hire operators. Everything above is sourced; this paragraph is the part where I sell something.
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