Who drives you
Prime Drive is the trading name of La Spezia Transfer NCC, a licensed private hire operator based in La Spezia, VAT 01556400115. The work is transfers and tour days, up to 8 passengers. Italian, English and Russian are spoken. You book direct with the operator, and your driver is a driver, not a licensed tour guide.
Who is Prime Drive?
Prime Drive is the commercial name. The license, the invoices and the legal responsibility belong to La Spezia Transfer NCC, a licensed private hire operator registered at Via Ippolito Nievo 18 in La Spezia and working from Via Crispi 113/A, VAT number 01556400115. One operator, one license, two names: the shorter one is easier to say down a phone line. The registered details in full are in the privacy policy and the terms.
Am I booking with the driver, or with an agency?
Direct with the operator. A request sent from this site is answered by La Spezia Transfer NCC itself. No marketplace buys the job and resells it to whoever happens to be free that morning, no intermediary adds a margin you never see, and the person who quotes the work is the person answerable for it.
That is the question a good part of this page’s readers came to ask. They found a name in an online listing or a forum thread and want to know, before they hand money to a stranger abroad, whether the name belongs to a real licensed operator. It does, and the rest of this page is the evidence.
Where do you drive?
The base is La Spezia, and most days are spent within about an hour of it: the Gulf of La Spezia, Portovenere at 13 km (8 miles) and Lerici at 11 km (7 miles), the Cinque Terre, and the coast road west towards Levanto. Beyond that, the regular work is Tuscany and the Ligurian Riviera.
- Airports, ten of them: Pisa, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Rome, Bologna, Bergamo, Turin, Verona and Parma. Pisa is the nearest useful one, 89 km (55 miles) by road and about an hour and a half on a normal day. Rome Fiumicino is 406 km (252 miles) and five and a half to six hours, which is a real journey and priced as one.
- The cruise terminal at La Spezia, for passengers spending a day ashore.
- Transfers, including long ones: hotel to hotel, port to station, and point-to-point runs well beyond Liguria.
- Day trips in Liguria and Tuscany: the Cinque Terre, Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure, Pisa, Lucca, Forte dei Marmi, Florence.
- Outlet and shopping days at Barberino, Serravalle, Fidenza Village, The Mall and the Forte dei Marmi and Viareggio shops.
- Weddings, dinners and business travel, where the point is discretion and punctuality rather than sightseeing.
An Italian private hire license carries no territorial limit on the journey itself, so a run to Milan or Rome is the same kind of work as a run to Portovenere, only longer.
Two honest notes, because the alternative is a disappointed guest. Florence is 149 km (93 miles) from La Spezia and one hour forty-five to two hours each way on a normal day, so it is a long day and a poor use of a short cruise call. And in the Cinque Terre the last stretch is usually walked: Monterosso al Mare is the exception, where the operator obtains the permits and drives in as far as Piazza Garibaldi, and can move along the seafront. In the other four villages the car stops at the parking or the barrier at the edge. The tour pages give the real numbers rather than the flattering ones.
What languages do you speak?
Italian, English and Russian. In practice that means a family coming off a ship with no Italian can settle the shape of the day themselves, and an Italian client bringing a foreign guest to a meeting is not also the interpreter.
Are you a tour guide?
No, and the distinction matters in Italy more than it does at home. Guiding inside museums, churches and monuments is a separate licensed profession here, and experienced travelers police the difference sharply: a driver who narrates a cathedral is breaking a rule and writing his own one-star review.
What you get is a driver who knows the roads, the parking, the restricted zones and the hours at which each place turns unpleasant, and who will tell you plainly what is worth the walk. Where a proper guide adds something, in Florence, Pisa or Lucca with their ticketed monuments, a licensed local guide is arranged on request. In the Cinque Terre it rarely comes up: the villages and the coast are the sight, and there is nothing that needs interpreting through a headset.
What is an NCC, and what would an American call it?
In Italy the license for private hire with a driver is called noleggio con conducente, NCC for short. The closest equivalent most English-speaking travelers will know is a pre-booked car service, not a cab. The differences are legal, not marketing.
| Taxi | Private hire with driver (NCC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it serves | Anyone, on the spot | A named customer, for a job booked in advance |
| How you get one | Hail it, or take it from a public rank | Booked ahead, by phone, message or form |
| Where it waits | At public taxi ranks | Not at a rank: at the point agreed with you |
| The price | Metered, on a tariff set by the comune | Agreed between you and the operator before you travel |
| Can it refuse the job | Generally not, from a rank | Yes. The service is not compulsory |
| How far it may go | Local | Anywhere in Italy. The journey has no territorial limit |
Two practical consequences for a visitor. There is no meter running in traffic, because there is no meter: the price is the price you agreed. And there is no distance at which the car has to turn back, which is why a transfer to Milan or to Rome is ordinary work here rather than a special case.
Access to town centers is a different matter, and it is settled comune by comune rather than by the category on the plate; in many restricted zones a taxi and a private hire car are treated alike. The comparison that does hold is with a coach. In Pisa, tourist coaches are banned from Via Cammeo and sent to the free park on Via Pietrasantina about 2 km out, with a shuttle or a half-hour walk at each end of the visit. A car sets down on Via Cammeo or Via Andrea Pisano, about 500 m from the Piazza dei Miracoli: five to seven minutes on flat pavement, no steps.
How do I know the operator is licensed?
Look at the car, not at a register.
- The noleggio badge, displayed inside the windscreen and on the rear window.
- The rear plate, carrying the crest of the comune that issued the license and a progressive number.
- The carta di circolazione, which you are entitled to ask to see.
Now the part most sites leave out. Italy’s national record of private hire operators, the RENT, is officially described as a public national register, which sounds like something you could search from your kitchen table before you travel. You cannot. Access needs Italian digital identity credentials and is limited to enforcement officers, public offices and firms looking up their own record. Nobody booking from Ohio or Ontario can check an operator there, and anyone who tells you to “look us up in the register” is describing something you have no way of doing.
Why it is worth the two seconds at the curb: at Largo Fiorillo, the street beside the La Spezia cruise terminal, local police have twice been reported stopping unlicensed drivers who were loading American cruise passengers, six of them in June 2025 and seven in July 2026, the second group having booked from abroad through an online platform. Driving passengers for hire without authorization carries a fine of 1,812 to 7,249 euro, seizure of the vehicle with a view to confiscation, and suspension of the driving license for four to twelve months. Two reported cases in two seasons is not an epidemic. It is enough to explain why a badge and a plate are worth a glance before you put the cases in the back.
How do I pay, and can the price change?
Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express are accepted, in euro. The price is agreed before you travel, and it does not change unless you change the itinerary. Ask on the day to add a village, a stop or an extra hour and the price moves; sit in traffic, or land late, and it does not.
Waiting time is included: 60 minutes at airports and 15 minutes everywhere else. The operator asks for your flight number and follows the flight, so an aircraft that lands forty minutes down is a tracked delay rather than a missed pickup. At the airport the driver waits with the passenger’s name on a tablet.
What do you drive?
Mercedes-Benz, up to 8 passengers per vehicle. Say how many of you are traveling and how many large cases you have when you write for a quote: luggage is the one thing better counted in the message than at the curb.
If you want the detail of the service rather than the operator, read what we actually do. When you are ready for a price for your dates, Get a quote.
Questions about this trip
Is Prime Drive the same business as La Spezia Transfer NCC?
Yes. Prime Drive is the commercial name; the license, the invoices and the legal responsibility belong to La Spezia Transfer NCC, VAT 01556400115, based in La Spezia. One operator, one license, two names.
What languages are spoken?
Italian, English and Russian. The booking, the questions about timing and the day itself can be handled in any of the three, with nobody in the middle translating.
Are you a tour guide as well as a driver?
No. In Italy, guiding inside museums, churches and monuments is a separate licensed profession, and this is a driving service. Licensed local guides are arranged on request, which is the honest way round: you get a driver who knows the roads and, where it is worth it, a guide who is allowed to do the guiding.
How do I know the car and the driver are legal?
Look at the car rather than at a register. A licensed private hire vehicle in Italy shows a noleggio badge inside the windscreen and on the rear window, and carries a rear plate with the crest of the comune that issued the license and a progressive number. You may also ask to see the carta di circolazione.
Do you publish a price list?
No. The price is agreed for the journey you describe and quoted within 24 hours. The quote states in writing what it covers before anything is booked, and the agreed price does not change unless you change the itinerary.
Last updated