THE idea came to Giovanni Cafaro two years ago when, like millions of his compatriots on any given day, he was waiting in a queue in Milan to pay a bill. “It occurred to me I could do the same for others,” he says.

Mr Cafaro, who had just lost his job, set about his new enterprise with gusto. He handed out flyers advertising his services and found several dozen clients. These include companies that would rather their employees did something more productive, like work. In the process, he has created a new profession: that of codista (queuer).

According to Codacons, a consumer group, Italians spend on average 400 hours a year queuing. The annual time wasted is worth €40 billion ($44 billion), it estimates. For decades, rich Italians have hired people to stand in line on their behalf to pay bills, send off parcels and deal with everyday bureaucracy. But Mr Cafaro has given the occupation a legal footing, with its own standardised contract, minimum pay (€10 an hour before deductions) and access to state-run industrial accident insurance (“in case, say, a codista trips on the stairs of a government office,” he explains). Mr Cafaro offers a five-hour course, which he gives over Skype. This includes learning the tedious requirements of central and local government departments for documents, signatures and charges.

Successive Italian governments have tried to cut the queues. From March 15th members of the public can apply for a identification number giving them online access to public services. But it is not just Italy’s complex bureaucracy that keeps people waiting. Italian idiosyncrasies, which reflect a certain fiscal timidity, also play a role. Italy has one of the lowest rates of non-cash transactions in Europe. “Paying in cash is very widespread and people are generally reluctant to use either credit cards or direct debit,” says Mr Cafaro. This is consistent with the fact that Italy has one of the largest shadow economies in the rich world.

Ironically Mr Cafaro’s initiative has created yet another layer of bureaucracy. Those looking to hire a codista under the terms of the new contract will have to pay welfare contributions and deal with the attendant paperwork, even if they employ the codista only for an hour. Rather than cut the queues, Mr Cafaro’s business may make them even longer.