Taxi firm Green Cabs put into liquidation, cutting 160 jobs

Wednesday, 27 May 2020

Palmerston North taxi drivers Linda Poll de Honores and Flavia Alves work for Taxis Gold and Black.

Taxi company Green Cabs has been put into liquidation, with almost 160 jobs to be lost.

The company, founded in 2007, operates in five cities across New Zealand, had 140 self-employed contract drivers and 18 staff.

The company ceased trading on April 2, having been hit particularly hard by Covid-19 due to its reliance on airport traffic for about 80 per cent of its business.

'We were somewhat vulnerable and exposed financially before the outbreak, we are absolutely non-viable now,' the letter said.

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Green Cabs has been put into liquidation

'It would take an extraordinary amount of borrowing to see Green Cabs through this period, and we simply cannot service the debt, even if we come out the other side.'

Green Cabs applied for the Government's Covid-19 wage for 18 staff and was granted $120,873.

An urgent application for liquidation was approved by the Wellington High Court on the grounds that Green Cabs was 'unable to pay its debts as they fall due'.

'There is a need for urgency as the liabilities of the applicant are rapidly accruing and it has ceased trading and has no income.'

Justice Peter Churchman approved the application and appointed Porirua-based insolvency administrator Heath Gair as the interim liquidator.

Green Cabs was the first taxi company in New Zealand to have a fully hybrid fleet, and the first to introduce electric taxis to major centres.

A portion of every fare went towards tree-planting initiatives, with a total of 270,000 trees planted over the company's 13-year run.

As recently as March 22, the company announced it had added a Tesla Model 3 to its Dunedin fleet.