Taxi drivers want board dumped
Gold Band taxi drivers claim the operation is being run for the benefit of a few big owners and are campaigning to dump Gold Band’s board. Martin van Beynen reports.
Gold Band Taxis (Christchurch) Society was once a family-type business with multi-cab owners acting in the interests of everyone.
It had its own workshop, employed its own staff and had a spacious office with parking.
Now Gold Band has a tiny office, no workshop – and some unhappy members.
A group of dissident Gold Band members claim large member operators and their lackeys use their voting power to dominate the society and bring in changes rife with conflicts of interest.
The group is collecting votes to challenge the present board at the society’s annual general meeting in July. Gold Band members pay a monthly fee of about $600, which covers administration and call centre expenses.
The business started in Christchurch in 1929 and converted to an Industrial and Provident Society in 1952 so its taxi drivers could own the company. Provident societies are designed so single members cannot dominate and members of societies are restricted to participation worth no more than $4000, unless otherwise authorised.
Bolen Ng, national manager business registries at Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE), said nothing suggested another amount had been authorised for Gold Band.
Under its constitution the Gold Band society allocates one share per cab. Each share has one vote.
The current board includes chairman Stan Gane, who has 19 shares (therefore 19 votes), and board director Ram Kodukula, who has 25 shares.
Gane has interests in several companies that get income from Gold Band. His company S Gane Promotions Ltd owns the society’s office, which houses call centre staff and charges an annual rent of $24,357 (excluding GST).
Gane is also a director and shareholder of Critical Communications Ltd, which has the contract for providing Gold Band’s call centre. This earns it about $454,000 a year.
Two-thirds of the shares in Critical Communications are owned jointly by Gane and his son Nicholas, who has a business installing the Gold Band computer/ dispatch equipment in the cabs.
Cab owners are not allowed to use other firms for the service. Ram Kodukula owns the remaining third of the shares in Critical Communications.
Another one of Gane’s businesses gets revenue from processing vouchers with which Gold Band passengers pay for rides.
According to Gold Band’s annual accounts for the year to March 31 last year, S Gane Promotions, Critical Communications Ltd and NZ Taxis received $634,377 (excluding GST) for rent, fees, administration services and call centre/ dispatch services.
The society has a turnover of about $2.1m with about 130-150 cars on the road.
‘A few people clipping the ticket’
Reshmi Narayan and her husband Sandeep Singh have been Gold Band members for about eight years.
They run two taxi vans and two cars, giving them four shares.
They say Gold Band provides a good service to its customers, but the board needs to be changed.
‘‘Dispatch is the most important part of the operation and is the biggest expense for us as taxi owners. Critical Communications runs the call centre like it is its own business so we have to pay for it to earn a profit,’’ Narayan said.
‘‘Critical controls the jobs so it knows exactly what we earn.
‘‘To many of us the whole thing seems very unfair and looks like a few people in the society are clipping the ticket every chance they get.’’
The dissident group claimed the board had based the membership fee partly on turnover, rather than having a set fee they feel would be fairer. Factoring in turnover favoured the larger owners who often had cabs off the road, they said.
Former board member Rajwinder Singh, who runs his own taxi service with 16 vans in Christchurch, left Gold Band about three or four years ago fed up.
‘‘I wasn’t happy. We worked hard and deserved to get more money.
‘‘They used their position to always dominate and they always want to get all the work … when I was a director I could see they were running everything for themselves. That’s not a good thing.’’
He doesn’t think the dissident group will succeed.
‘‘You can never change the constitution, they won’t let you. The only way is if you have the votes.’’
Frank Brookes, who has been in Gold Band for nine years, said he had tried to change the society’s constitution, but it was like ‘‘banging your head against a brick wall’’. He believed every member should have no more than one vote.
‘‘They need to prove they are providing the most cost-effective services through the companies they own.
‘‘I should be retired now. Not all the shareholders understand what’s going on. I feel I have some responsibility to fight on their behalf.’’
Another former director who left Gold Band in disgust, but did not want to named, said multi-share owners used to have an unselfish mentality.
Gane had always tried to get control of the society, she claimed, and Ram Kodukula was his recruit.
‘‘Now Stan has control, he is not going to relinquish it to anyone.’’
The Gold Band board declined to comment.