Corporate Cabs keeping all drivers and beefing up on tech despite virus blow

Top-end car-ride operator Corporate Cabs lost 95 per cent of its business to Covid-19 but says it is confident enough about its future to retain its 300 owner-drivers and invest in new technology.

Chairman Laurie Margrain said about 70 per cent of the company’s pre-virus business was airport transfers. The 7000-vehicle New Zealand taxi sector is among the hardest hit casualties of the pandemic response. At least one company, electric and hybrid vehicle operator Green Cabs, has halted trading, according to its website.

Margrain said the return to a level 3 alert meant business people were starting to travel domestically and require cabs but Corporate Cabs was still doing only 5-10 per cent of its normal volumes.

“But we will survive it and we will come out of it better with a vastly enhanced app and booking technology. We believe we will have a demand for all the owner-operators we have.”

However the 25-year-old company, mostly owned by Bolton Equities, which is 99 per cent owned

by Auckland’s Murray and Robyn Bolton, is downsizing its Manukau Rd operating centre from 40 staff to about 20.

Margrain said with the investment in new technology, a smaller infrastructure was required. The pandemic had accelerated the company’s recent $500,000 investment in improved technology, he said.

Corporate Cabs’ revenue was around $20 million a year before the pandemic.

Margrain said customers were executives, MPs and people from all walks of life who wanted a guaranteed safe, hygienic and comfortable service. For this, they paid a premium of about 10 per cent on fares.

A high number of customers were women.

The company’s business model was unique in the cab industry on its scale, Margrain believed, though some very small operators promoted themselves as executive transport.

He believed the cab sector would experience reduced passenger volumes for some time, but for companies targeting “the more discerning customer” and making sure their requirements were met, there was definitely a good future.