Co-owner Dave Theunissen with the members of Grid. Photo: Grid
Taxi cooperative Grid, last year one of the nominees for the Taxi Innovation Award, is looking for a new driver. This objective must be achieved within a few months, otherwise the organization will choose to pull the plug on the cooperative.
“Our financial resources are slowly but surely exhausted,” says Theunissen. “Time catches up with us. This is the reason for the board to set other priorities and to park Grid. That does not mean that we pull the plug. If there is anyone who believes in the concept and sees new opportunities for Grid, we are open to a discussion about this. If this does not happen, we will eventually dissolve the cooperative.”
Investments “It also has to do with my private situation,” Dave Theunissen clarifies to TaxiPro. “I just don’t have time to pull Grid even further off the ground.” According to Theunissen, the financial aspect also plays an important role in this. “We have now invested in Grid for two years, with all the associated risks. It also includes private assets. At a certain point it starts to gnaw.”
According to Theunissen, this can mean two things: either looking for a party that wants to take over the leadership, or pulling the plug on the taxi cooperative. “We are looking for someone from the taxi sector who has a network in Amsterdam. Someone with administrative knowledge. Someone who is able to lead an organization. It doesn’t have to be a politician or a chairman of some association, but someone who sees the big picture.”
Thuishaven Theunissen wants to prevent the plug from being pulled from Grid at all costs. According to him, the cooperative was founded more than two years ago to offer the small independent taxi entrepreneur a home base. “Our intentions are to represent the interests of this group of drivers. We don’t want profit maximization, but profit optimization. At the moment, however, I do not see any organization within the taxi sector that has the same interests. At the administrative level, there are few who put the interests of our target group first. This year we still have to find a director who has the interests of our target group in mind, otherwise there will be no match.”
Preferably before the month of September, Theunissen quickly adds. If that fails, Grid will be disbanded. “And then it was fine. Then we had a nice ride, in which we gained a lot of experience. That is why we are where we are now. This not only applies to Ad and me, but also to all our members. We hope that all the energy we have put into Grid lives on”, concludes Theunissen.
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