Pontie’s has been awarded best truck panel beater 2020

Pontie’s Panelbeaters has been named the best truck panel beating workshop 2020, in the country.

The competition was driven by MAN and only considered panel beaters repairing 100 or more vehicles per month.

“We did 291 vehicles in June of which

100 were trucks,” said Pontie van Rooyen.

Considering there are many accredited workshops throughout the country and many much larger than Pontie’s, this really is an amazing achievement.

Pontie’s does bodywork, chassis, tankers, trailer, boilers and aluminum welding - yes, the full Monty!

“In these types of competitions, quality feedback from customers is critical. I believe that during the CSI part of the exercise, every single customer was phoned for feedback. Up-to-date admin, how timely all paperwork is submitted (and the latter is intense and demanding) and parts stockholding are all elements audited,” said Van Rooyen.

“Customer feedback counted for 50% of the total points scored. Even the promptness with which we as a business pay our debtors, counts as a qualifying criteria.”

Some of the many reasons for Pontie’s exceptional turnaround times is its stock of parts. It is huge; its equipment and technology are modern and complete. It has chassis straightening machines that cater for all brands.

“We need more space, though,” said

Van Rooyen. This, despite the fact that Pontie’s already has the largest workshop in Mbombela.

One of the biggest and most expensive challenges over the past 10 years was to gain accreditation from all the truck/commercial OEMs.

“This enabled us to do all commercial work inhouse instead of outsourcing some. This has obviously boosted our through-put in the workshop,” said Van Rooyen.

“Of course the Maputo Corridor Route, utilised by many fleets and different brands, has become an oyster for us because of our location, and we are OEM-accredited for all brands. Everything we do carries a lifetime warranty.

“In the past 10 years since joining Pontie’s Panelbeaters, eventually taking over from my mum and dad, I have grown up. It opened my eyes and I gained renewed respect for their work and dedication over many years to give me everything and get me where we are today. This is a tough business with many challenges and to win this award, considering the pandemic and economic challenges, is an amazing reward for our team.

“Success is, for us, a conscious process of setting daily and weekly goals - eliminating procrastination and having an uncompromising focus and commitment to service excellence. Yes, we have made mistakes. We have, however, also put our fears aside and invested in equipment and technology that have generated tremendous opportunities and rewards. They have gained us numerous new clients and we can confidently say that we are one of the largest and busiest truck panel beaters in Mpumalanga. This, in my opinion, is a direct result of what we do - how we do it - and our exceptional quality, while still achieving benchmark setting turnaround times.

“Our secret weapon, though, I believe, is our staff. They are super dedicated, superbly qualified and committed to do it right every time and all the time. As a hands-on owner/manager, I really and truly go beyond the norm to look after them to ensure their needs, both as employees and human beings, are addressed.

“This has, I believe, contributed to our ability to achieve more than what we believed possible - what my parents believed possible. So for us, now, everything is possible. We do what we say we will do when we say we will do it. And this award just proved it beyond any and every doubt.”

‘To win this award is an amazing reward for our team’