Road Angels’ 10-year message

EXACTLY 10 years to this day on June 3, 2010, Road Angels Zimbabwe was launched. Today marks a decade of provision of 24-hour breakdown assistance across Zimbabwe.

It has been an amazing 10-year journey with challenges and milestones which we would not have overcome or reached had it not been for the resilience and hard work of all the Road Angels employees past, present and the overwhelming support from our clients both willing and unwilling or dare I say accidental (no pun intended).

In 1999, we began research into an industry we knew nothing about. After a barnstorming morning session with a couple of friends over breakfast fuelled by our joblessness at that point, I also had a desire to enter an industry where I would make a difference in people’s motoring lives and at the same time be paid for my services.

Between 2005 and 2009 I had run a computer and computer accessories retail business called Westgate Printbox, which had collapsed with the advent of dollarisation. It was a ruthless and highly competitive industry where it was difficult to differentiate.

I vowed that my next business was going to be one where customers would not only need our service, but would also thank us for delivering the service all the time. Simon Sinek in his book Start

With The Why says, “ideas do not come out fully formed” but they morph as you refine them. The service idea was etched in my mind but as to what service that was, this was not yet clear.

When the idea of starting a towing company was birthed, I began research on it for six months — my university days research skills came in handy.

I was convinced that this was the industry I needed to get into despite the popular response I got when I told people “Zvakawandirwa izvi”

(there are too many players), I had this urge to try it out and was convinced that I would make a difference.

We didn’t invent towing and recovery in this country, we merely re-invented it and gave it the pizzaz that it lacked in those days. We brought swag to the towing business and made it cool.

Because we were entering a business in which certain players had been at it for over 100 years, we needed to be different in many ways, so our entry was more about doing things differently from existing big players who ruled the streets.

We saw a few things which we were determined to change and introduce into the industry, which we knew would give us the edge and some of them were the following:

a) Technology

The first thing I saw was that no player in this industry was on point with the latest basic technologies. Not a single breakdown company then had e-mail, a website or a software system to run its systems.

We knew from the very start that we were going to be IT-driven with a modern website, a self-built software system which we are proud of up to today which helps collect, store and arrange all the data from our business.

A year from launch, we were building our mobile app for Android and iOS.

We immediately had all our vehicles on satellite tracking mainly for the benefit of real-time information to the clients.

These things seem standard today, but at that time, they were a novelty. We introduced SMS notification for any completed job and e-mail confirmations for completed jobs.

All these things were new to industry, especially the insurance companies and even to individuals. These novelties gave us that needed edge over our existing big

brothers.

b) Vehicles and equipment

One thing that was glaring was that the majority of the breakdown vehicles and equipment in the industry were ramshackle vehicles with very old block and tackle machines and some of the most unsightly branding one had ever seen.

We knew from start that to be different, we needed to stand out. So we first set out to go to the nearest country which was way ahead of Zimbabwe then when it came to breakdown equipment.

We found the biggest player in South Africa called TARES, who gladly agreed to equip our vehicles with the vision of standing out.

Instead of the industry norm of using old disused vehicles as breakdown trucks, we went and bought brand new trucks which we then fitted with wicked rims in modern styling to create a beautiful tow truck. Yes, our tow trucks were a beauty to look at when they hit the streets and we stood out.

Midlane Advertising, our advertising agent from inception to date, then created an outstanding logo. With that logo, the branding on our trucks was eye-popping and the colour orange, which has been my favourite colour representing energy and vitality, put the icing on the cake and we sere set.

Speed

In 2010, when one ordered a tow truck, you were lucky to get assistance in less than three hours. Customers were made to wait long and agonising hours for a rescue vehicle.

When we launched our Bulawayo branch, customers who called during weekends were only attended to on Monday and it was considered the norm.

One actually had the police or private guards guarding an accident vehicle overnight or in some cases, a spouse bringing a blanket to their other half so that they could sleep in the car while waiting for the recovery truck.

We knew that this was not convenience and from launch, we dedicated our response time to be 30 minutes from the time the customer made a call to the recovery of the vehicle within a few kilometre radius.

All of a sudden, there was speed of rescue at a pace that had not been seen in the industry before. It also helped that we were new and jobs were few, but even now, we stick to that timeline. We, therefore, became defined by speed of response and again, this made us stand out. We were a hit with the police because, for the first time in their careers, they didn’t need to spend a long cold night standing guard over an accident scene.

c) Human resources

We also realised that it was important to not only employ drivers, but drivers with some mechanical background, whose job not only involved towing, but also use of basic mechanical knowledge.

We also deliberately hired a young team full of energy, but mature enough to deliver when called to do so.

In the office, we again made sure that our marketing team was a young and dynamic team with knowledge of modern trends and able to adapt easily to the new technology trends.

d) Services

One common thing among the majority of