Road Angels’ 10-year message

breakdown companies was that they had a narrow service offering. We decided that we were not just going to be a breakdown company, but were going to be a total roadside solutions company and so we added services that many didn’t offer and these included Jump-start

Key retrieval

Tyre change

Spare keys pick-up

Fuel delivery

Vehicle valuations

Mechanical reports

These services gave us that extra edge and made us that more appealing, especially on our membership side.

e) Countrywide presence

We found out that not a single breakdown operation had a national presence.

Most were based in just one city and some were offshoots of panel-beating companies or garages, without specific specialisation.

From inception, we knew we were going to have a national footprint and this was going to allow us to serve all companies with a national presence from one centre and this would be good news to fleet managers.

As soon as we launched, we set about planning a nationwide presence. As we speak, we are in 11 cities across Zimbabwe and have third-party contracts in five other centres.

We were set and ready to roll and on a cold Thursday night on June 3, 2010, Road Angels officially opened to the public.

The first eight months were an amazing discovery and in the ninth month of operation for the first time, we managed to generate enough revenue to pay our bills.

I remember the start of that month when I told staff that if we couldn’t generate enough funds to self-sustain, that month was going to be our last month operating or at least that month there would be no salaries.

I knew we were not going to close because the market had received us well and there was a lot of potential.

The whole team from the kitchen to the office staff responded with an amazing effort that saw us moving full steam ahead just from the energy generated from that self-belief and up to today. I will forever be grateful to that original crew of Road Angels.

With time, the market responded very well to us- the corporates started supporting us.

Our aim to stand out was achieved as we were seen in a totally different light from our competitors. We started setting up our branch network, recruiting locals in every town we opened. By the end of 2019, we were in the following cities

Bulawayo

Harare

Chitungwiza

Rusape

Mutare

Gweru

Masvingo

Zvishavane

Beitbridge

Karoi

Chiredzi

Our plan was to be able to arrive at any breakdown scene across the country in the shortest possible time. This was achieved by spreading geographically across Zimbabwe. Our future lies in spreading our wings into the Sadc region.

This has been achieved in part as we have now delivered vehicles to Zambia and South Africa and as far as the Democratic Republic

of Congo and Tanzania, places we never thought we would ever be delivering or picking up vehicles. All this is thanks to the confidence the market has shown us.

Employees

Road Angels started off with a small staff complement of seven, and we have grown to over 60 employees, both permanent and contract in the last decade.

We have the most hardworking and dedicated team of rescuers on this planet.

These brave men and women have taken some of the harshest environments in Africa and have delivered vehicles at times under the most strenuous terrain man should ever be allowed to drive.

They have driven some of the longest hours and recovered vehicles from some of the deepest valleys on earth all in the name of “Coming to Save You”.

One benefit of doing our kind of work is that one gets to see the world. At Road Angels, every rescuer is encouraged and enabled to see the countries’ natural wonders if they happen to go to rescue a vehicle there.

Many rescuers have seen the Victoria Falls, Kariba Dam, Great Zimbabwe, Nyanga and many more scenic places for the first time after joining Road Angels.

Milestones

There have been many milestones since inception. We have learnt a lot and are still learning about this industry, our clients’ changing needs, technological advancement and the amazing opportunities that still exist in our industry and country.

There are things that are now considered normal, which 10 years ago were a novelty. We introduced rollback trucks in 2012 and many times, crowds would form when we were rescuing a car, but now it seems abnormal for any breakdown company not to have a rollback rescue truck.

We introduced 30-minute response times when Zimbabweans were happy to wait days for a rescue.

It now sounds ridiculous for a breakdown rescue truck to arrive after many hours of waiting.

In 2019, we introduced our Heavy Rescue division to upscale our rescue capabilities and start rescuing big commercial trucks and buses up to 30 tonnes.

We have joined the social media scene by joining Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and launching our own YouTube Channel RA TV. We have also won some awards, from the Business of the Year to Entrepreneur of the Year.

We have an amazing partnership with the motor racing fraternity in Zimbabwe, from drag racers to speed demons.

We are now the largest breakdown assistance company in the country operating the biggest breakdown fleet in the land.

What next

Our Road Angels membership scheme continues to deliver amazing, fast and reliable breakdown assistance to over 20 000 Road Angels members.

The next decade will see the completion of our new headquarters which will offer all in services from membership services, assessments, workshop report services and the biggest vehicle storage yard in the country with high-tech security.

Our next regional plan is to open a branch in the region. This will allow us to penetrate the regional markets seamlessly.

We look forward to another amazing 10 years and we hope, believe and trust that our customers will continue having faith in us and that we will continue to learn, improve and deliver the most amazing breakdown service that the country has come to expect from us.

Regards,

Tawanda