Chronicle Editor
Business Reporter
Better Drive Car Rental’s dynamic CEO Mr Dyke Tawanda and his team are making waves after the launch of the business in 2021.
With a shared passion for innovation and a commitment to revolutionising the mobility and car rental industry, Mr Tawanda and his team have been meeting key figures in the tech and automotive sectors, forging powerful connections that will propel Better Drive Car Rental’s mobility solutions to new heights.
Their continued presence in the industry two years after their launch is a testament to Better Drive’s dedication to integrating cutting-edge technology into car rental and transportation.
Engaging with industry leaders has paved the way for Better Drive to harness the latest advancements in digital platforms, ensuring that customers have access to the most convenient and efficient mobility solutions.
Mr Tawanda insists that Better Drive is not just a car rental company but a technology-driven mobility pioneer.
He believes theirs is a firm which attributes its success to finding out what the customer wants then tailoring services to suit that.
Just two years after inception, Better Drive is already securing an impressive amount of extra business.
“The last two years have been a major success story for our company. The growth in our vehicle rentals in the city has reached increased exponentially in the past year and we have also increased the number of vehicles we have which was necessary in order to satisfy the increased demand for our car and van rental services. We are in the process of expanding our rental network next year,’’ Mr Tawanda told Sunday News Business.
Better Drive arrived on the scene as the sector was coming to terms with a turbulent couple of years for rental operations precipitated by the global Covid-19 pandemic.
While the industry weathered an unprecedented travel crisis, the new players in the industry may finally be seeing the light at the end of this long tunnel. The company believes that it is now in a whole new environment with new challenges and demands.
Despite the continued economic challenges that have limited the ability of the domestic market to grow, the silver lining is that demand stayed strong despite a robust pricing environment.
“Car rental pricing has been the highest I have ever seen in the two years I have been doing this,” Mr Tawanda said.
“For decades, it seemed car rental rates were stagnant, and with the car shortage, rates skyrocketed.”
Mr Tawanda said that there’s traditionally been a three percent to five percent increase in vehicle costs year over year in production, but this past year has seen numbers much higher.
He said the challenge moving forward is that rental companies had been paying high duties for vehicles, which is no longer the case. But with used prices softening, it will be a challenge to depreciate those higher priced vehicles correctly.
“Rental companies have always bought vehicles at auction opportunistically, though in the past 18 months it became much more of a necessity — even as wholesale prices tracked proportionately higher than new cars,” Mr Tawanda added.
High vehicle prices and higher interest rates combined to dramatically reduce affordability, especially constraining subprime demand in both the new and used market, Mr Tawanda said.
This weakening demand notably impacted used vehicle values. Through October 2022, wholesale values declined for five straight months and were down by more than 10 percent year over year.
Looking after the new business is an experienced staff headed by manager Mr Tawanda. Mrs Patience Dube has taken on the role of head of communications providing the necessary support.
“Our business model and growth thrust will allow us to give an even better service to our customers,’’ Mrs Dube pointed out.
“Customers will find us even more accessible while at the same time we have a marvellous opportunity to project ourselves to a whole new clientele,’’ she added.
Mrs Dube says one of the encouraging aspects of this past year’s performance was the manner in which the business has been spread. No over abundance of eggs in single baskets at Better Drive as rentals were up to private individuals, small companies, larger concerns, tourists and delegates to conferences in the city.
“The recent influx of businesspeople and tourists to this part of the country meant we were working flat out to keep up with demand’’ she said.
“Happily, as a growing company which operates nationally, we can draw on a huge pool of vehicles whenever demand peaks. This means we are unlikely to ever find ourselves in the situation where we have to turn business away.’’
Conscious of the need to satisfy a whole range of requirements, the company has tailored a series of packages designed to ensure that each customer, no matter its needs, can take advantage of carefully structured rental contracts at very attractive rates.
It operates a fleet drawn from major manufacturers such as Ford, Mazda, Honda, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen, none of which is over six months old, so again there is something to suit every type of driver.
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