Chronicle Editor
Fredrick Qaphelani Mabikwa
I stay in Bulawayo’s Mahatshula suburb, north of the city centre and this suburb’s main road into the Central Business District (CBD) is the Bulawayo-Harare highway. Every morning there is a queue of vehicles entering the highway from Mahatshula.
I have over the years observed some very “clever” drivers, most of them taking children to school, driving on the right side of the road overtaking vehicles queuing to enter the highway. The highway is very busy and on reaching the highway, they stop on the right, blocking traffic intending to turn into Mahatshula from the highway. What selfishness. One time I witnessed a driver from a very renowned security company do this selfish act.
He caused quite some confusion as he blocked traffic intending to turn into Mahatshula and as he did this he actually caused a traffic jam on the highway as traffic that waited to turn into Mahatshula blocked the highway. I took the registration number of the vehicle; it was a Nissan NP200. I called the company when I got to the office and I was referred to a Mr Banda who promised to look into the matter and revert to me. Mr Banda never got back to me.
This incident got me thinking. I never got to know the name of the selfish driver for this security company and it was actually not necessary for me to know him. However, what stuck in my mind was the name of the security company and immediately my general rating of the company dropped just from the action of this single driver. To all of us who drive branded vehicles, let us remember that wherever we are, the community doesn’t see the individual behind the wheel but the company or organisation.
When you do all sorts of devious acts with a branded vehicle, it is not you who suffers but the organisation whose name and logo is displayed on the vehicle. I have seen branded vehicles parked in very unholy places. I have seen branded vehicles carrying things that they are not supposed to carry, ambulances delivering vegetables and security vehicles carrying alcohol and firewood.
When you sit behind the wheel of a branded vehicle, your person is swallowed by the vehicle and you become the organisation itself. Whatever you do or say in that vehicle, is no longer about you but your organisation. While most organisations have vehicle policies and trackers to control the use of the vehicles, they don’t have control over what the vehicle users do when they leave the originations.
The tracker can only say where the vehicle is but it doesn’t say what the vehicle is doing there. You commit acts of misconduct in or with a branded vehicle, you are bringing the name of your organisation into disrepute, you are soiling the name of the organisation.
Corporate responsibility should teach us that when driving a branded vehicle, it’s not the vehicle you are driving but the organisation itself.
Corporate responsibility must teach us that it is our sole obligation to protect the name of our organisations at all times. While I appreciate that money and related rewards will never be enough, I want to believe that most of these organisations try their best to look after us and it becomes our moral responsibility and obligation to reciprocate the organisation’s benevolence.
It becomes very unprofessional and unfair to the organisation when one goes around deliberately and wantonly indulging in acts of misconduct in branded vehicles knowing that the name that suffers most is that of the organisation.
People who misuse branded vehicles do not deserve to have these vehicles. Organisations should descend heavily on those drivers who misuse organisational vehicles. It is very expensive to run these vehicle fleets. It is the same driver who wants a pay rise who is abusing the vehicles. Funds meant for the pay rise are diverted to vehicle maintenance and the same driver cries foul and starts creating stories about management misappropriating company funds.
What is most disturbing is that often, some of the bad driving habits of these drivers endanger the lives of innocent citizens. I have already said driving out of Mahatshula, I have observed that some of these drivers are parents doing school runs. They are transporting children endangering the lives of the young ones. Apart from endangering the lives of the young ones, what lessons are they imparting to them. They are rushing the little ones to school to be good citizens but on the road they are busy teaching them practical lessons about how to jump queues.
Apart from the branded vehicles, there are also branded attires. Branded attires include t-shirts shirts, jackets, blazers, blouses and caps. Other branded items include pens, note-books, diaries, files and folders. The same applies to all these. The only problem with these is that they can be accessed by other people who are not necessarily employees of the organisation.
However, when wearing a branded piece of attire, you are carrying the organisation and the community sees the organisation first before they see you. Recently, I went into a social place and saw two young men on the dance floor, doing what they know best, wearing branded work-suits. They were visibly drunk and I requested them to remove their branded jackets and put them away in their satchels. Thank God they co-operated and removed their branded jackets and continued enjoying themselves on the dance floor. These days the public is quick to record and minutes later, the video would have gone viral and the name of the organisation is soiled. When going to some of these social places, it is advisable to remove our branded attires if we are not sure about our conduct there especially after taking the wise waters.
May I conclude by saying in today’s business world, where competition has become so stiff, it is very critical that organisations at all times keep a clean corporate image. The smallest things such as employee conduct and customer care make a difference over which organisation clients choose to go to. No one wants to be associated with an organisation with rogue employees who don’t have an iota of respect for clients and the public in general. Employees should always remember that with or without branded vehicles or attires wherever they are doing business, they are ambassadors of their organisations and should at all times keep the flags of their organisations flying high.
Otherwise there is no need to stay in an organisation whose name you deliberately soil at any given opportunity. Each day you walk the business world you are writing the script of your organisation. Work to leave a legacy in your organisation. A legacy that will demand that even after you have left the organisation, you maintain a relationship marked by sound collegiality where the organisation continues to maintain a healthy relationship with you long after you have left.
We always go back to our organisations for one or two reasons long after we have left; leave in a such a way that you will always be welcome each time you knock on the door. Self-management teaches us that we must be responsible all the time, even if we are out of sight of the authorities.
Ephesians 6 verse 5 says, “Obey not only when he is looking at you . . .” Remember that when you sit behind the wheel of a branded vehicle or wear a branded attire, your person is swallowed by the vehicle or attire — you become that organisation. Keep the flag of your organisation flying high by behaving responsibly all the time.
Online Reporter