Work smartly in 2023
Another year is upon us and while the chaos created by the global pandemic seems to mostly be a thing of the past there are numerous new challenges that make doing businesses in South Africa tricky. A common thread in this month’s edition of Business Fleet Africa, is that business will have to work smarter and carefully control all the resources that contribute to their business model in order to have any chance of survival in this challenging market.
This will include carefully considering long term agreements and in many cases opting for agreements that give you more flexibility as your business needs ebb and flow. The right partnerships are also critical and what business owners are looking for in partnerships is also very different to what was considered vital a few years ago. Factors such as ESG and corporate responsibility are becoming more important as people now investigate the entire supply chain of a business, from source to the way the final product is packaged and delivered so that they know exactly who they are doing business with. How all the players in the value chain conduct their affairs will be considered before entering into any partnerships. Being associated with the wrong crowd is seen as a big no, no these days.
Road deaths still too high
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that during the festive period from 1 December 2022 to 11 January 2023, 1451 people died on South African roads. The Minister noted that this is a 14% reduction in the number of fatalities compared to the same period in 2021/2022.
While an improvement is certainly welcomed, losing 1451 lives in five weeks is still completely unacceptable and drastic measures need to be taken to curb the culture where such a number is celebrated.
Our new columnist Ashref Ismail offers several suggestions a few pages on but there certainly must be a greater emphasis around the education regarding road safety. Government also needs to come to the party and sign in to law the proposal for periodic testing of older vehicles, which has been lying in wait for many years now. Reducing the number of unroadworthy vehicles on our roads will go a long way in reducing accidents.
We would like to hear from you
Business Fleet Africa continues to strive to offer our readers a unique combination of content from all the segments of the world of working wheels and the associated industries. As such we always welcome suggestions regarding what you would like to read about, what you would like to see more of and maybe even what you would like to see less of.
