The spike in demand for self-drive cars has gained preeminence in the transport industry especially with the entrance of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of TSG Drive, Mr. Michael Osei Sarfo, the surge in demand has presented opportunities and niche demand for his transport and logistics business.
Speaking in an interview with Vaultz News, Mr. Sarfo noted that “people are going to work remotely now” and as such, his company has endeavored “to widen its market segment”.
For TSG drive, the pandemic equally brought on new demands where due to social distancing, clients were opting more for self-drive car rentals as against being lumped in public transport at the risk of contracting the virus.
“Overall the numbers were not as we expected but gradually it is picking up”.
Commenting on the burgeoning lay off of staff in various industries and organization, Mr. Sarfo maintains the pervading modules in the operation of his company deviates from the traditional hiring system, latching onto a more flexible plan with drivers and interested parties.
“As a new entrance into the space, we were not looking to be the traditional car rental company where we bulk ourselves with people on a payroll or investing so much into acquiring a new fleet. We introduced a model where we leverage on existing vehicles and a pool of drivers who will be willing to work through a period, especially during the lockdown where people were laid off from other businesses, they expressed interest in being part of our pool of drivers that we could reach out to.
“We were reaching out to private citizens to also put their private vehicles on our platform, we were creating jobs for other people as well”.
Mr. Sarfo further intimated that, the pandemic has afforded his company to leverage on new ways of doing things by expanding their net of operation and exploring other business ideas.
“What can you do in addition to just renting a vehicle? Are you putting together tour packages? Are you partnering with events people to give them affordable and good service when they’re doing their events? Because all these things will continue in a way but not in the volumes that we are expecting.”
“We are looking to diversify and move away from one jurisdiction to explore other business opportunities”.
Due to the lockdown imposition and airline restrictions, Mr. Osei posits that business was generally truncated as clients who would have hitherto patronized their services went under the radar of transacting business.
“Considering the transport industry falls within the hospitality industry… so globally the hospitality industry has been affected because people are not traveling so the airlines were not moving during the pandemic and because of that business also slowed down. Because flight was not coming in, business was also slow. The pandemic really had a devastating effect on our operation.
“During lockdown, there wasn’t really a demand, compared to the number that were coming in. If, you’re getting on a monthly basis, let’s say an average of a hundred to a hundred and fifty requests coming in. now you’re getting let’s say ten, or fifty or twenty. It was reasonable, I mean there was restriction on movement”.
That notwithstanding, with post lockdown, business is “starting gradually” for TSG car rental company.
“Because of a reduction in activities for most industries and then most activities in general, most companies are also trying to catch up. So, that is always bring us some sort of business, especially the entertainment sector and events people who were also not working. People are doing weddings now, people are doing tours now and some businesses are coming in for us”.
According to the CEO of the car rental company consumer behavior has changed “significantly”, further stating that demands from corporate institutions hasn’t gained a new sparkle as most firms are working remotely.
“Before, majority of our clients were travellers than business people, but now we are also seeing a number of private people come in to rent because of social distancing.
“The kind of niche market we were looking at, we now need to look at a different category of customer segmentation to meet our overheads or to be able to get businesses”.
In lieu of this, innovation has become the second skin of TSG drive as they intend to widen their scope of operation via its various platforms.
“Our business is innovative business. When you come in, people hear you’re a car rental company and we go beyond being a traditional car rental company,… what makes our platform unique is that people can also list, private people can list their vehicle in addition to the fleet that we as a company we have”.
