Associated Motor Holdings – Audi South Africa – DaimlerChrysler SA – Delta Motor Corp. – Ford Motor Co. of SA  – Nissan SA – Renault SA – Toyota SA – Volkswagen SA

To those organisations who contributed towards the evening’s prizes, thank you:
Avis Rent A Car * Avis Fleet Services * BMW SA * Barloworld Motor * Bill Harrop’s Balloon Safaris* Budget Rent A Car * Contract Lease Management * debis Fleet Management * Europcar SA * Fleet Support Services * Hertz Rent A Car * Imperial Car Rental * LeasePlan Fleet Management * McCarthy Fleet Services * Nationwide Airlinesl * 080 Car Hire Services * Protea Hotels * SA Leisure * Stannic  Fleet Management*  Tempest Car Hire * Toyota Trucks SA * Virgin Atlantic Airways * Whispering Pines Country Estate

Nissan SA’s winning team.

Clean sweep for Nissan SA

Nissan SA dominated Friday’s 2003 SAVRALA Awards, taking the overall title of Manufacturer of the Year as well as top honours in both the Leasing and Rental sections of the competition.

With a 70,9 aggregate overall, the Pretoria-based motor manufacturer cruised home ahead of rivals Ford/Mazda (67,8), Volkswagen (64,1) Delta Motor Corporation (63,2) and Toyota (61,6).

Ford/Mazda was placed second and Volkswagen third, to Nissan SA’s first in the Leasing category. In the Rental section, Nissan SA took top spot ahead of DaimlerChrysler’s second and BMW’s third.

The prime objective of the awards is to provide the Southern African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (SAVRALA) with a reliable and accurate measurement of the performance of South Africa’s motor manufacturers and importers in terms of service and support to its members. Vehicle makes or models are not rated in the surveys undertaken.

The major representative body for the rental, leasing and fleet management industries, SAVRALA members are responsible for over 90% of the vehicles operating in these sectors and competition for their business by motor manufacturers and importers alike is fierce.

Nissan SA’s wins come on the back of a revitalised focus on the Almera as its primary fleet passenger car and good sales on the Hardbody light commercials and X-trail range.

R25 000 to the Hospice Association of the Witwatersrand! The beneficiary of SAVRALA’s Social Responsibility donation for 2003 was the Hospice Association of the Witwatersrand. Accepting the cheque from John Broadway on behalf of Hospice is Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors, Barry Crystal (right). In light of Nissan SA’s clean sweep of the Awards, Mike Whitfield generously equalled the amount donated and a very happy Barry Crystal walked off with an amount totalling R50 000.00! Fantastic news for the good folk at Hospice!

“Nissan SA went public to our dealers and customers early this year in stating that customer satisfaction would be a primary focus area,” said Mike Whitfield, sales and marketing director. “This accolade is graciously received as it re-enforces the positive direction reflecting in our Customer Satisfaction Index and recognises our efforts thus far. Positive re-enforcement such as this spurs us on to exceed the benchmark achieved at this point.

“Nissan SA places great importance on the role of SAVRALA and its members. In fact, every Nissan employee interfacing with a SAVRALA member organisation has a set key performance objective and measurement is based on the outcome of these awards. This is instrumental in determining many factors including employee rewards and we are proud to say we have exceeded our objectives for 2003.

“The SAVRALA awards mirror the successes we have seen in our fleet market growth. Nissan SA has seen a year-on-year sales increase in its fleet sector of 76%, this on top of an increase in growth in 2002 over 2001 of 68%. The independent car rental and leasing sector has shown sales growth of 66%.

“In terms of fleet purchasing propensity, the Nissan product has shown dramatic increases and the awards bestowed on us tonight clearly indicate that our customer satisfaction levels are heading in the right direction. It is pleasing to see those companies, who would not previously consider our brand because of perception, becoming loyal and satisfied supporters of our products.”

Paul de Vantier, managing director of research company, The Smart Practice, said that in the past few years the SAVRALA awards had grown significantly in scope and stature within motor industry circles.

“The survey approach was revamped in 2000 and again in 2001, the survey was refined through the introduction of two rounds of surveys in April and September of each year,” he said.

“In 2002 there were further refinements and improvements in the process but the key has always been to ensure that the results retain ‘track-ability’ so that trends and improvements can be measured. This year, a total of 574 rating sheets covering 21 manufacturers were received from 11 leasing and 12 rental SAVRALA-member companies.

“The results provide a very good indication of where the manufacturers focus their attention and have proved to be remarkably accurate indicators of activity in the marketplace. Changes in policy, shifts in marketing focus or even changes in personnel are very quickly reflected in the SAVRALA ratings.”

SAVRALA president, John Broadway said that SAVRALA member responses were generated by consensus of whole teams of their staff who had reason to interface with the manufacturers.

“This means that the results really do reflect the totality of the member’s experience of the manufacturer and I would encourage the manufacturer fleet teams to actually work through the survey questions – and their own detailed survey results – with a number of SAVRALA members. In this way, they can develop their understanding of member needs and then design service and support solutions accordingly.

“My congratulations go to Nissan SA on their clean sweep of the awards. They really have made great strides recently in their understanding and support of the rental and fleet management member needs.”

President’s Speech – 24 October 2003

Good evening and welcome to Savrala’s 8th Annual Manufacturer of the Year Awards Evening.

Our main purpose tonight is of course to pay tribute to all the manufacturers who so professionally provide the members of Savrala with the services and the support that we require to meet the needs of our joint customers.

The general level of standards and protocols that we have developed together over many years continues to improve and this is borne out by a review of the results and trends over the past 5 years:

• In 1999 about a dozen members rated only 7 manufacturers – this number has increased to 23 members rating 21 manufacturers this year. This of course means that competition amongst the manufacturers for market share has increased tremendously and the quality of Savrala member support has had to increase accordingly

• During this time, the seven point scale and the scoring methodology has been constant throughout and this enables us to track progress in the manufacturer/Savrala member relationship over time reasonably well

• In the leasing and fleet management section the simple average of the overall score across all manufacturers has doubled and in the rental section it has tripled in four years. A reasonable conclusion from this is that the general level of satisfaction among the members has improved substantially and is currently very high!

The results tonight are very interesting indeed and they are a true recognition of worthy winners!
Before getting to this year’s awards though, just a few words on Savrala initiatives generally. While we have had a successful year in all respects, there are two projects that I would particularly like to mention:

• Firstly, on the education front:

  	last month we received SAQA approval for our Cert in Fleet Mgt and this will hopefully lead to increased interest in the program.
  	In the past two years, we have signed up nearly 100 students for over 500 subjects and, given this level of interest, we will before year end be considering the development of diploma level courses during 2004
  	We are also working with Bank Seta on the adaptation of our Certificate program into a formal Learnership in terms of the Skills Development Act and these should be available early in 2004

• Secondly, in the rental section we have retained the services of a full time executive, Wayne Duvenhage. He now takes up responsibility for most of the rental section initiatives and will work closely with the members in promoting the interest of the rental industry in every way possible.

As always, I encourage your continued active participation in Savrala initiatives. There is much that we can do together for the good of our industries and I look forward to working closely with the new executive that was appointed at the AGM today.

In closing, on behalf of all the members, I would like to thank all of the manufacturers who generously sponsored this occasion. And finally, a sincere thanks to Sherl Preston and Margie Gawith who have worked tirelessly to put this evening together for us. I am sure you will agree that the place looks great and we are set to have a real party. There is a busy agenda to get through and so that is all from me for now – please enjoy your evening.

Lead into Awards

The Savrala Awards have followed the same basic format as in recent years:

– two categories – leasing and rental
– two surveys – April and August
– only in passenger and LCV sectors
– and recognising not the vehicle product itself but the strength of the manufacturer relationship and their provision of services and support to the members.

The response rate from leasing and rental members was 100% and the results were consolidated, as always, by the Smart Practice. We will be sending out the individual manufacturer results in the next couple of weeks. We will also be hosting two workshops where the needs of the members will be discussed and debated with the manufacturers so that new standards can be reached together.

JOHN BROADWAY
President