Wednesdays at Flow Communications Jo’burg see the car park fill up in an unusually organised manner. The prize parking spots are no longer closest to the door or in the shade, but those closest to the tap and the power outlets. This is because on Wednesdays Flowstars have the option to drive to work in a dirty car, and head home in a clean one. What a pleasure! One Drop Car Care Services washes the car while the driver works. A brilliant plan.
Colin Ford, writing studio manager at Flow, met Rhulani Baloyi, entrepreneur behind this franchise of One Drop Car Care Systems, while working for Hollard. Colin was so impressed by Rhulani’s trustworthiness, attention to detail and customer service that he felt he had to introduce Rhulani to Flow.
I asked John Baloyi, Rhulani’s younger brother who has joined the business, how he arrived at this job, and he said, “God’s magic.” If passion and appreciation are predictors of success, then Rhulani and his helpers at Flow, Brian Ramakgwakgwa and John, have the odds very firmly in their favour.
Their days start early. Brian wakes at 5.30am to get a taxi from Honeydew to Johannesburg, and John at 4.45am to catch one from Kagiso to Johannesburg. They then hop on another taxi from Johannesburg to Parkhurst to be at Flow in Dunkeld in time to start washing as the Flow crowd arrives from 8am.
Despite the early mornings, John and Brian enjoy their job. Brian says he sometimes finishes work early enough to fetch his two children from crèche. John relishes working with people and exercising his people skills, and says that at the end of the day he has “something happy in [his] heart”. He sums up the two aspects of his work with, “We respect the car and the owner as well.”
It’s this that first drew Colin to Rhulani’s business. When Colin was working at Hollard, where there were more than 1 000 employees, he says Rhulani could remember which car belonged to which person and on what day each car was usually washed. Furthermore, he remembered in which part of the building each customer worked, and would follow up with clients if their car wasn’t being washed on the usual day.
Evidently, Hollard was also impressed with Rhulani, as it put forward the capital for him to buy a franchise of the company One Drop Car Care Systems in 2005. The franchise was transferred into Rhulani’s name in 2009, after he had been running it for four years. In 2004, Rhulani and a friend began washing cars themselves. Rhulani now owns a successful car-wash franchise and employs eight car washers.
At the end of the day, the value that One Drop Car Care Services adds to the working environment is more than just cleaning cars, – it also uplifts spirits.
