We Have All It Takes To Make You Feel A King- Raheem Akinola, Chairman/C.E.O. Akinola R. A. Ventures

 Raheem A. Akinola, Chairman,  Akinola R. A. Ventures speaks about how he got into care hiring business, the various stages of the company"s growth, development strategies and challenges

When did you start car hire business?

Let me say about its  six years ago that I got into car hire business but before this business, I worked in two places. First, I worked with Texaco Nigeria as a motor boy. This I did for between three to four years and after that I got employed with Coca Cola Company where I spent about 10 years out of which of that period, I worked as a truck boy and later graduated to become a salesman on the formalization of my appointment. As a salesman, you have to be in the office by 7am latest so that before setting out for the field job, you have to attend the normal daily conference and when it became impossible for me to keep that time schedule, because then I had to move from Badagry where I have my house to the office everyday and since I would not want the 10 years spent in the company wasted if I was to be sacked for inadequacies, I then resigned my appointment with the company.

So what happened after your resignation?

It was a tough experience after my resignation, tough in the sense that as a family man, to keep faith with obligations to my family became a difficult task since I was not drawing salary from anywhere again. I could hardly feed my family but when the situation became unbearable, I had to put my private vehicle on the road and I started a commercial shuttle service running Aradagun in Badagry Local Government Area to the Badagry Township ferrying commuters. I did this for about three years but having stressed the vehicle under such engagement and for too long, it started developing mechanical faults on nearly daily basis and there was no money to be servicing it or replace it with a fairly new one.

 Raheem A. Akinola, Chairman,  Akinola. Ventures

Can one then conclude that it was that brief stint you had in commercial transport business that spurred you into Care Hire business?

 No that wasn’t the reason, what actually happened is this, when the commercial transport operation stopped as a result of the unhealthy nature of the vehicle I was using, I approached somebody who was into Car Hire business and who later became my boss to seek for help for job. So if he was then into an entirely different business probably that would have been my area today but because he was into car hiring and when he offered to help me, the only opportunity opened to me then was to work with him as one of his drivers. What happened then was that when I met him, he was ready to assist and the day I would start with him, he was on his way to his office at the airport in Ikeja, Lagos. He suddenly announced to me that we would be going to his office together in his car and that I would be the one to drive the vehicle and without any hesitation I took the key from him and we headed for the airport. On getting to his office, alighted and while I was handing the car key to him, he said he had conducted a test for me and found my driving perfect so I should start working with him as one of the drivers in his company.

How did you eventually break away from that company to commence your own business?

My leaving the company after spending about three years was not as a result of any misunderstanding. I must let you know that when I was to leave I got his blessing even though, I had started my own company while under him but without his knowledge. To this, he was not happy when got to know after all and such feeling expressed by him is natural but he over looked it and eventually let it go off his mind. He so much trusted me that I was the one assigned to operate the first Toyota Prado Jeep to be used for Car Hire Service at the Murtala Muhammed Airport and owned by his company had superior offices but that I met in the company but for reasons well known to him he handed the key of the vehicle to me to be in charge.

Chairman, Raheem Akinola in branded company Shirt

It was while I was driving the vehicle, and of course you know that, customers that would normally come for that brand of vehicle would be high class personalities. And by the grace of God, it was during this period that I was in charge of the Jeep that I met a topnotch officer of a company known as Brickwall Nigeria Limited and I later discovered to be the chairman of the company. The company was one of good customers and anytime the chairman is moving I would be the one to Chauffer drive him but on a fateful day that a turnaround would come my way, I was taking him in the vehicle to somewhere when he tried to know of my plans to have my own business. We had a chat which eventually led to a deal for me and from that moment I got it. The company started patronizing my Car Hire business and that was how our financial based began to expand. The patronage from Brickwall became very encouraging and lucrative and my company R.A. Akinola Ventures continues to grow. I started with a Toyota Camry car then later acquired a Lexus Jeep but today I have in addition to that Toyota Prado Jeeps. All this period, I was still working for my boss. Now to answer your question as to why I exited from that organization, it got to a point that I was losing deals because, according to the rules of the job you can’t take phone calls while chauffer driving a client and most times customers who would want to use my vehicle would call my phone severally but because of the standing rules I would not attend to their calls. Most times they were left with no option than to approach another company.

When I found that I was losing a lot, I approached my boss and let him to know I would be leaving to attend to my personal business. He was happy but like I mentioned earlier, he expressed his disappointment that I failed to intimate him with my plans from outset. I will tell you that till this moment, we are still together having good understanding of one another and cooperating very well in the area of the business. I give him a lot of the respects due to him.

Going by your good business sense and your background as a sales representative for a big company like Coca Cola what are the innovations you brought into your car hire business to give you an edge over others in the same circle?

Akinola R. A. Ventures Fleet

First, when I came into this business, I found that to keep your customers, you need to operate with vehicles that are in top form. Not that you go to the market and purchase Tokunbo cars. If you operate with vehicles that could break down while on trip, your customers would abandon you and may not return to you when next they need care hire service because they are the caliber of people that move with time and ae also particular about security. So we make sure we go for the best in the auto market and we have never had record of breakdown vehicle while moving our customers because we make sure a routine to test drive our vehicles at the end of the days business and before setting out on any journey the following day. Second, all our vehicles have WIFI installed in them so that our customers can access the internet while on wheels. Third, our drivers are well trained with good manners and educated, we have university graduates amongst them. Four, we have  cordial relationship with government traffic agencies like LASMA, FRSC, VIO and the police whereby they come to us on last Saturday of every month to lecture our crew on traffic rules and regulations as well as safety on the road. Finally, we have uniforms for the workers including my humble self. We have different uniforms for Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays for the identification of our staff and company. Also in our office, we have WIFI with which you can browse the internet while you are doing your booking or on other engagements.

Let us look at a situation which a passenger forgets to take any of his personal effects with him when alighting from your vehicle. How do you guarantee retrieval?

This is not a common experience with us but then it happened twice. The first time, it a hand phone set and the second was a large amount of money. When we were contacted by the owners, we made them to understand that the items were left in our vehicles and the drivers brought them back to the office. Interestingly, the one that forgot to down with his money was on his way to Dubai but when he got to his destination, he called to confirm if he left the money in our vehicle meaning that he was not even sure of where he missed it. I told him he should not be worried that our drive found the money in the vehicle and brought it back to the office. He did not return from his trip until after two months but when he visited our office the money was intact handed to him.

I could see that your business includes room reservation and ticketing. How are you fairing in these areas?

We are not fully into those areas. Yes, we have cooperation with the hotels and travel agencies whereby we link our clients to them and this we are doing at no cost. We have benefited

Prado Jeep

immensely from such arrangement as the hotels and travel agencies in appreciation of our gesture do same for us by recommending us to their guests. There times too that we pay for rooms on behalf of our clients who had shown interest to have a reservation done through our company. I n such situation, we get refunded by our clients and this we do with all sincerity as we would not add a dime to the cost of the room or make extra charges for such services.

Do you take details of your clients movements and document same for security purpose?

Yes we do, when you want to engage our services, we ask questions as to your destination, the purpose for which you are using the vehicle. This is apart from having trackers in all our vehicles to monitor movement of the vehicle. We do this because we may have a situation where law enforcement agents would stop our vehicles conveying clients for a search or other security reasons. That documentation will help to let the law enforcement agents to know the kind of business or relationship between our company, our driver and the occupant of the vehicle, so we do proper enquiries before we give out vehicles.

What does the business look like now compared to what it was five or more years back?

Well we thank God for His mercy that we are still in business, and we can pay our staff salaries and also keep the company running. This is possible because people and goods are moving from one point to another every minute. As a result, our business has continued to go for us when

compared with some other sectors that had been killed by government policies. But the challenges are that first the cost of vehicles about five years ago has gone up three times now and that has made it very difficult for people in this business to re-fleet. Imagine the vehicle we bought for 5-7 million naira five years ago now sells for between 15-21 million naira and we would not because of that unnecessarily jerk up our charges because if do so, you are scaring people away. To this end, I am appealing to government to have a review of the policies affecting the importation of vehicles especially brand new ones into the country.

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