Dipuo Marekwa

When Dipuo Marekwa’s daughter reached schoolgoing age, Dipuo realised that the transport available for getting her to school was unreliable and unsafe, and so she started her own transport company.

For many of us, it would be easy to take a safe transport network to get our children to school for granted - seeing them safely onto the school bus or dropping them off at the school gate. This isn’t the case for many Jo’burg parents.

Schools rely on parents to get their children to school without the luxury of a school bus. And for those who can, negotiating the notorious traffic jams is a time-consuming ordeal.

That’s why many parents are turning to Dipuo. Her vision is to provide a safe, reliable, cost effective and efficient transport service to get children safely from A to B.

Dipuo started her company, Pelontle Marekwa Transport Services in February 2009 with just one 14-seater taxi. Within a month, she realised that there were more children who needed transport. So she bought additional vehicles. Now she’s transporting 80 students to 10 different schools.

It turns out children aren’t the only people who need convenient, reliable, safe transport. Her local community needs help to get to weddings, funerals and other events, too.

Plus, businesses that close late at night, like restaurants, or industries that employ shift workers, such as mines or factories, could do with a helping hand to transport workers around the clock.

In all of these cases, public transport is not available at the times people need it. Even if it is available, it isn’t always safe. That’s because people are dropped at a central point and still need to make their way home.

Pelontle Marekwa Transport Services offers a door-to-door service.

Just like a taxi service, regular customers pay a monthly fee in advance. For all other services, a cash payment is made upfront.

"Transport is the heartbeat of social and economic development"
- The Branson Centre Team

What Dipuo has achieved so far is immense, but there’s more to come. She’s looking to expand into new markets by partnering with large companies in the mining and construction industries. Plus, she plans to bring her services to even more restaurants. There are fresh opportunities to partner with other key players in the transport markets, too. With the right team around her and plenty of passion and drive, she’s taking her business to exciting new levels.

Dipuo would appreciate advice on a number of topics:

- Increasing revenue

- Financing the purchase of new vehicles

- Marketing the business, especially as the company targets a number of different markets

- Expanding the business – what sectors to expand into and how to raise capital

- Training and developing her staff so as to maintain and improve upon their service delivery, a key differentiating factor for her company

Have some tips? Then email them to: advice.southafrica@thebransoncentre.org

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