In the June 2020 edition of Motor Trader, we spoke with the owners of four MTA Queensland member businesses from across the State. One year on, we talk to those business owners again to see how they have fared and how they feel about the future today.

For Alison and Terry Dowling, owners of award-winning Hertz Mount Isa, the early days of the Covid pandemic was particularly difficult. When Motor Trader spoke to the couple for the June 2020 edition, that much was clear.

At the time, the restrictions that had been imposed had seen the number of of flights into Mount Isa fall to just one a week and with that move, one of the main sources of customers for the business was being strangled.

“We were shaping up to what we thought was going to be a bonanza year,” Alison told Motor Trader last year. “Unfortunately, because most of our vehicle hires are with mining services businesses that come through the Mount Isa airport, that business all but dried up. Qantas went down to just one flight a week from Brisbane and one from Townsville. Virgin flights stopped completely. It has been very tough.”

One year on, and the business has not only survived, but is thriving.

“Whilst the end of March to end of June 2020 was disastrous for our business, the relief came once commercial flights commenced more of their usual schedules from the Australian east coast in July,” said Alison. “Our customer numbers picked up gradually at first, and then increased to the extent that we are now, thank goodness, not only back to normal but even busier than this time in 2019!

“With international travel not an option for most people, the push for Australians to ‘visit their own backyard’ and be domestic tourists has worked very well. Regional community events held have so far all been very well patronised, and we are especially looking forward to a cracker ‘Isa Rodeo 2021’ in August. Book your tickets online early!”

While things are positive now, back in April/May last year, things were bad enough that the couple had to park-up a whopping 90 per cent of their fleet and consider many ways in which they could shepherd the business through those very difficult first few weeks. They did look to take advantage of the assistance offered by state and federal governments, but their reaction to what was available, and specifically the ease of access to it, is mixed.

“The Australian Government JobKeeper program was a very welcome ‘lifesaver’, along with the business cash boost,” said Alison. “I wish that I could say the same for the Queensland Government. Grants which at first sounded very appealing and easy to access unfortunately appeared to be geared towards businesses which employed in-house accountants and grants writers who could respond within the extremely limited timeframe with a huge and complicated amount of data.

“In my opinion, and with a background in grants writing for the NFP (not-for-profit) sector, the business grants on offer, which could have been so useful with
such low interest rates, were not geared towards ‘Mum and Dad’ small business.

I was contacted twice to give feedback to independent consultants as to how we felt about being refused a Queensland government grant, and I’m too polite to give my response here!

“In fact, neither of us has come across anyone who has actually received such a grant.”

With much of their vehicle fleet simply not being used but still costing money to maintain and insure, the question of whether to sell some vehicles was a big question for the business and one that was seriously considered.

“We identified and researched the cost/sale of vehicles, either online or locally, as a business cost saving on insurance, vehicle registration and vehicle finance leases,” said Alison. “However, due to our geographic location, population base and those envisaged costs, we decided against the online sale of our vehicle assets.

“Also, by flooding the local market we risked losing the goodwill and business reputation for encouraging partnerships and community support which we have built up over the past 15 years. So we decided instead to communicate openly in negotiating better short-term agreements with our vehicle fleet insurers and vehicle financiers.

That decision, paired with successful negotiation with our other major creditors – Hertz Corporate and Queensland Airports – worked well for us.

“Terry and I are very grateful indeed for the assistance which our business has received from others over the past year. We would especially like to thank Hertz Corporate, Queensland Airports Mount Isa, Airside Logistics, Pickerings Mount Isa, NAB, BoQ, our accountants Trekk Advisory, BJS Insurance Brokers, McKinlay Shire, MTA Queensland, and finance brokers Esdale Sinclair.”

One thing that the past year appears to have reinforced in Mount Isa is the strong sense of community. While it would be easy when times are tough to retreat from engaging in community projects, Alison and her team have continued to support local services, charities and businesses, and have, in return, been supported by the goodwill and generosity of others.

“There is a strong culture of just getting on with things and of looking out for others,” said Alison. “A facebook page was set up early on to provide a contact point for acts of kindness, or for those needing assistance. A local restaurant got onboard so people could pay forward meals for emergency services and health workers, and others could deliver the food. Only kind and positive posts were permitted. This facebook page is still going, over a year later.

“Over the past difficult year, we have both felt supported as individuals as well as in our business. People stopping to ask me at the Post Office or supermarket, “How are you doing now? We drove past your office the other day and saw the yard was empty – business must be better for you now?”. That is nice. There is that sense that we are all in this together so we may as well get on with it.”

Alison and Terry and the Hertz Mount Isa team are looking forward with a positive attitude, and a long-held plan to potentially expand to other locations has not been written off.

“The covid era has definitely changed the way we look at how business is done, in that we are now much more aware of how quickly business boom can become bust due to our geographic location and reliance on east coast passenger planes for our customer base,” said Alison.

“Nothing is ever a certainty in life, and certainly not in business, but we remain optimistic of a brighter future, within the limitations of further covid-19 virus pandemic outbreaks.

“Times are currently good for us as a Hertz Franchise, especially with Australians travelling to explore the Outback as domestic tourists. We like to think of north, west and central Queensland as the ‘real’ Australia, and we would be very proud to expand our business to such iconic and unique communities as Cloncurry and Longreach.”

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (June 2021) 

13 June 2021