SA Auto Week to take place in Eastern Cape during October
Despite potential headwinds, South Africa’s automotive industry remains committed to long-term growth and resilience.
- Industry News
- 2 April 2025
If treated as a cost, it simply flows through the income statement and once expensed, it generally is forgotten about after the month in which it is expensed. From a tax and accounting perspective it is processed as an expense and when one needs to cut expenses, it is often one of the first expenses to be reduced.
Despite its “tax” and “accounting” treatment, training is best managed as an investment where the return is measured as you would measure the return on any investment. This is not always easy to do from a rands and cents perspective but if you apply your mind, you can produce a “yes” or “no” to the question - was the training worth it?
If workers have received training, they should be more efficient and productive, which should either lead to more revenue, lower expenses or more value added.
In your position in dealership management, you need to understand the course content and need to be comfortable that the course content should deliver a “return” on the amount invested and time spent out of the office by the employee.
OE tech training is compulsory, but you still need to ensure that you get maximum value from it. The technician should be more competent (efficiency = more hours sold) after the training and this should be discussed with the technician. There needs to be a post training “debrief”. Even if the OE does not charge for the training, the cost to the dealership is around R6 000 a day that the technician is away.
The same principle can be applied to all training. As a manager, your main responsibility is to ensure that your staff are as competent and efficient as possible so that the business performs. Training is a vital component of this. If you do not have staff that you are willing to invest in, then you do not have the right staff.
Despite potential headwinds, South Africa’s automotive industry remains committed to long-term growth and resilience.
South African consumers demonstrated a strong appetite for new passenger vehicles in March, according to figures released by the Automotive Business Council (naamsa).
Just a few days after its official introduction to the South African market, the TopGear SA team, in a convoy of Nissan Navara Warriors, has embarked on a record-breaking expedition into South Africa’s most extreme hinterland.
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Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
George Carlin
Firstly, all praise to the Almighty for bestowing his favours upon us without which none of this is possible.
A few small ideas to help you add to your bottom line and enhance your balance sheet:
Dealerfloor chats to Jaun Marais (photo), Operations Executive at the Hatfield Motor Group, about their recent expansion of GWM dealerships and his plans and passion for the Chinese brand, which has become a vital part of the group’s product offering and business success.