BY JOY OFASIA
DRIVING is a lifelong skill and is something that stays with you the rest of your life and no matter where you are in life driving a car will always come in handy for you.
Joyce Lelau from the Malaita province, an entrepreneur and the owner of Solomon Islands Professional Driver Training Services (SIPDTS).
SIPDTS first began when Joyce Lelau saw the need to train people, especially women how to drive.
“We do not have a proper driving school to train people how to drive and we have a lot of vehicles with drivers who do not go through a driving school and a bit chaotic. We have a lot of traffic accidents as well and some ended up dying.”
Joyce had a brother who is a driving instructor and knew that they could collaborate to start off the business together.
“My brother is a driving instructor and I know that we can collaborate to start this business hence, address some of these problems.”
Joyce said that SIPDTS started with the Waka Mere program, conducting driver training classes for working women, which she loved to lead. She then started her own business on the 16th of May 2019.
The Mother of two graduated with a BCOM Bachelor of Commerce in 2011, a Double major in Public Administration and Industrial Relations and in 2020 graduated with Masters in Business Administration at the University of the South Pacific.
Joyce said that she saw the importance of women to drive.
“In the Solomon Islands, we have a lot of women who are housewives. These women support their spouses doing small businesses, for example baking cakes, sewing calicos, dying lavalava, operating small canteens and some owning medium businesses.”
Joyce said that women need to conduct their business according to their time and space.
“These women who came through our school now have no problems waiting for a cab to pick and drop stuff. They don’t even bother their spouses to leave work and attend to their businesses; they do their own thing, on the same note, less cost for the women to operate their businesses.”
“We also have working women who came through our school and have testified that they can do their sideline businesses, off working hours and weekends with ease. Most Women learn to drive with their spouses and it did not work. They ended up arguing and giving up along the way. Some go for training on and off because they don’t have time.”
“But I am happy to see women understand the traffic and road safety rules when graduating from our school. At the outset, I believe women can do what men can do too. In saying this, I am looking forward to women coming to learn to drive 13 to 26 tonnes just like men do.”
Like all other businesses, the SIPDTS also faced its challenges.
“Challenges faced is when we have vehicle breakdowns and have to be garaged for few days and that is loss of business.”
“The weather is a challenge, when there is continuous rain, we don’t go out for classes and we have to clear the backlog. Being a female director, giving instructions to male colleagues is not easy due to cultural norms. Another one too is to strike a balance between work and family.”
“But I believe in the learning curve, I learn to do it better every day as we go along. Challenges will not go away but remain. What we do is the decisions we make must have an effect that is better than before. I believe in teamwork thus having meetings with our staff is very important and I am used to 2-way communication. I also communicate with my family members if I am attending business activities. I must communicate with our stakeholders and clients whenever the need arises.”
As a successive entrepreneur, Joyce’s most satisfying moment is when seeing her students driving around doing their business in a professional manner. Also to see private sectors employees driving their company vehicles doing company business and getting positive feedback from our students, sponsors, and the public at large.
