Globalisation has opened borders, markets and doors for great business opportunities. We want you to be able to seize them all and feel at home in the world with our services always within reach. The next part of our “Alphabet around the world” series brings you to our Alphabet OneNet partners at Hedef Filo in beautiful Turkey. In our interview they are going to tell you more about their services, their market and most importantly their country’s rich culture. Here we go!
Tell us a bit about your company, please. What makes you special?
Hedef Filo is one of the most recognized, reliable and leading brands in the industry. We are an agile brand which can easily adapt to the dynamic requirements of the market and respond to changing customer requirements. We constantly improve our processes and systems including digitalization of our channels to make the life of our customers easier. Our own online system for example is created for fleet managers in order to enable them to have access to vehicle park information, bills, and more. Drivers can use our mobile app for functions like roadside assistance, tire replacement, malfunction, maintenance, damage etc.
Another main value that we proudly propose is the best customer experience. The customer satisfaction score is one of Hedef Filo’s major targets, each employee has this in their own scorecard. That makes each employee continuously focus on customers’ requirements in daily business.
Driving like a local: your best tips
We’d like to see more of Turkey! Can you recommend some nice spots in your area/city as a must-visit for drivers?
In Turkey you can experience all four seasons at the same time of the year, depending on which region you chose. Equally diverse are our cities, each of them promising different attractions to visitors. Istanbul for instance, is associated with the beautiful Bosporus and its unforgettable night life (before the pandemic, of course). If you’d rather explore the countryside, the Black Sea at the north coast of Turkey is praised for its pristine nature while the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts to the west and south with their islands are known to be exquisite holiday destinations. The central and eastern Anatolia is ideal for those who wish to explore human history. Plus, you get plenty of opportunities to put on some weight from the delicious food markets and rich culinary traditions of Anatolia. Enjoy!
What is your best advice as a local on vehicles, traffic and general customs that you would give to a driver from abroad?
The big cities in Turkey are known to be crowded in terms of both road and pedestrian traffic. Traffic congestion is quite common especially during rush hours. Therefore, we recommend for drivers from abroad to plan the traveling duration according to the traffic conditions rather than the distance.
What do drivers in your region attach particular importance to?
In general, Turkish drivers attach importance to luxury items such as car accessories, leather seats, led lamps, sunroofs etc. They like to increase their comfort as they spend long hours in traffic. People here also just love driving. Therefore, when compared to other countries, travelling long distances by car is much more common. This might be why drivers prefer large automobiles with a lot of trunk space.
The new normal: COVID-19 measures in Turkey
How has the daily business changed for you since COVID-19?
In response to increasing numbers of daily cases, Turkish government started to take measures including partial or full lockdowns early on. National and local measures were adopted according to the prevalent conditions. In Turkey, the effect of the pandemic has been less dramatic than many other countries thanks to the robust healthcare system supported with a vast team of qualified healthcare professionals. As a result, businesses like us were able to conduct their operations fairly normally with the exception of the first few months when the government applied full lockdown measures.
What special measures did you take to protect customers?
At Hedef Filo, we adopted a home-office model in early March. This made it possible for us to continue our operations and services without major disturbances. Other than that, the pandemic led to a number of changes in customer requirements according to their specific industries. Hence, we formed a “Request Assessment Committee” which met every day remotely in order to respond to the new situation of our customers as fast and best as possible. We also created a risk plan which proved to be beneficial in protecting the existing customers and our economic condition. This flexible approach resulted in a significant increase in our interim customer satisfaction scores by helping us maintain our good relations with them and give the support they needed in this challenging time.
Mobility trends: fleet development
Which partners are you currently working with (e.g. gas stations, repair shops etc)?
Turkey is a geographically vast country. At Hedef Filo, we can nevertheless offer services to our customers in all Turkish cities thanks to 5 regional offices which guarantee 100% geographical coverage. In addition to this, we have more than 1,500 service suppliers throughout the country. Among those is one of the largest fuel distributors in Turkey called “Opet”.
Which mobility services are the most important in your market?
Having a population of almost 16 million, Istanbul is highly mobile with nearly 15 million journeys per day. Given the fact that 77% of those journeys are made by road, there is a great demand for mobility here. Car rental, shared automobile applications, scooter and bicycle riding are popular forms of transportation in addition to public transport. At Hedef Filo, we continue to make investments in those fields. In May 2020, we launched “TikTak”, a minute-based car rental model, in order to offer a significant solution for the mobility demand in Istanbul. The users of TikTak can choose from hundreds of different models and pick the automobile wherever they want and leave it where they like.
What are the top 3 focus topics/requests for fleet development in your country?
EV transition has not really taken off in Turkey, yet. Still, the number of electrical vehicles in traffic increases every other day which leads to a rise in the investments made in electrical vehicle infrastructure. We aim to become a flagship company for electrical vehicles. For the moment, market players and our customers can get information on EVs on our social media platforms and our website.
Also noteworthy: TOGG, the first domestic automobile to be manufactured in Turkey, will be a 100% electrical. In that respect, significant countrywide investments are made in order to expand the charging infrastructure required for electrical vehicles to the entire country.
Question from Business Lease to Hedef Filo: How is the transition from cars to mobility perceived in the Turkish main economic areas?
As we have already noted, we launched “TikTak”, a minute-based car rental model, in order to offer a significant solution for mobility requirement in Istanbul. Although this was not intended for the pandemic, COVID-19 increased the demand for this application which turned out to be especially reliable for those who mainly travel by taxi or public transport under normal conditions. Indeed, we had to increase and diversify our vehicle portfolio and extend our geographical availability due to the growing demand for our service. Currently, we are proud to meet the mobility requirements of our customers in a timely manner by offering satisfactory services and extending the range of our scope continually.
The next interviewee will be from our OneNet partner Finlog in Portugal. What would you like to ask them?
How do Finlog’s customers benefit from their “2x1“ service and does this service come with additional costs for the customers?
