Where When How Summer 2012 : Page 43RIGHT HAND DRIVE VS. LEFT HAND DRIVE: Todd, “My speech is, and it always holds true, in 15 minutes you’ll feel totally comfortable. The worst thing that will hap-pen is you’re going to turn the windshield wipers on every time you signal.” Grace Bay Car Rentals has the largest fleet of vehicles and the lowest accident rate. In their first four years, the com-pany had just four acci-dents, a fact Todd attributes to the com-pany’s right-hand drive vehicles, “When we went to renew our insurance, they dropped it $25, 000 dollars.” Highway adding a multi-bay service depar tment, automotive body shop, and par ts store to the list. Including casual staff, the various businesses under the Grace Bay Car Rentals umbrella now employ more than 40 people. When it came time to hire for Automotive Ar ts, the team showed their commitment to the islands, “We had 186 applicants, 60 wrote the exam, 25 got interviews and we hired all Belongers.” This is no surprise, Grace Bay Car Rentals has always been community minded. Heavily involved with the Salvation Army, where Todd serves as Chair of the advisory board, they also contribute to Soccer, Hockey, the Youth Centre and Children’s Home, “We tend to focus on the youth if we can.” He says, “In a situation where there’s no corporate tax, I think it’s every corporation’s respon-sibility to give something back to the community.” Reed echoes this sentiment. Another goal is to eventually offer a cer tified course in Automotive Technology, “Once operating,” Todd explains, “We would have two to three Belonger students each year from a local high school come and take classes in the morning and receive work experience in the afternoon. When asked about the future of the business, the two are optimistic, “I think that, sitting in this building today, a couple guys who met in grade 9 did this together. So I think we want the same thing to continue. We hope that someday there will be a new airport terminal, and that will mean new flights and new customers. We hope to continue to grow and share the results of our hard work with the island and our employees.” I Visit the Turks & Caicos Islands at www.WhereWhenHow.com SUMMER 2012 • • • • • 43 Publication List Using a screen reader? Click Here |
