Fast Movers 2011
Issue No. 62 - December/January 2011
Move Yourself self serve game breaker
This year’s Fast Mover winner, Move Yourself Trailer Hire shows how business model innovation puts technology in the shade.
Founder and Chairman, Bill Cowie, invented the Move Yourself kiosk system which takes the customer through the vehicle selection and payment process in easy steps, streamlining the hire process to make it as fast and simple as possible through online booking, self serve kiosks and call centre service.
In the mid-1970s Bill ran South Australian based trailer manufacturer, Delta Engineering and was content to do just that until he “got sick” of being asked for loans of his products because no hire trailers could be had in Adelaide.
“I remember it was a Friday. We had already had two people come in to ask if they could hire trailers. I said ‘The next bugger who comes in – hire him one’.”
By day’s end, Bill was in a new business.
Hiring through service stations came about when a client wanted to return a trailer on a Sunday when Delta was closed. Bill arranged with the 24-hour BP servo next door to accept the return. Soon, demand saw the arrangement formalized on a percentage basis.
Inquiry prompted the next innovation, in the mid- 1990s, when a client asked if Delta offered any enclosed trailers for furniture transport. Bill said, “You want to move yourself, mate?” Exactly so; two weeks later Delta offered Australia’s first fully enclosed trailer for hire and th...
