The first InXpress Australia Franchisee, Jason Hand, finds it easy to remember the date in 2009 that he became part of the InXpress network – along with his wife and business partner David – as it was Star Wars Day (otherwise known as May 4th!). Jason recalls with fondness, a few memories of what it was like being a franchisee in the early days…
“I had personally known the master franchisor for InXpress Australia, before I decided to buy a franchise, and I thought that the business model looked like the perfect fit for myself, my wife and my business partner, since we all had a background in the freight and transport industry. So, we took a leap of faith and purchased the first franchise in Australia and the rest they say is history!
The first few months were hard work and incredibly stressful but, in hindsight, also a lot of fun. Early on, we realised that we needed help, and so we hired a customer service person and a sales rep. As the sales rep required a vehicle as part of their remuneration package, we gave them my wife’s car – a sound business decision, but not so good for the marriage!
We also needed a premises, so we converted our double garage into an office. Our motto in those early days was say yes to everything, which did stretch the team at times! For example, one of our first customers told us that they would only give us the work if we could do a 5pm pick up, which no other carrier could do. So, every night, Dave picked up the shipments at that time and drove them to each of the carrier’s individual depots. Dave did this for over a year, until we convinced the customer to have a slightly earlier collection from the carrier. On another occasion, a customer needed to relocate offices, so we had InXpress polo shirts made, rented a truck and off we went to move our customer’s office!
Here we are nine years later, with year-on-year growth, and there are now over 50 franchisees in Australia, so we have all come a long way. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to recall our story, as while it was hard work, with late nights, no money and sometimes stressful, our memories are filled with laughter and camaraderie. It’s been one hell of a ride!
I would like to take the opportunity to dedicate this story to our amazing team over the journey (some are still with us nine years on). Their passion and vision has been invaluable and without them none of this would have been possible. Thank you, team InXpress Clontarf”.
Thank you,
Jason Hand
InXpress 102 Australia