When you travel across Africa, you will not fail to spot the ever growing culture of business cutting across all sectors, from service to manufacturing to processing to building. This urge to struggle to make ends meet is however in itself a serious time bomb. It means much more than the drive to achieve, the desire to serve and accomplish outstanding success and mere taking advantage of opportunities around. If you thought that all business outlets are genuine, then think again.
An open air garage in Africa.
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Shrouded in the above mentioned lurks grave risks that many would find it difficult to believe. Welcome to the overbearing true motives of many-though not all open air garages.
Compromised security-many are afterthoughts
Your own security and that of your automobile is crucial. The nature of these establishments is such that security for the automobile under repair is not really guaranteed. Shelter structures are simply rudimentary if they exist, or they are entirely nonexistent-this may not mean well for repair jobs that may spill over to another day. Overnight duty is clearly a no no here.
You could also be facing the greatest risk of theft from the same garage operators ostensibly helping you. This is usually because the returns from the robbery activities largely exceed whatever returns can be realized from the repair and maintenance core business.
Poor service; how about some ‘lost’ parts?
Open air garage operators usually accussed of ‘losing’ parts.
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Another reason why you should really be weary of these open air garages is the oft questionable quality of service. Many of the operators of these garages are quacks with no real qualification, or little experience with car repairing and maintenance. As a result, questionable services are rendered with several reported cases ‘lost’ car parts after repair tasks.
Another major risk is the addition of substandard and possibly incompatible car parts. There are several local artisans that specialize in manufacturing of vehicle spare parts who are not governed by any standards. These parts may prove hazardous in the future when they inevitably snap.
Risks of the sun effects
The structural design of these open air markets means that your car is going to bake in the sun for the entire repair time. This could have negative effects on the battery life, the metal body and other crucial parts of the vehicle. This also changes the pressure dynamics in the car tires, where an improper balance may result to possible bursts.
A great number of open air vehicle garages in Africa are not safe places to seek repair services from when in Africa. This is because several have been marred by cases of incompetence, carelessness, theft and general noncompliance to standards currently existing in the motor industry.
