Join us as we take a peek behind the curtain and reveal the most intriguing stories of the talented individuals who make up the Driveline team and keep this company running.
Some say that he’s an American spy, and that metric measurements stick in his craw. All we know is he’s called Yards.
Meet David Yardley, Driveline’s South Island manager. From the land of blowhards to the down-to-earth Mainland, from flipping burgers to serving South Island clients, and from managing grief to finding his happy place, David Yardley’s story is a very human one of learning and growth, of trying times and successful outcomes. Of a life well lived.
David Yardley says Hi
Born in windy Wellington
Dave was born into a large family, the second child with an older sister and the oldest of three brothers. He went to school in the Hutt Valley and demonstrated his strong work ethic at a young age by working after school. Things like paper runs, working in a fish & chip shop, and working at McDonalds, which gave him a good grounding in service and being diligent.
He spent six months in Oz straight out of school, travelling around with mates and doing casual work before returning to New Zealand and entering the corporate world.
Telecom Wellington
Dave joined Telecom as an assistant to the team of Telephone Account Managers, who sold all of the big phone systems back then. “It was big phone systems, fax machines and pagers and mobiles and stuff,” says Dave, “and it was a really cool grounding for me as far as having to be resourceful and flexible and juggle competing priorities.”
New Zealand Wines & Spirits
At age 19 Dave became a telesales rep selling alcohol, which for a 19-year-old boy was nirvana! He also got to do a bit of travelling, which he really enjoyed.
Once again, Dave succeed by being resourceful and adaptable and responsive.
“One thing that sticks with me now is that if you have the ability to be responsive, even if it’s just letting somebody know that you’ve received their request, you don’t necessarily have to have completed it, but if you let people know that you’ve received the request and you’re going to action it, then I think that’s really important.
“Because a lot of [Driveline’s] clients are existing clients these days. So let me look, this person says, “I’ve sent this to three or four different leasing companies two weeks ago and you’re the only ones that responded within 24 hours or responded at all”. So, you get the business.”
Telecom New Zealand
Telecom beckoned again, but this time it was Telecom Mobile. They had just released the first sub-$100 cell phone and couldn’t keep up with demand, with the level of enquiries coming in.
When Dave joined he was part of a team that occupied a small part of a single office building floor, but within 6 months they had grown so fast they took over the whole floor.
“The growth was incredible, it was spectacular. It was a really cool time to be part of that. I also did some secondments to help out the marketing team and that was pretty cool.
“Also did also did some supervisory work as well. So at 23, I was responsible for supervising the call centre on weekend shifts. And then I went into the company’s internal incentive program. I was responsible for motivating people within the various business units to participate in the program.”
From mobile phones to shipping
Dave felt as though he’d gotten too comfortable, and it was around the time of the Millennium when people were looking for change or something else to do, so he applied for a role in a shipping agency.
The attraction of Quadrant Pacific was becoming an account manager. His role was split 50:50 between account management and new business development.
“I had a great boss in that job, he was absolutely fantastic. I was responsible for the lower half of the North Island, and he looked after Wellington. The Hawkes Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu, Wairarapa, was all mine. I did a lot of driving in that job.
“I was behind the introduction of a port call into Napier. A ship doesn’t come into a port unless there’s enough cargo to make it worthwhile, and Napier not being an import port made it difficult. So to facilitate a call by a vessel once every 30 days or so, you needed to have enough export cargo, otherwise the ship just simply wouldn’t go there. So I was quite proud of the fact that I generated enough export business to warrant the port call being established, the establishment of an office in Napier as well.”
Vehicle leasing
By this time Dave had a young family and sought a job closer to home that would enable him to better provide and care for his family.
He landed a job as account manager for a car leasing company where he dealt with Wellington corporates and government entities. His experience there covered both vehicle leasing and fleet management.
Dave’s biggest success there was with a large non-profit organisation whose fleet at that time was in a mess. He was asked to run a fleet management trial for them, “and showed them that we could save them some money, quite a bit of money.”
“They ended up being one of my largest clients and the strongest in terms of relationship. That was my baby, which was pretty cool.”
Mainland calling
Following the Christchurch earthquakes, Dave recognised the South Island need for his company’s services so he wrote a business case for the establishment of an office in the South Island. The proposal was approved and 10 years ago Dave moved his young family to a lifestyle property in Rangiora.
Aussie intervention
Dave had been with the company for 14 years and seen it become increasingly centralised. With the latest restructure, the New Zealand company reported to Australia. Australian business practices and quite different to ours and the culture changed fairly quickly.
“We think it’s very black and white in terms of things like being as good as your word, being as good as your handshake, and stuff like that. What I noticed is that it’s a bit more transactional in Australia.
“I think in New Zealand, we value loyalty. And certainly in this game, you work quite hard on having mutually beneficial long-term relationships, whereas in Australia you’ve got 25 million people and it isn’t so.”
The culture change didn’t sit well with Dave so he made the move to another company that wanted to establish a presence in the South Island.
Out on his arse
That company was another large multinational that reported to Australia. They were impatient for results and decided to restructure. Dave says, “Mine was the role that was made redundant, despite being successful in that 18 months time starting from scratch. I don’t think they gave it long enough.” So he was out on his arse.
Lancelot to the rescue
Driveline CEO Lance Manins spotted the potential and approached Dave with a proposition.
“Lance contacted me with the opportunity of working at Driveline. I thought this could be another step out of the comfort zone, as it were. Instead of being at a really large corporate with a lot of different moving components, different teams doing different things, it was only me being responsible for all of those things and working with smaller clients. That really spoke to me.
“I saw that I would have to throw away some preconceived ideas about the credit process, the vehicle procurement process, the communication with dealerships and stuff like that.
“With Driveline I’ve worked really hard on establishing relationships, developing a really good network of trusted dealership partners around the South Island in all places, from Invercargill to Nelson and everywhere in between.”
Follow the bouncing ball
Dave finds that things are a lot more hands-on at Driveline.
“It means that you’ve got to follow the bouncing ball. I was told about this concept by one of my former managers when I once assumed that somebody else would take care of a bit of work I’d passed to them that they didn’t take care of.
“He told me that you can’t assume that just because you give the instruction that it’s necessarily going to be done exactly how you want it. The analogy he used was something like…
“No one’s gonna be able to look after your baby as good as you can. It doesn’t mean you can’t rely on people, but you have to follow the bouncing ball, to check in along the way, to make sure that things are done as you want them done. Because it’s our company’s reputation that’s on the line and your reputation that’s on the line. So you need to deliver on the expectations that people have of our company.”
“That was really good advice. I still remember that strongly and thinking, “Yeah, I’ll use that”. It’s just about following the bouncing ball and making sure things are done properly.”
Running his own business
Dave describes running Driveline’s South Island operations as “essentially almost running our own little business”.
“You can really be the master of your own domain. Lance and Paul give me plenty of latitude and freedom to do that, they trust in me. I’ve literally worked by myself for five years, so you have to be self-motivated. I think that’s what I enjoy about the role, I’m given the latitude to be my own boss, to try different things, and you don’t get that in the big multinationals.
“And of course, Lance and Paul are always available with advice and support when you need it. Last week, for example, I had a couple of challenging issues when it came to new credit facilities and Paul was really helpful. He just let me vent and then helped me solve it. Paul and Lance are really good support in that regard.”
Midwifery and spending the time
Dave says you’ve got to give everybody the same amount of attention and responsiveness. He gives the example of two recent enquiries; a midwife in Southland who is looking at leasing for the very first time, versus another enquiry from his largest client with a fleet of 35 vehicles who know exactly what they’re doing and exactly what they need.
“You’ve got to have the patience to have those conversations with people, to put yourself in their shoes and go, “Okay, how would I feel if this was my very first experience contacting a lease company?” I’d want somebody to talk me through the pros and cons of this, or the pros and cons of this vehicle, or the lease structure, weigh up an operating lease versus a Smart Lease.
“It’s understanding what the need is because there are wants and needs, right? So I try to understand what the genuine need is and where the pain might sit behind that need.
“For example, they need a new vehicle because the existing vehicle is old and it’s off the road quite a bit and it’s starting to cost quite a bit in repair and maintenance and it’s impacting their productivity, they can’t do the work they’re being tasked to do because of this bloody vehicle. They might not necessarily be able to afford a new ute, but we might be able to find a good quality used one that has a warranty and ticks all the boxes.
“So sometimes you might have a 20 to 25 minute conversation with people about that scenario. It’s about understanding them and the need that sits behind their inquiry. Being responsive is something Lance has drilled into us.
“Nobody likes calling anywhere and being faced with an automated telephone system, or significant wait times. Not many businesses can be truly responsive to their customers and I think that’s where Driveline is very different in our market. We care as much about the single-vehicle applicant as we do about the larger fleet operator.”
David Yardley’s typical clients
Dave describes his typical South Island based client as a business with maybe a dozen vehicles. In some cases Dave looks after some of what they have and in other cases it’s all of what they have.
“It varies a bit because my established clients are my bread and butter, and a lot of them are outside of Christchurch, so I travel quite a bit.”
4 months into the job, Covid struck
“Think about this,” says Dave… “I started in November 2019 and then four months later, we go into a lockdown.”
“That was tough. That was really hard. It was hard for a lot of New Zealand businesses. So that was an interesting time to be in this business. If you couldn’t do vehicle deliveries because everyone was locked down then there was essentially no business to be done. I remember seeing the new vehicle statistics from the time and they just absolutely died.”
Dave not only survived, he helped many of his clients survive too. Business owners came to Dave for assistance and support to get through those times, not able to afford the $750 a month for a lease.
“Those were tricky times for a lot of businesses. But what I really like about how Driveline handled that is we found solutions for our customers, and other leasing companies might not have necessarily been able to provide such support. For us it was about supporting our customers with being resourceful and flexible.”
Waimak Mud Dogs
Dave is passionate about football and plays in a masters over 45 team at Waimak United – the Waimak Mud Dogs.
“When you find a really good group of guys whose company you enjoy and you have a good bit of banter with, like the poms, I’m always taking the piss out of their accents and stuff like that… It’s very good for a middle-aged man’s well-being and health to be running around getting exercise and fresh air.”
A big believer in teams
Dave says the Waimak Mud Dogs have a really good team spirit.
“I absolutely love being involved, being part of something that’s bigger than just yourself. I’m a really big believer in teams.”
Mountain biking
Dave and his partner Debbie live close to Bottle Lake Forest Park in Christchurch and Dave is through there on his mountain bike as often as he can.
If he’s had a hard-working day, Dave only needs to spend 45 minutes in the forest to shake things off.
“When you’re mountain biking and you’re going through twisty sections and little gnarly bits and stuff like that, you’ve got to be really in the moment because if you’re not in the moment, your mind drifts and just then you’ll drift off the track into a tree. I enjoy that immensely; it’s really good for your well-being.”
Sports & music
Dave watches lots of sport and is into music too. He can play guitar and drums, and owns both, but doesn’t have his drums set up because, “You can’t bash drums in a residential area for too long!”
Although Dave has played in bands in the past, it was in his younger days when there there was time to do it.
Understanding grief
There was a period in Dave’s life when the universe did its level best to test him, to push him to the brink. There was the untimely loss of his youngest brother. The loss of a parent. The loss of his marriage. Being made redundant.
Dave was very close to his mother, who was a big influence on him and is the person most responsible for his strong moral compass.
And he was very close to his youngest brother. Those with a strong brotherly relationship will understand the incredible strength of that bond.
These tragedies, stacked one on top of the other within a very short period of time, would have broken most people. But Dave is built of stronger stuff.
Dave managed his grief journey by writing a book titled, “Half Time: Life, Love, Loss and Learning.“ The book started off as a celebration of his brother’s life, something he could pass on to his brother’s twin daughters, but turned into a much bigger project.
Hence the title, Half Time. It became something for not only his brother’s twin daughters, but his own children too. For the younger generation who were yet to encounter the difficulties that life can throw up.
“If my kids ever need some pointers about what to do, or what not to do, then it might help,” thought Dave.
“I came up with the title because I saw my life as a game of rugby and it felt like I was coming towards the end of the first half. And I guess I was thinking, ‘Okay, what lessons can I take out of the first half to put into the second half so that I have a greater sense of calm, because we only get one crack at life’.”
A mother’s influence
Dave’s Mum told him before she died that what she liked about him is that he’s a good all rounder. Not necessarily brilliant at any one particular thing, but a really good all rounder.
Dave agrees, saying he was never that gifted as a sports person, nor that gifted as a student at school, but was always consistent and reliable. And he picked up a strong moral compass from his Mum, which has served him well in life.
Contact David Yardley – South Island Manager
- Email: david.yardley@driveline.co.nz
- Mobile: 027 4433-534
- Toll Free: 0800 275-374
- Office: (03) 266-1317