Tedcor model helps out small businesses with refuse removal in South Africa

Tedcor started its community-based refuse removal system in 1992. Today, using Tedcor’s model, over 80 trained entrepreneurs operate their own small businesses in 16 local authorities. They provide employment to more than 1,000 historically disadvantaged people and supply waste removal services to around 400,000 households.

The Tedcor business model is based on being an intermediary between local residents who want to create their own enterprises, municipalities who want
to award large‐scale waste management tenders to local contractors, banks who want to fund large‐scale vehicle purchases for emerging black‐owned enterprises, and commercial truck manufacturers who want to sell a large number of trucks to black‐owned enterprises. By providing ongoing financial and business support, and certified training, to community contractors that are owner‐drivers of fully‐funded waste removal vehicles, Tedcor has been able to successfully compete for multi‐year municipal waste management contracts.

Tedcor assist local residents in ways such as the following:
- assisting them to buy a truck
- Tedcor acts as intermediary allowing community contractors to get a loan, finance a truck and put them into business
- Tedcor also sources the trucks for the community contractors

Further information on the economic, social and environmental benefits of this
can be found at the following link: http://growinginclusivemarkets.org/media/cases/SouthAfrica_Tedcor_2010.pdf

Further information


Categorisations

Partnership types

Doing business with the poor

Regions / countries / territories

Africa: South Africa

Global issues

Job creation and enterprise development; Environment and climate change

Business sectors

Environmental services; Utilities