No-One Is Forgotten

Thrifty WA’s owner and Managing Director Keith Bedell is unwaveringly focused on the three Ps: people, processes and points of difference.

- Maybelle Lin

According to Thrifty WA’s owner and managing director Keith Bedell, integrity is the secret to a company’s success. It’s at the conceptual core of Thrifty’s staff, facilitating them to work capably as a team while fostering long-term relationships with customers.

And it’s the trust built over years that oils the cogs, enabling the firm’s now expansive business to cover more than 2.2 million square kilometres of Western Australia. With 12 locations across the state, Thrifty WA has made a name associated with reliability, transparency and affordability, with a track record that speaks for itself.

The company is classified as a vehicle hire specialist, providing commercial vehicle hires to Australians doing anything and everything – from moving houses, to small do-it-yourself jobs to larger industrial projects.

”But Thrifty WA wasn’t always at the top of the ladder. In fact, it was only when Keith walked onto the scene that Thrifty WA truly started to make strides in the state’s industry. Today, Keith has amassed 46 years of hard-earned experience in the rental vehicle industry. And he has spent 40 of those years spearheading his own businesses, including setting Thrifty WA on the path to success.

In 1972, Keith started out as a truck rental representative in Welshpool, Perth. By August 1978 he had started his own business called Osborne Truck Rentals that, within a year, expanded significantly to include three metropolitan outlets and two Kimberley agencies.

By 1992, Osborne Truck Rentals was a sizeable company, earning the admiration of Thrifty. That admiration later turned into a serious offer for Keith to join the Thrifty network. And so, in 1997, Keith agreed for Osborne Truck Rentals to join Thrifty WA, and gently phased the Osborne name out.

STARTING THE ENGINE