Why Fast Teams Still Lose Badly

Our team had everything going for us. Strong individual performers. Good equipment. Solid preparation. Yet we finished two hours behind schedule, exhausted and barely ahead of the sweep vehicle.

The problem wasn't our capabilities. It was our coordination.

This hard-learned lesson from a 520km cycling relay taught me something crucial about why high-performing dealerships still struggle with operational efficiency.

From Running Injuries to Road Cycling

After I took up running, I found myself regularly sidelined with injuries, usually tendinitis or some other overuse strain. To stay active while recovering, I jumped on my old hybrid bike, often pedalling away on a trainer.

But when the trusty steel-frame hybrid got stolen from a train station, I decided it was time for an upgrade.

I rang a mate who was deep into the lycra scene and asked, "Should I get a road bike?"

He said, "If you do, you can ride with me."

That was all the encouragement I needed. A few eBay scrolls later, I was the proud owner of a $1,000 second-hand carbon road bike. I started riding regularly and loved it.

After about a year, the same mate floated an idea:

"We used to do this event called the Murray to Moyne. I'm putting a team together again, interested?"

"Yeah, probably. What's involved?"

Turns out, the Murray to Moyne is a 520km relay ride from Echuca to Port Fairy.

Teams raise funds for health-related charities, and at least one rider must be on the road at all times. Everyone rides the final leg together from Hamilton to Port Fairy after a brief overnight stop.

I first rode it in 2019. Our team of nine split into three squads, backed by two vehicles trailing the riders, then one making a dash to the front to ferry the next squad to the changeover.

It was a logistical juggle.

Sometimes, no vehicle was following the riders, which is a safety issue and a breach of the guidelines. Other times, the next squad wasn't ready. We struggled just to stay ahead of the sweep vehicle, rolled into Hamilton around 1:30am, grabbed a couple hours of sleep, and were back on the road at 7am.

The coordination breakdowns were killing our performance. Riders waited in the cold while support vehicles scrambled to catch up. Equipment handovers became frantic exchanges. Communication fell apart in the dark hours when fatigue set in.

We had the fitness. We lacked the system.

In 2021, things changed. A new team member brought in lessons from a previous team, and together with the captain, they reworked the system. By simply adjusting who rode in which vehicle and which one towed the bike trailer, everything clicked into place.

The chase vehicle always protected the current riders. The next squad had time to prepare. Handovers became smooth, predictable transitions instead of chaotic scrambles.

We rolled into Hamilton at 11:30pm, two hours earlier, and felt the difference.

And that's the thing about dealership operations, just like a long-distance ride, systems matter.

The Business Reality

You can have great people, the right intentions, and still end up chasing problems if your departments aren't in sync. Sales might hand off to service with missing details. Parts might wait on stock they didn't know they needed. Admin gets caught cleaning up messes instead of driving value.

Without a proper handover, every team is riding solo, hoping the next squad is ready, but often, they're not.

The parallels run deeper than you'd expect.

Where Systems Break Down

In our cycling relay, the breakdown points were always the same: communication gaps between vehicles, unclear responsibilities during transitions, and no standardised procedures for equipment handovers. Sound familiar?

Most dealerships face identical coordination challenges. A customer's journey from sales inquiry to service completion involves multiple handoffs. Each transition point becomes a potential failure mode without proper systems.

When your dealership runs on disconnected systems, it's like riding without a chase car: dangerous, inefficient, and exhausting. Customer information gets lost between departments. Service appointments don't align with parts availability. Follow-up falls through the cracks.

But with the right structure, the right tools, and a Dealership Management System in place, you're not just reacting, you're riding in formation. Everyone knows their leg of the journey, the handover is smooth, and you finish stronger, together.

The transformation mirrors what we experienced in cycling.

The Solution

Like our reworked relay system, a DMS creates standardised handoff procedures between sales, service, parts, and administration. Customer information flows seamlessly. Inventory updates happen automatically. Service appointments coordinate with parts availability.

The performance improvement isn't incremental. It's transformational. Same people, same skills, dramatically better outcomes.

In both cycling and business, the secret isn't working harder. It's working in sync.