Bringing it all TOGETHER
Ground transport is at the forefront of the on-demand trend, but TMCS are still battling to adapt. Linda Fox looks at progress so far
One of the biggest behavioural shifts in recent years is the move to on-demand services that fulfil a range of needs, be that music consumption, transportation, food delivery or many more.
The incredible rise of services such as
Lyft and Uber were only the start of disruption in the ground transportation space and many more developments, from new entrants to mergers and acquisitions, have followed.
In recent months alone, trend-setting Uber has acquired Careem, the United Arab Emirates-based ride-hailing service, for just over $3billion. Another demonstration of how seriously the sector is being taken is the acquisition of travel management technology platform Deem by car hire giant Enterprise back in January this year.
As exciting as these developments are, they create challenges for travel managers and their TMC partners.
Vicki Williams, Director of Sales and Implementation at Click Travel, says:
“When it comes to integration, the fast rise of suppliers such as Uber means they have a tendency towards focusing on the needs of B2C channels first.
“This has made seamless integration more challenging in a B2B environment, as the user experience around policy, reporting and duty of care can become compromised if not contained within one single platform, for all travel types.
“For example, the ability to have full integration, with a perfect payment process, remains our strategy, rather than just a link to a 3rd party website. We develop our own technology, so we are
When it comes to integration, the fast rise of suppliers such as Uber means they have a tendency towards focusing on the needs of B2C channels first”
working with suppliers to add full integrations as quickly as possible.”
And established players have not stood still either as they move to stay relevant. A further glance over at developments in the US reveals that Uber and Lyft combined appear on 16% of all expense claims, according to Certify figures.
Those in the ground transport space are taking note and have seized on opportunities to expand, evolve their content and improve their technology.
CMAC Group acquired B2B taxi company Cabfind just over a year ago, followed by managed taxi, bus and coach hire service Cabline this year. Meanwhile, Groundscope, which has been providing ground transportation services to travel management firms, booking tools and corporate clients for a number of years, recently announced its partnership with technology consultancy Dataart to develop a version of its mobile app for IOS users that would also integrate with the existing platform.
Smooth journeys
Gray Dawes Group uses Groundscope as its ground transport aggregator and says it is important that the system is integrated with not only the GDS but also the TMC’S Atriis agency and corporate booking tool.
Commercial Director David Bishop says this means ground transport slides seamlessly into the booking flow and is offered once flights and/or hotels have been booked.
He adds that the ground transportation attachment ratio is currently at about 4% but that figure is growing. At present, the technology is used predominantly to book transfers from the airport when travellers arrive at a destination.
Bishop also says that the company is not seeing much demand from corporates to include the ground transport element into travel policy or approval flow.
Meanwhile, Fello Travel uses the Amadeus-owned Cytric booking tool which has integrated Talixo, while Blacklane will be added shortly.
And, as API connectivity improves, the industry is likely to see more ground transportation content integrated into booking systems.
American Express Global Business
Travel's Content & Distribution Manager, Alexandrea Coughlin, says: “The growth of disruptors such as Uber and Lyft has helped put the spotlight on ground transport within managed travel programmes.
“They generated wide-ranging discussions around servicing and safety issues, which meant travel managers increasingly focus on the whole sector, the levels of fragmentation within it, and where visibility and management could be improved.”
Amex GBT launched its ground platform last year in partnership with Mozio. The company says it brings chauffeur drivers, taxis, airport express trains and shuttles, plus ride-sharing via a deal with Lyft, to a single booking and management app.
The TMC believes the platform not only helps travel managers by providing spend visibility on ground transport and consolidating bookings in one place, but also assists travellers by encouraging them to book in one place.
Out and about
Paul Wait, Commercial Director of IGO, a marketplace for ground transportation developed by Autocab, says the platform is trying to support TMCS by bringing the on-demand element into managed travel.
He feels that while Uber for Business has started to address this through its integrations with expense management specialists Chrome River and SAP Concur, the move only takes care of bookings in major towns and cities.
Wait says the company is adding more partners up and down the country as well as beyond the UK to provide travellers with more options.
In an ideal world, a single global solution for ground transportation would exist but much the same as with local technology providers and payment solutions, there are different providers for transport in different countries and regions.
That said, there is an increasing trend towards Mobility as a Service (Maas) whereby different forms of transport – public, on-demand taxis, trains and even scooters – are aggregated in a single place or app. Again, this is being driven by consumer demand for convenience.
A number of cities in Europe are working on the trend in the belief that betterquality information coupled with ease of use will drive up usage. Examples include Whim, launched by Maas Global in Helsinki in late 2016, and Jelbi, launched more recently in Berlin.
The Whim initiative aims to connect many of the Finnish capital’s mobility options in one application and allows users to plan, book and pay for those options, ranging from public transport to taxis, car hire and car-sharing.
Jelbi, meanwhile, is a service that brings together mobility providers in Berlin on to one mobile application. It has been developed by the city’s public transport provider BVG and mobility technology startup Trafi. These are positive developments from the point of view of the user and should encourage transport providers, both public and private, to share data and collaborate more.
Bishop, from the Gray Dawes Group, says different modes of transport, especially rail, are now being integrated into booking systems. He says the company has access to both UK rail and Amtrak in the US and that European rail should be added by the end of this year.
He adds that while the company would also like to widen out the offering with European airport rail shuttles such as the S Bahn in Germany and the Arlanda Express in Sweden, it is a more complex ask technologically.
Going forward, expect more integration and more content partnerships as travel management companies and their technology suppliers move to bring more choice to the traveller, increase control and gain spend visibility.
There is a trend towards Mobility as a Service (Maas) whereby different forms of transport – public, on-demand taxis, trains and even scooters – are aggregated in a single place”