In a global economy, business travel and air travel may, at first glance, seem to be one and the same thing. But what trip doesn’t include a ground component? Whether just getting to the airport or using ground transport exclusively, it’s a basic element in the transportation equation. For both travelers and travel managers the question isn’t whether to use ground transportation, but rather how to balance the diverse options now available.
“It’s important to recognize the evolution of ground transportation and the choices that travelers have,” says Mike Guadagnoli, vice president of global strategic sales for Enterprise Holdings. “Sometimes people will take two, or sometimes three or four different modes of transportation in just one trip to get where they need to go.”
Not only are multiple providers providing expanded options, but new levels of cooperation are also bringing change. Examples include Lyft’s recent partnerships with Concur and Amex GBT, which have generated substantial interest from the corporate travel community, says Gyre Renwick, vice president of Lyft Business.
“Since inception, rideshare companies resisted giving incentives to corporations or travel partners because they weren’t effective ways of driving adoption,” Renwick says. “At Lyft, we’re working with travel partners in innovative ways to help influence travelers directly and drive adoption to our platform.” He cites consumer partnerships with Delta, Hilton and most recently with Chase for their positive influence on business traveler behavior.
At the same time, other developments may bring advantages to a specific mode of ground travel. For example, in the last year, several major airports have relocated ride-hailing pickup locations, meaning that of the 35 busiest US airports, 21 require passengers to walk farther than the arrivals curb.
Adam Parken, head of global communications for Blacklane, notes the biggest change was at LAX, which moved the area from the terminal curb side to an off-site parking lot. This adds 30 minutes for travelers to walk or take the shuttle and then line up before getting a ride out of the airport. He adds that Boston, Las Vegas and San Francisco airports all moved ride-hailing pickups to central parking last year.
Parken notes by comparison, chauffeurs have retained curb-side access at nearly every airport and thus offer an attractive option for saving travelers time and reducing their stress.
Challenges at Hand
The changing scene also brings a number of challenges. “The variety of ride services available means corporate travel managers have a complex balancing act between safety, simplicity, flexibility, comfort and cost,” Parken says. He suggests breaking down rides into their different use cases and then permitting suppliers accordingly.
The need for better data continues to drive improvements. GroundLink, an on-demand ground services platform, has added a new analytics dashboard to its travel management app that offers at-a-glance monitoring of key spend areas in ground travel programs.
The tool allows multiple views of time periods, markets and users as well as information on booking trends, cancellations and wait time. Users can view their spend in any time period over the last 18 months by their top five markets, booking trends, cancellations, wait time or aggregated spend, and can identify the top ten passengers in each category.
Similarly, Avis Budget Group has released a new business intelligence tool that gives corporate customers direct access to more robust data. The online portal features rental summary dashboards, visualizations and detailed reports providing travel managers with insights into program performance.
Avis Budget has also introduced a split payment feature available through its mobile app. It supports splitting car rental payments between two different credit cards or forms of payment, allowing travelers to divide costs associated with their rental between corporate and personal credit cards for greater convenience on the road and when reconciling travel expenses.
Features such as this make it easier for travelers to customize their trip while still staying in compliance with corporate travel policy, says Beth Kinerk, senior vice president of sales.
The story of travelers bypassing their travel arrangers to book their own ground travel seems to be a never-ending one. But traveler behavior is only part of the story, Guadagnoli says. Clear policies and appropriate guidance are also keys. A major question is, how do travel managers write clear guidelines into travel policies related to approved costs associated with accepted transportation options?
“You have to start by understanding the landscape and different options your travelers have, then you can relate that back to the costs associated with those options,” he says. “With this information, you can start to build a more comprehensive travel policy when it comes to ground transportation.”
The availability of multiple options is important for travel buyers to consider when formalizing policies, Guadagnoli says. But it can be tricky to understand costs, especially when dealing with price per trip, and in different areas and municipalities.
For example, emerging local legislation across the country requires TNCs to pay per-trip taxes. In Chicago, a recently instituted tax on rideshare services in the downtown area is aimed at reducing congestion. Such measures potentially increase the cost for travelers and their companies, so they should be considered in looking at overall trip costs.
Joey Phelps, Sr, executive vice president at EmpireCLS, thinks there’s a widespread misunderstanding of the costs associated with supplying ground transportation. “Procurement teams and financial analysts have a responsibility to negotiate competitive rates but there is a breaking point,” Phelps says. “Most ground transportation companies get lumped together in an RFP, and the reality is there are distinct differences that should be considered when awarding a contract.” He says when you think about the risks involved with transportation in general, it’s imperative to thoroughly understand your options.
Of course, employee safety is an ongoing concern. “The growing number of safety risks for business travelers, and the responsibility of companies to update travel-risk mitigation and duty of care policies to better protect customers, is receiving increased awareness,” Guadagnoli says.
He notes Enterprise works closely with travel managers and stresses the importance of travel, tourism and hospitality suppliers to provide resources and education to leisure and business travelers. In addition, the company looks for its own suppliers to have the technology, communication and process in place to provide duty of care throughout the traveler experience.
The need for corporate travel managers to get travelers where they need to be while keeping them safe requires open sharing of relevant policies and practices, says Liz Carisone, CEO of GroundLink. “In an increasingly globalized world, companies are sending employees all over the world, sometimes in unfamiliar environments,” she says. “We recommend that corporate travel managers ask transportation partners to share their duty of care policies and develop their own duty of care/travel risk management policies for their companies.”
On the most basic level, this should include confirming that transportation providers offer a variety of ways for passengers to connect, such as phone, messaging, online and app. In the case of a natural disaster or even a change of plans, multiple lines of communication are essential, Carisone says.
Preparing for the Future
In a transitional era, what are the best practices with ground transportation? Guadagnoli advises staying informed on all the options. “If your supplier isn’t helping to educate you and providing you updated information, you need to ask.”
Travel managers typically focus on air, hotel and car rental, in that order of priority, he says. But the many changes happening in ground transportation mean while this space overall is becoming increasingly consumer-friendly, it’s also becoming complex for those who must write and formalize travel policies.
In dealing with providers, Phelps suggests requiring detailed information such as insurance documents listing the actual vehicles each company owns, and revenue generated in specific markets of interest outside of owned locations.
“There are additional questions as well,” he says. “But these are key indicators of the buying power and leverage a company has to ensure policies are enforced, and their ability to provide a consistent experience regardless of the city the service takes place in.”
The alternatives provided by rail transit should not be overlooked, notes transportation consultant Jarrett Walker. “In corporate circles it’s fashionable to assume ridesharing services are the best form of ground transport,” he says. “Certainly they are more efficient than renting a car, but it’s important not to assume fixed route transit isn’t part of the travel picture.”
This option can be ideal for traveling from the airport to downtown in cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Denver, Seattle, and many others. “Rail transit in those places is frequent, direct, and much more reliable than driving, as well as costing much less,” Walker says. “The station is closer to the terminal than rental car options and sometimes closer than rideshare options.”
Along with cost and convenience, safety factors should also be considered, he adds. “No cool app changes the fact that the cost of ground passenger transport is mostly the cost of labor, and that with labor you get what you pay for,” Walker says.
While transit drivers are well compensated and heavily trained in safety, the same can’t be said for some ride sharing drivers who may be paid poorly and have limited training. He says in his own use of such services, at least a third of the time he notices problems such as speeding, tailgating and drivers looking at the phone instead of the road. “That implies risks that should be factored in.”
From taking advantage of evolving tech to facing new challenges, the next year may see even more change than the recent past. One likelihood is a continued focus on environmental concerns, with ground transportation suppliers helping companies meet their sustainability goals.
Blacklane has approached this priority by offsetting carbon emissions of all rides since 2017, while also offsetting emissions from company operations. According to Parken, thirty cities now have emissions-free rides in the company’s Teslas, with that number expected to grow in 2020.
“Variety will be key,” Lyft’s Renwick says. “Travelers want options and as society as a whole becomes more focused on incorporating more environmentally friendly options into their everyday lives, we will have to transition to a shared, multi-model and electric future.”
For Lyft, this means offering a full menu of options including bikes, scooters, public transit, car rentals, shared class and premium rides. The company boasts the country’s largest network of bikes, with New York hitting a record of 100,000 rides in a single day and more growth projected. It’s also testing an end-to-end car rental experience, currently live in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
We can also look to enhanced communication across the board. “I see technology playing a bigger role in bridging the communication gap which is long overdue,” Phelps says. “We will see a big push for integrations to not only assist with labor costs, but also more efficiently and accurately communicate crucial information.”
Looking forward, it seems there is much to anticipate. Obviously the world has yet to see the kind of radical change typified by the flying cars of science fiction. But given other advancements in the evolving ground transport sector, the ride ahead looks promising for travelers and travel managers alike.
