Ground transportation providers of all stripes are stepping up their technology game
The ground transportation business is not what it used to be. Ride sharing has changed the playing field for everyone, including providers of black car, limos and taxi services. While the newer players continue to innovate, traditional ground transportation companies are stepping up their game with advanced technology and updated business models.
“Today, technology is the price of admission,” says Gary Kessler, CEO of Carey International, a provider of chauffeured transportation. “Travelers have evolved rigid expectations about the role customer-centric technology should play in their interaction with every supplier.”
He says this expectation holds true from hotels and airlines to expense management and ground transportation, and that travel managers are scrambling to contract with suppliers that meet the rapidly changing expectations of their travelers. But travel buyers demand the development of arranger-centric technology, according to Kessler. This technology facilitates the controls, oversight and visibility demanded by their travel program’s governing policies.
“In the ground transportation space, any supplier without focus on both sides of this equation is bound to find themselves excluded from modern travel programs,” Kessler says.
The technology that allows a user to hail a car via a mobile app has completely changed people’s expectations, says Tony D'Astolfo, senior vice president and chief commercial officer for mobile and cloud technology provider Deem. He notes the world of ground transportation has many different use cases, including a still vibrant market for the advance-scheduled ride that is part of a bigger travel situation.
“Most travelers still plan their trips, and due to the TNC’s there is more attention being paid to ground transportation as a category,” he says. “The result is that more bookings are being made in advance as part of the larger travel trip.” He reports that Deem Ground has seen an uptick in all its booking surfaces. “The overall market has grown significantly, and technology has played a role in that growth,” he says.
In fact, it’s hard to overemphasize the impact technology advances are having in this area.
“Technology is essential for the entire experience,” says Jens Wohltorf, CEO and co-founder of Blacklane, which provides a portal connecting people to professional chauffeurs. “That includes booking, ride management, the ride itself, post-ride ratings and the all-important expense management.”
At the same time, the car service industry has been one of the last travel sectors to modernize, according to Wohltorf. “Large legacy operators have clung to an inflexible business model and have been trying to catch up to ride-hailing companies or slow them down with regulation,” he says. “Meanwhile, smaller providers simply have not had a way to form a sizeable network.”
But with the current level of activity, that may be changing.
Ed Silver, president of iCARS and Limos.com, notes that while the first movers may have been some TNC’s, the chauffeur and black car industry can now join together in new ways to take advantage of sophisticated tools and technologies previously only available to the largest of operators.
Expanding Capabilities
Liz Carisone, CEO of chauffeured car service GroundLink, says that continued technology enhancements are making life better for both the travel manager and the individual road warrior. “The best thing about our platform is ease of use for the travel manager,” Carisone says. “The product is available globally and the feature set is broad ranging.”
She adds that the ability to track drivers is a major asset, providing vital information from a duty of care perspective. At the same time, a 24/7 support system fosters person to person communication. “In the people business, things never go flawlessly every time,” Carisone says. “Individuals who are under stress need access to a human voice to assist them. That’s critical to us.”
With GoundLink, recent enhancements have included expansion of a service-in-20 minutes feature, within markets being added in May including Dallas, Houston, Austin and Los Angeles.
At Deem, a revised online booking tool includes a new car service booking platform. The redesign reduces the number of clicks and information required for users to make a reservation. The feature is integrated with airline booking and automatically computes and adjusts pickup times based on flight schedules. When travelers arrive, the system connects them with drivers via their mobile phones.
Also new is an auditing service for corporations looking to audit their entire ground spend. It covers data on base rates, taxes and surcharges as well as variable such as tools, stops and wait time. “We’re also in the process of building some really cool enhancements that will allow us to help the ground operators deliver a reservations and post booking process that will be better than the TNC’s,” D'Astolfo says. “So watch this space.”
For its part, Carey has recently completed an international developer portal that facilitates more efficient integration. The company has also begun field testing a new mobile app and service type for its Embarque brand.
Some enhancements are targeted specifically to travel programs. For example, Uber Now allows managers to overcome what in the past might have been inconveniences. “You can do some unique things,” says Travis Bogard, global GM of Uber for Business. “Right from the app you can pay directly on behalf of the employee. Then with the reporting mechanisms, managers can understand what they just paid for.”
Expanding Technology
To meet demands for upgrading technology, traditional providers have strengthened their hand by expanding in-house technical capabilities or acquiring companies with the necessary expertise. Similar strategies are also being followed by newer players as they continue to adapt and upgrade their services.
In January, Marcou Transportation Group, the parent company of Dav El/BostonCoach, announced the acquisition of GroundLink and software provider Limo Anywhere. Marcou leaders feel they will now have the largest development team in the industry which will contribute to leveling the playing field with the TNCs and ensuring it feature a robust platform.
Earlier this year, Deem acquired the technology company OLSET including its platform that leverages artificial intelligence and natural language processing to help users find what they want.
“This will enable us to leverage what we know about the individual, the company they work for and the service providers they use to a recommend a best match,” D'Astolfo says. “It will make the shopping and booking part super easy, and over time we believe will eliminate the need to shop, as the intelligence engine learns more.” After initial deployment in the hotel sector, plans are for the tool to be introduced for car service later this year.
At Carey International, a central tenant of an integration and “direct connect” strategy is to integrate the company’s reservation management platform with as many partners as possible, according to Kessler. To date, successful integrations have been achieved with Sabre, Deem, GroundSpan and Mozio. “We are also actively working with five other major distribution partners, and entering into preliminary talks with a dozen others,” Kessler reports.
Amit Patel, director of enterprise partnerships at Lyft, reports that the company acquired the team behind social service FinitePaths to continue to improve Lyft’s large-scale infrastructure and services. “The engineering leads behind FinitePaths are playing a critical role in helping tackle some of the unique challenges we have, as well as helping grow the Lyft community,” he says.
Acquisitions have also been a key strategy at iCars. The mobile app and web platform recently acquired the assets of Limos.com, a transportation provider network and marketplace that connects consumers and corporations via web and mobile with professional chauffeured rides. And other moves seem likely.
“We have several more acquisitions in the pipeline including software and unique hardware providers,” Silver says. He adds that his company will remain aggressive both the M&A space and its own research and development.
Other companies have focused on an internal approach. At Blacklane, expertise in software development has been fostered in-house. “Next to the customer service team, our product and engineering department is the biggest one in the company,” Wohltorf says. “We invented a brand new way of booking black car rides worldwide, and we are continuing to improve our mobile apps, website, integrations and global footprint.”
He says his company’s customer base and integrations with travel providers help international travelers ride with local drivers on a global scale. “We also leveraged technology to unleash market-driven pricing,” Wohltorf says. “Legacy players still use rigidly set pricing and add astronomic markups to affiliate rates. With market-based pricing, the black car industry becomes more affordable and more accessible worldwide.”
Expanding Horizons
Providers also continue to embrace other types of partnerships. “We are also heavily partnering with airlines,” Wohltorf notes. He says airlines see ground transportation not only as their next big ancillary revenue opportunity, but especially as a way to extend the airline service onto the street by providing a true and seamless door-to-door travel experience.
“These partnerships will let you add multiple rides with local drivers in just one click when you book your flights,” he says. “Then you won’t need to worry about availability of rides in a foreign destination when you arrive. Everything will be guaranteed ahead of time.”
Looking ahead, Wohltorf says the relationship between the black car industry and ride-hailing companies should not be in an “us-versus-them” mindset. “We excel in providing high-quality vehicles and high service,” he says. “Those will always be in demand, especially for longer rides such as airport transfers where passengers value the elevated comfort.”
He adds that ride-hailing is predominantly short-distance, inner-city mobility rides, as are taxis. “We complement those services and will continue to do so,” he says. “We will build our technology for our unique value.”
D'Astolfo says that ground transportation has become a hot category and while the new entrants pose a threat, there is still plenty of opportunity to differentiate. “I tell operators all the time to focus on what they do best, which is delivering consistently great service within the confines of the managed travel program, and to rely on others like Deem to help them with the technology part,” he says. “I strongly believe that in the long run, the dynamic combination of great tech and great service delivered by a professional service provider will win out.”
If nothing else, the continuing advances in technology seem certain to bring more options. “In the not-to-distant past, travel management professionals didn’t have the choice between on-demand options that carry high levels of risk and on-demand, near demand and future options that bring visibility and risk under control and enhance their overall duty of care program,” Silver says.
He advises travel managers to evaluate the difference between these types of options and look for ground platforms that can now provide the best of both worlds – the immediacy their employees prefer with the duty of care elements a travel professional needs.
Kessler points out that technology considerations extend far beyond the mere presence of a mobile app. “When speaking to any provider, ask the simple question, how does this technology help me or my travelers?”
Your partners should be flexible in their technology offerings, he adds. “They should provide you with a solution that aligns with your business and accommodates the channels through which you choose to do business, and not the other way around.”