The ground transport market worldwide is worth US$19 billion, and amounts to around £2 billion in London alone.
Research undertaken by Groundscope for Rolls-Royce showed that travellers were prepared to wait between five and 30 minutes in order to share taxis.
the PWC Car Club has two electric cars from Hertz on Demand, one in London and one in Birmingham. When employees use the Groundscope booking tool, they see a price menu of cars that range from standard to limo. “They can hover over the price to see what type of car it is and then make an informed choice,” says Mark Avery. “Just because you are a partner, that doesn’t mean you should be taking a limo. The cost tends to drive people’s behaviour.” Duty-of-care features large. “When
Checking on standards of drivers and cars is a difficult – but essential – task
Avery chose Groundscope for its global
Pricewaterhouse Coopers’s (PWC) head of business services, Mark Avery, says that without technology, managing
the firm’s ground
transport policy would be unwork- able. He uses Groundscope, which he likens to a GDS for cars. “We have an online booking tool for chauffeur- drive,” he says. “The aggregator has agreements with suppliers around the globe and, where we have got a pre- ferred arrangement, they’re plugged into that as well.”
68 BBT JULY/AUGUST 2014
coverage and service; integrating the technology into PWC’s online booking tool is the next step. The aggregator also supplies comprehensive MI, including full monthly reports on journeys, down to individual bookings; car sharing opportunities; and CO2 figures. Cars are booked on travellers’ corporate cards; then they get an email confirma- tion of the booking, and an electron- ic invoice follows. PWC’s travel policy requires that first choice is public transport. The firm has offices near both Charing Cross and London Bridge railway stations, and employees are given free rail tickets, and passes for the Thames Clippers to get between offices. In addition,
Groundscope signs up an operator, they have to agree to certain specifications around the standard of vehicles and the drivers; the licensing is checked – it is all part of the service,” says Avery. “So when somebody goes abroad, we know they are travelling with a respectable supplier.”
RIGOROUS APPRAISAL Checking on standards of drivers and cars is a difficult – but essential – task, not least because the majority of operators are owner-managed businesses of around 50 cars. Groundscope says it is rigorous in the appraisal of its partners in 500 cities worldwide – checking public and employers’ liability insur- ances; driver and vehicle licenses; driver working hours; ISO quality management; and rates.
The company consolidates clients’ buying power and passes those savings on. It recently calculated it could reduce the taxi bill of a potential client from £6,243 to £4,799, a saving of 23 per cent. Groundscope managing director John McCallion adds: “When our technology identifies that two people are travelling from an office at the same time, to the same place, we ask the travellers whether they mind sharing.” Sharing is also effec- tive for airport pick-ups, he says.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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