DOING THE GROUNDWORK
MARK BEVAN, head of strategic relationships at Business Travel Direct, offers advice on how to manage ground transport suppliers.
Ask open questions, covering how the company vets drivers – by age, licence, insurance, history, working hours and so on.
Make it part of due diligence that the controller gives drivers a good mix of business, short and long journeys, to ensure they are motivated
How do suppliers monitor client feedback?
Making savings: can they deliver ride-share, for example?
Tie the supplier contractually, so that service-level agreements are black-and-white, covering penalty clauses, compensation and so on.
Review overseas suppliers regularly over Webex or at trade shows in the UK.
Can suppliers’ technology be integrated into your technology and processes?
Make sure someone can automate and track large volumes of business in one city at their end and yours; and for ad hoc business, ensure you can monitor it.
How and how often is MI delivered?
How is waiting time charged? For example, is it in increments of ten minutes, or 30 minutes?
70 BBT JULY/AUGUST 2014
CONVENIENT BOOKING One Transport, part of Mountview House Group, is also an aggregator, with some 500 vendors – taxis, and car, courier and and bus companies – in the UK, bookable from one platform. Clients’ travel policies can be embedded in the booking tool, and performance of vendors is constantly monitored. The company provides MI re- garding the tax implications of expenses and benefits, and monitors fares to see that correct prices are charged. “We are saving bigger clients seven-
figure sums,” says One Transport chair- man and CEO, Geoffrey Riesel. “We also have good connections with interna- tional companies, and if a client wants a taxi or car to meet them in Madrid, Barcelona, New York or Atlanta, it is easy for us to do. ” But One Transport does not yet provide a high-volume global service on a daily basis. In fact, finding global coverage can be
a problem, as management consulting company Capgemini discovered. “We spend £1.2 million a year worldwide and
have tried to consolidate with a single taxi provider, but a lot of them do not cover all areas,” says Capgemini’s senior procurement manager, Roger Peters, who uses Groundscope in the UK. “One of the benefits of a consolidator is getting a VAT invoice.” The firm does not mandate policy and lets travellers use local providers.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND Black cab company Radio Taxis and Xeta, a smaller set-up aimed at small- to medium-sized enterprises, are part of Mountview House Group. They act as vendors to One Transport, but they do not receive priority treatment. “The system manages distribution based on availability, and drivers sign up to the rules, code of conduct and get train- ing in the same way as other vendors,” says Riesel. However, supply and demand is a major factor. “You can negotiate a great rate with a car supplier but negotiating too hard may affect availability, especially
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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