the last mile
B
Finding our place in the business travel world
USINESS TRAVEL IS COMING BACK. IT’S complexities of a multi-operator network different – and it might just be better. u T he usual high standard of service offered by While lockdowns, travel restrictions and private hire operators. work from home guidance have passed, and The last decade has seen huge advances in ground consumer travel demand has returned, business travel transport technology, facilitating smoother booking still lags behind. processes and enabling multiple fleets to be bookable Business trips are often booked through Travel on a single platform. This sets the industry up Management Companies, appointed by businesses perfectly to partner with travel companies to deliver an with large numbers of travellers, to book and manage Daniel Price integrated and connected service to their travellers. their travel. The industry has seen huge reductions in With traveller confidence still recovering in air and CEO and the number of travellers booking both domestic and rail, and work patterns perhaps changed forever, I founder international travel, and with rail still hovering at around expect shorter, regional trips to replace some longer air of Jyrney 70% of pre-pandemic numbers it appears that domestic or rail business travel journeys. travel is going to take some time to recover. Employees making trips to the office less often leaves a gap to offer Since the beginning of the year we have seen light at the end of different transport options to the work from home travellers, which the tunnel as business travellers return. In recent weeks, many could be an entirely new business travel market. travel companies have reported experiencing their highest number of Working with aggregators will give operators the ability to take bookings since the start of the pandemic. work from these travel companies, as the aggregator integrates their In the UK alone, business travel management is a multi-billion technology with the travel industry clients. These jobs are often pound market. However, historically, ground transport sits outside higher mileage, outside of peak hours and sent directly via dispatch the Travel Management Company relationship. Transfers are either integration. booked independently by the traveller, or require the TMC to use The changing dynamics in business travel industry and the desire several different booking tools to navigate the fragmented market. for the TMC to offer first- and last-mile trips as part of the booking This process results in less than 3% of their transactions coming process, presents an opportunity for the private hire industry. An from taxi, private hire or chauffeur trips. opportunity to access a business travel market that now seeks With business travel at 50% of pre pandemic volumes, TMCs are out new services. An opportunity to partner with new aggregator looking to other elements of travel to increase the products they can technologies that allow deeper integrations into the passengers sell to their customers. booking flow. After 20 years of selling ground transport into TMCs I have And above all, an opportunity for taxi and private hire to take its identified that there are three elements needed for a TMC to run an rightful place alongside air, rail and car hire within business travel. effective ground transport programme: u A single point of integration to access multiple fleets and n D aniel Price is CEO and founder of Jyrney. vehicle options u w ork with a business that has deep experience in managing the Daniel.price@jyrney.com — www.jyrney.com
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APRIL 2022
