Saturday, July 16, 2016
2017 Global Travel Price Outlook Raises Risk Flags
These findings come from the 2017 Global Travel Price Outlook, research from the GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA)
GBTA press release via Business Wire here
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Chinese Buyers Resist Chairman Mao’s Red Limos
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T.RUMP Motorcoach As Art Rolls Toward RNC In Cleveland
It has lured Trump supporters to stop by for a chat, while inflaming anti-Trump crowds — who seem to prefer flipping the bird or throwing eggs when greeting it.
Time Out New York article here
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Fed Judge Halts Insurance Payouts In Charter Bus Crash
Related article: Attorneys Want To Bankrupt Bus Operator
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Chauffeur Jailed For Secretly Filming Couple Having Limo Sex
The 28-year-old then tried to blackmail the couple for money using the footage.
The Indian couple ordered a limo from their hotel room at Four Points by Sheraton to drive them to The Dubai Mall on Feb. 12.
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iCARS About To Expand Into Major Cities
The announcement coincides with the start of the 2016 Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Convention July 16-20 in Denver, where iCARS is an exhibitor.
iCARS officially launched in the San Francisco Bay Area in early 2016 and has since launched in Austin, Dallas and Houston this summer. In the coming months, this growth will be followed by launches in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.
The wider iCARS network reaches a key milestone for the growing corporate travel sector. According to GBTA’s BTI Outlook – Annual Global Report & Forecast, global business travel spend topped $1.2 trillion in 2015, growing 5% compared to 2014, and is forecast to reach $1.3 trillion in 2016. iCARS is poised to meet this growing demand as reputable business travel professionals acknowledge the need to use only the most trusted drivers and vehicles for ground travel.
“Travel professionals have long demanded safe and reliable transportation options and we’re thrilled with iCARS’ forthcoming national expansion,” said Gary Bauer, founder and CEO of iCARS. “iCARS provides peace of mind for both executives and corporate travel professionals who book transportation for their employees. We are confident in the potential for growth in each respective market.”
iCARS also enables third-party providers such as concierges, travel managers, and corporate travel directors to book rides on behalf of any number of travelers, and oversee ground transportation plans as part of their duty of care standards, making it ideal for the business travel and hospitality industries.
The iCARS fleet is made up of the safest, most reliable luxury vehicles on the road, including Sedan Class, SUV Class and Sprinter Class vehicles. While the iCARS network encompasses each regional market’s leading transportation providers, iCARS only works with affiliates who operate insured vehicles driven by professional chauffeurs who meet all state and federal transportation rules. iCARS can also provide “house car” services for a partnering hotel to use for its guests.
iCARS only partners with transportation companies that carry at least $1 million in commercial liability insurance, regularly maintain their vehicles, conduct random drug testing and background checks, provide driver training courses, fingerprinted employees, and pay employee benefits as required by their respective states.
iCARS has partnered with San Francisco Bay Area hotels, including Fairmont San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, Handlery Union Square Hotel, Inn at the Presidio and the W San Francisco.
• Third-party booking for administrators and concierges
• Group bookings and passenger management
• Private network for an operator’s clients
• Route and vehicle best usage
• Automated dispatch
• Near demand and future reservations
iCARS is available for download in Apple’s App Store and in Google Play. To learn more about iCARS, please visit http://www.icars.cc/.
About iCARS
Founded by 27-year transportation industry veteran Gary Bauer, CEO of Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation of San Francisco, iCARS is a web and mobile application platform that enables turn-key “executive-level” black car sedan service bookings. It offers on-demand and future booking services with licensed operators that meet, or exceed, all of the requirements of the limousine industry, including commercial insurance limits, chauffeur drug and background screening, and vehicle maintenance and safety requirements. iCARS provides reliable and safe point-to-point transport in the form of high-end, professional, on-demand luxury car service, with no surge pricing.
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Navy SEAL Rear Admiral Shares Team Strategies
“The team is more important than the individual,” said Moore, who closed out his career as the number two leader in the SEAL organization. His message focused on how operators can create a “never give up” organizational culture that focuses on the team to ensure success. “The secret to SEAL training is simple. You just don’t ever give up.”
Moore, who led the military’s elite forces through more than 2,000 global extreme and high-stakes missions, told operators there is no such thing as a natural born leader.
“You have to lead from the front to have influence over people and be respected as a leader,” he said. “You have to be able to listen and take advice and mentor others to become leaders.”
Moore’s career spanned some of the marquee missions in recent U.S. history, such as Just Cause (Panama), Bosnia, and post-9-11 missions in Afghanistan. He commanded several critical “no-fail” hostage rescue situations, including the mission to save Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates, which was depicted in the acclaimed movie starring actor Tom Hanks.
Moore stressed in order for a SEAL team to be effective in carrying out missions, there must be a culture of trust and transparency. “Trust in each other builds team cohesiveness and that builds a culture that drives people to come to work. You have to build an organizational partnership at the ground level because everybody needs to trust each other to do their job, and that builds a culture of success,” he advised.
Delivering his address with tales from covert missions and how SEAL teams reacted to situations and unforeseen circumstances, Moore said leadership means instilling “urgency from the top down and bottom up — and that drives performance.”
The art of leadership is empowering an organization’s ground-level employees to drive solutions and results, Moore said. He focused on how operators need to tailor leadership to different groups within the company to build cohesive teams and develop real trust to achieve an organization that drives performance.
When SEAL teams periodically deploy on “no-fail” missions involving hostage rescues, such situations not only require precise tactical preparation and execution, but complete trust of the team working together toward its goal. “You may only have a minute to save the hostage and the bad guys are usually tipped off you are coming, but you know your team is trained to complete the mission and that’s what leadership is all about.”
During his career, Moore served as the director of counter-terrorism at the National Security Council and the deputy director for special operations at the Pentagon. There he reported to Admiral Mike Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Moore also spent a year as the deputy commander at the Office of Defense Representative Pakistan, where he was one of the senior officers working with the Pakistani military.
— Tom@LCTmag.com
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Crude, Rude Episodes Erupt In UberLand
Uber Driver Screams At Passenger Who Won’t Get Out Of His Car: A nearly three-minute video posted July 14 titled “Hostile Uber driver refuses to take me to ER!” shows the driver repeatedly asking the woman to get out of his car. Instead, the woman keeps asking him about her destination. “I have the right to tell you when to get out of my car,” he says in the video. “It’s right now.” Local 10 News article here
Chicago Uber Driver Charged With Sexual Assault: An Uber driver was charged with sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman he was hired to drive home last month. The woman didn’t remember getting into Alexander Marrero’s red Hyundai while she was out with her family and friends on Division Street in the early morning hours of June 26. But when she woke up during the ride to her apartment elsewhere in the city, her shorts and underwear had been pulled down. Chicago Sun Times article here
How Uber Secretly Investigated Its Legal Woes — And Got Caught: Faced with a class action suit, the company hired a CIA-linked intelligence firm to look into the plaintiffs and their lawyer, but a judge says they may have gone too far. The Verge article here
Uber Drivers Demand An In-App Tipping Option: A group of Uber drivers in New York City is campaigning the app to add a tipping option, insisting Uber’s refusal to include such a feature is the primary grievance among its 35,000 members. The news comes several months after Uber, which was recently valued at $62.5 billion, slashed its NYC trip fares by 15%. Gothamist article here
Uber Is Gradually Replacing Public Services: NBC Washington reports the Washington D.C. Fire and EMS Department is considering working with Uber to help handle the department’s excessive load of emergency calls. Inc. article here
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Operator Outlines Three Points On Excellent Service
Ultimately, it’s what sets the limo industry apart from transportation network companies (TNCs) out to make a quick buck. Mark Kini, founder and CEO of Boston Chauffeur in Beverly, Mass., spoke to LCT about how to create a team that strives for perfection caring for clients.
Step 1: Collaborate
One-on-one coaching creates an effective team. “We are a smaller company, so getting the whole team together at one time and still staffing the phones can be challenging,” Kini said. “We record all of our calls, and I use what I learn from the recordings to help our customer service representatives differentiate themselves from the competition. We aren’t robotic in terms of giving rates. We don’t want to sound like we are ordering a pizza.”
He also focuses on training his staff to build a rapport with customers. “We ask for their names, and use it two to three times during the course of the conversation to add a more personal touch to the call instead of just a price quote,” he explains. “We’ve been in business for 15 years, and I’m a hands-on owner. Our company has a great reputation and solid reviews on our Facebook and Yelp pages.”
Kini believes providing benefits such as workman’s compensation, health insurance, dental, paid vacation time, and PTO is what helps motivate his employees to differentiate Boston Chauffeur from TNCs. “I think if you are cutting corners in those areas, you’re going to give up on the service part of the equation.”
Step 2: Problem Solve
If anything does go wrong, Kini is always ready to solve issues to the best of his ability.
“Being honest with the customer is the best approach,” he said. “We’ll do everything we can to resolve an issue with the customer amicably. It’s important to call the customer, take responsibility, and ask them how you can make it right instead of coming up with all types of excuses.”
There’s a reason why “honesty is the best policy” is widely quoted. “It really simplifies things because now you aren’t putting yourself in a position where you are playing a game of telephone with the customer; one version of the story gets twisted into another and so on,” he says.
Step 3: Listen
Kini’s biggest piece of advice to other operators is listen to your customer. “As LCT Editor Martin Romjue says in his June column, we have two ears and one mouth for a reason,” he says. “Really listen to what the customer’s needs are, ask qualifying questions, and offer the best solution for what their particular issue may be.”
While he admits it may sound like simple advice, so many potential clients are now ingrained in the Uber mentality that you have to be able to decipher needs other than affordability.
“The customers are looking for the cheapest option, and while that’s true in a lot of circumstances, I don’t think the chauffeured car industry would still have any demand if it was true for all of our customers.”
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GroundLink Follows All The Chauffeured Virtues
Since 2011, GroundLink has operated as a provider of “near-demand” executive black car service in major cities worldwide, offering an on-time guarantee, professional chauffeurs who are background checked and licensed, client duty of care, and late-model luxury vehicles insured at limousine industry levels. To underscore its flexibility, GroundLink takes bookings via its iPhone and Android apps, its website groundlink.com, and a 24/7 customer call center.
The chauffeurs, many of them owners of limousine services, work as independent affiliates to GroundLink, often supplementing their locally generated client revenue. CEO Liz Carisone describes the company as a “hybrid model,” meaning the company combines the technology of newer transportation network companies (TNCs) with the safety and reliability of more traditional chauffeured operations.
“We deploy service and safety and technology,” Carisone said. “We offer competitive pricing to Uber Black, but have fully vetted drivers and overarching insurance coverage. When booking, we provide blanket security.”
GroundLink includes 550 partners spread across 110 nations worldwide with a vehicle network of 10,000+. (An exact figure on the number of cities Groundlink serves was unavailable). Its holding company, GroundLink Holdings LLC, is owned by a private equity firm, Comvest.
As with TNCs, GroundLink clients can track their vehicles before pickup. All tracking, communications, and billing are electronic. GroundLink is supported by one of the limousine industry’s leading software and app providers, LimoAnywhere, which handles GroundLink’s GPS tracking and all information for its affiliates.
Background Checks
GroundLink relies on a thorough process to vet and approve all chauffeurs and vehicles. For chauffeurs, the company does background checks, including fingerprinting where required and/or available, as well as licensing and insurance verifications. All chauffeurs are evaluated based on client feedback, and the company immediately follows up on any service violations or failures.
“We have strict standards and keep full records,” Carisone said. “We do onsite auditing based on complaints and feedback, and do mystery (riding) as well. Because we operate in (110) countries, and the industry is not universally regulated the same way, we take care to follow the rules in each country.”
All Classed Up
In the U.S., black-on-black fleet vehicles correspond with service tiers including:
- Economy class: Vehicles include the 2011 Lincoln Town Car sedan, and 2012-present model years of the Toyota Avalon, Chrysler 300, Toyota Highlander, Toyota Camry and the Honda Pilot.
- Luxury class: Vehicles include the Lincoln MKT, Lincoln MKS, and Toyota Avalon.
- VIP class: BMW 7-Series and Jaguar XJ sedans
- Mercedes-Benz class: S-Class models
- SUV class: Cadillac Escalades and Chevrolet Suburbans GroundLink also books vans and stretch limousines.
Chauffeur Pay
GroundLink works with independent operators in New York and Chicago, as well as affiliates around the nation and world. The drivers and affiliates typically get 75% of the rate, with GroundLink receiving 25%. Chauffeurs are provided 15% gratuities and all toll fees.
GroundLink uses auto-dispatching, and recently launched an algorithm that provides chauffeurs updated information on what areas of the city are likely to produce the most demand. This can help reduce waiting times for both chauffeurs and clients while improving customer service.
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Pick-up times vary by city, depending on the number of chauffeurs and available vehicles. New York generally has the shortest lead times, averaging about 20 minutes. In other markets, bookings may require up to a two-hour advance notice, depending on the local availability.
GroundLink uses batch-order dispatching, where affiliates can accept bundles of rides based on time windows and geographic region. “Because we are scheduled and on-demand, they will get a book of business they can accept or reject,” Carisone said. “This allows them to plan and provide driver usage ahead of time.”
Internally, GroundLink relies on a performance-based ranking system for its affiliates tied to customer ratings. Those chauffeurs with Tier 1 status get preferential treatment in being offered the most desirable rides first. Tier 1 requires a 4.8 rating out of 5, the highest possible.
“We constantly communicate with drivers via newsletters as well as bring drivers in on a routine basis for discussion on what customers expect of our service,” Carisone said.
Corporate Clients
For corporate customers, GroundLink provides a web-based account center that gives travel managers real-time access to their ground transportation program. The account center includes an overview of their company’s overall car service spend, a breakdown of employees’ ride history, and the ability to view upcoming and completed rides and rides in progress on a real-time updated map. GroundLink also offers custom reporting and has a dedicated acount management team for corporate accounts. Chauffeurs must carry the company’s $6 million public liability insurance policy coverage. About 60% of GroundLink runs are business-related, while seven out of 10 of all runs and reservations are airport transfers. While it doesn’t publicly discuss any clients or contracts, Groundlink serves a long roster of big-name Fortune 500 companies.
Pricing
Rates for airport transfers, including gratuity, vary among U.S. cities. An economy class ride from JFK to midtown Manhattan costs about $55, whereas luxury class is $65, and VIP, $85. A Mercedes-Benz will cost $105 and a SUV is $115. GroundLink publishes its airport rates for most major cities at http://ift.tt/29Jnbus. The company guarantees ontime pick-ups: If a customer has to wait five minutes beyond the scheduled time, the next ride is free up to $75.
Growth Plans
GroundLink has launched its universal driver app that allows it to expand its base of independent operators. It’s also working on driver support features that include a dashboard with a convenient summary of earnings and payments made to them.
The universal driver app will become zoneless, which means pricing will be based on mileage instead of geographic area. Operators will also have the ability to pick up runs outside of their core market areas. “When we base our pricing on miles, it’s more transparent to the customer, and to the driver who is being paid per mile,” Carisone said. It’s also working on several features to help corporate travel managers stay within set permission levels.
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SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. — Operator Akis Kourtzidis, owner of Sterling Black Car in Orange County, relies on GroundLink for about 60% of his business, which amounts to 60-70 rides per week. His five-vehicle operation, which has six chauffeurs, juggles mostly airport transfers for GroundLink while serving a local business and retail client base.
While local retail clients are more profitable, “lower margin is better than no margin,” said Kourtzidis when comparing revenues on the two types of service. “You have to be a member of Limo Anywhere, and the offers come in via a portal. You accept the ones you want, and decline ones you don’t. It’s first come, first serve, so you’ve got be quick.”
The most convenient aspect of working with GroundLink is operators can take the rides they want and then work them into their schedules.
FASTFACTS: GroundLink
- Founded: 2003
- Headquarters: New York
- countries served: 110
- Affiliates/member companies: 550
- Vehicle network: about 10,000
- Employees: 160
- Client mix: 60% business / 40% consumer
- GPS partner: Limo Anywhere
- Executive team: Liz Carisone, CEO; Michael Mooradian, chief sales officer; Senthil Venkataraman, chief strategy officer; Petar Dordevic, VP of IT engineering.
- Promotional partners: United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, American Airlines, Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Cruise Line, InterContinental Hotels Group, Hilton Grand Vacations, and Expedia.
- Website: www.groundlink.com
- 24/7 customer service: (855) 463-7150
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