Business Travel Executive, October 2017

Meetings on a Roll Well planned ground transportation is an integral part of your events success By Jerome Greer Chandler As corporate travel managers continue to ferret out virtually every opportunity to save their companies money at least one arena can still be missed meetings and events ground transportation Its one of the most overlooked spend categories managed today asserts Seth Marcus executive vice president of EmpireCLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services Its highly decentralized Heres the irony of it according to Marcus Large corporations have specific corporate contracts with specific ground transportation providers for their transient business travelers but not necessarily when it comes to meetings and events Historically responsibility may have rested with a different department That makes it tough to leverage discount opportunities relationships theyve developed over the years with their preferred supplier Gary Kessler agrees with that assessment The president and CEO of Carey International says Its relatively new to the managed travel space Strategic meetings management is now coming under the purview of corporate managed travel programs If its new to customer companies he contends its also relatively new for many ground transport providers as well especially the ones that have traditionally focused on transient travel and suddenly see events and meetings as a new way to add value to their clients ground transportation needs Seeking the Elusive Value Add In the meetings and events space logistics expertise and fleet capabilities are significant value adds compared with the relatively straightforward processes around the demands of transient travelers says Jens Wohltorf CEO and co founder of Berlin based Blacklane a provider of black car services in Europe Nearly every company that provides chauffeured transportation says it can do events Wohltorf says echoing Kesslers sentiments But its the experience and depth of local that determines their success Somewhat like the London taxi drivers mastery of The Knowledge having a driver who understands the lay of the land local travel patterns and the best shortcuts can be an invaluable value add Part of effective black car fleet staffing is situational vetting of drivers Wohltorf says his company performs an additional layer of vetting before events This ensures that passengers receive the absolute best service and that drivers know the ins and outs of event venues Business Travel Executive OCTOBER 2017 13