Corporate travel managers are gradually opening up to the inclusion of ride-sharing services in their travel policies, with several players expressing that the market could in fact benefit from having more ground transport options.
Speaking at the ACTE Summit in Singapore last week, travel managers and management companies advocated that having different options would meet the needs of different segments in the corporate travel market.
“The market is large enough for more players and options. We can have different types of ground transport to account for the differing needs of each segment of travellers, such as senior management and VIPs compared to executives, or booking a single ride versus having a car scheduled for a whole day,” explained Kenji Soh, Goldman Sachs’ APAC head of travel & Taiwan office manager.
Soh added that the onus falls on travel managers to ensure that the service and security standards of ground transport options fall within company policy, and are sufficiently audited and regulated.
This includes special considerations for travel to “red zones” and “high risk” destinations, especially for female and young travellers, said Gloria Slethaug, managing director of Hong Kong-based travel management company Connexus Travel.
“For high-risk areas, we negotiate with local suppliers to ensure the ground transfer is within our travel policy. For example, female travellers in India have their own car at night,” she said.
To facilitate better working relationships, ground transport suppliers pushed for transparent and open communication of safety standards with travel managers.
Dileep Kannan, regional manager, Grab for Business, shared: “What’s important is the oral communication of safety standards and guidelines, whether in the form of a white paper or detailed briefing session to assure them of our safety guidelines. Suppliers can stand to do better in understanding where travel managers are coming from, and listen more to feedback.”
Kannan added that Grab for Business will be gathering a “select group of top corporate buyers” to give feedback on what functionalities they wish to see in the ride-hailing app. The service currently has 10,000 to 15,000 corporate partners in Asia-Pacific.
