Category: Industry News

Passenger rights and service provider responsibilities

In recent years, there’s been growing public concern about ground transportation safety, especially in light of safety-related news stories related to the new breed of ride-sharing services such as Lyft and Uber that rely on smartphone ride-hailing apps. Many riders have been wondering: What are my rights as a passenger? And what exactly should I expect from my driver and from ground transportation companies? A recent online survey found that 91% of U.S. adults over the age of 17 believed there should be mandatory rules and regulations for ride-hailing drivers. Read More

Concur-Outlook Beta Version Expected This Summer

A lot of our corporate clients use the Concur travel and expense management tool for business flights, hotels and car service. And ever since Concur was bought in 2014 by the multinational software giant SAP, there have been rumblings about expected technology improvements.

On May 18th Concur and Microsoft announced a significant improvement – one that could affect all of the Concur business users who use Microsoft Outlook as part of Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 product. Soon, clients who use both Concur and Office 365 Outlook will be able to book travel and organize their expense receipts within Outlook. Users will be able to simply opt into the service. No formal release date was given, but a beta version release is expected this summer.

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A Ride from uber: Know What You’re Getting Into

There’s no doubt that a ride from Uber is catching on as a way to get around. According to the company, Uber drivers make more than 2 million rides per day around the world. But Uber has come under some close scrutiny lately, and the service has a few drawbacks. In many cases, a more private transportation service company may be a better choice compared to Uber or Lyft. Here are a few reasons why.

A Professional, Safer Transportation Experience

Uber drivers undergo a basic background check, with additional requirements for UberX, UberTaxi and UberBlack drivers. However, these checks are all are third-party background checks, not government-executed nor anchored by fingerprints like the checks required for taxicab and livery drivers. Third-party checks are 43 times more likely to miss criminality. These precautions disqualify thousands of potential Uber drivers a year, which makes you wonder how many unsafe drivers slip in under the radar, or how many Uber drivers have legal or driving records that are older than the three- to seven-year windows for Uber’s background checks.

A driver with a criminal background can simply submit his cousin’s Social Security and driver’s license numbers to Uber. And a “safe” Uber cabbie, once he learns he’ll have to drive 65 hours a week to make ends meet, may let his criminally negligent cousin take the Uber phone and car to go drive some fares.

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Each year we take a look at the forecasts for the coming year to see what the experts are predicting with respect to business travel.

For this forecast we reviewed the American Express Global Business Travel Forecast 2016, which makes predictions regarding air travel, hotel and ground transportation prices. Read More

A recent Ground Transportation study released this summer by the GBTA Foundation identified the most important factors business travelers consider when choosing ground transportation.

As you can imagine the 3 most important factors were:

1. vehicle safety
2. availability for a timely pickup
3. convenience of payment methods

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