Two technology companies seek to bring more speed and
transparency to pricing for group transportation booking. Both Buster and
Shofur have been growing their network of bus companies and other group
transportation suppliers and collecting data to hone price-quoting
capabilities.
Obtaining and comparing pricing for group ground
transportation can be time consuming for event planners, as Shofur founder and
CEO Armir Harris found when working for a family transportation business and trying
to procure 60 buses for a client during the 2012 Democratic National Convention
in Charlotte. "We had trouble finding 60 buses, so we aggregated them from
surrounding states, but the process was very inefficient and broken,"
Harris said. "It can take anywhere between seven hours and three days just
to get a quote." The Shofur platform has more than 1,000 bus providers
from which event planners can get a quote, either by submitting a form online or
calling a 24-hour reservation line. From there, they can get immediate pricing
based on mileage needed and type and location of vehicle, he said.
Shofur requires its suppliers to have a good safety record
from the Department of Transportation and to have buses that are more recent
than 2004, Harris said.
Buster has compiled a database of 600 vetted vendors to
create an "Expedia for group ground transportation." Planners enter
the date, destination and number of passengers to get immediate quotes, CEO
Harald Kruse said. The database includes each supplier's dynamic pricing
variables, so the platform offers live pricing that is firm other than parking
fees, cleaning fees, overtime charges and other incidentals, he said.
In addition to DOT safety records, Buster also requires suppliers
to have insurance coverage of about $5 million for larger vehicles and does not
allow suppliers to farm out bookings to other suppliers should they no longer
be able to complete a trip. "If they cannot take a trip because the
driver's sick or they got overbooked, it will be submitted back in the system
and we will find a vendor we know and have contracted with," Kruse said.
Both companies target corporate business. Shofur counts
several Fortune 500 companies among its clientele and is setting up contracts
to handle some corporate transportation needs, such as campus employee
shuttles, Harris said. It also provides service for travel management
companies.
Buster also is gaining traction with the TMC community,
Kruse said, and is reviewing application programming interfaces to integrate
into corporate booking tools.
While ground transportation management has moved more to the
forefront of corporate policies in recent years, particularly with the rise of
ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft, group ground transportation remains
largely unmanaged, Kruse said. Simplified bookings and pricing could prompt
buyers to reconsider how they move travelers for certain purposes, he said. "I've
asked [corporations] how much you are booking in coach buses, and nobody can
give me a straight answer," Kruse said. "People are tracking car
services and how much they are spending on Uber and Lyft, so there's the
question of whether they could be more efficient with transportation by
offering more buses and larger vehicles."
In
the meantime, both companies are growing their footprints. Shofur has expanded
beyond the U.S. into Canada and is looking at Australia, the U.K. and other
parts of Europe, Harris said. Buster's plans are largely domestic at this
point, though Kruse said it is looking at Canada and already has fulfilled some
trips there via its current network.