New Systems Take The Bumps Out Of Booking Ground

<B>New Systems Take The Bumps Out Of Booking Ground</B>

By Lynn Woods

Booking car services is getting easier, thanks to new reservation systems that are being introduced on the GDS and on the Web. The benefits include more ease of use in booking and a faster process, instant confirmation, and--in the case of the GDS systems--linkage with the PNR.

Currently in beta, and scheduled to be released the first quarter of next year, is the Sabre Ground Transportation Booking script, developed by Genisys Reservation Systems. For the past several years, Genisys has offered an automated system piggybacking on the GDS that enables corporate clients to book car services with their preferred ground transportation suppliers and receive near-instantaneous confirmation.

Now Somerset, N.J.-based Genisys has gone a step further and partnered with Ft. Worth, Texas-based Sabre to create a new script for limousine bookings that makes it much easier for Sabre travel agents to book cars. "Right now, a travel agent has to memorize what the segment looks like and type it in," said Pat Moynihan, director of car marketing at Sabre. "With the new system, they don't have to remember the format, but can just fill in the blanks."

"The agent fills out a request for a booking and instantly gets back the rate, confirmation, pick up info and airport meeting information," added Mark Kenny, president of Genisys. "The actual hunting and looking for a rate after entering a query takes only a few seconds."

Initially, 80 limo companies, including those already listed in Sabre, and eight vendors that subscribe to Genisys will be part of the system. With current subscribers, a confirmation is provided within a minute. The time it takes for a reservation to get confirmed with the other suppliers depends upon the company, Kenny said.

Using the service provider code, agents also can go to a direct reference service page and get more detailed information about the company, such as type of cars in the fleet and whether the vendor provides instant confirmation.

Kenny said that one of the main values of booking cars through Sabre is that the booking is integrated with the rest of the traveler's itinerary. By making it easier for agents to book a car service through the GDS, the GDS becomes more effective as "a one-stop shop." Genisys is in discussion with other GDSs for a similar implementation, as well as such Web-based services as GetThere.com and Travelocity, he added.

Sabre also announced it has signed up LimoStation.com as the provider for limo booking services on AgentExplorer, its Web-based booking tool. "Sabre has a strategy to allow users to book anytime, on any platform," said Moynihan. "While Genisys addresses the needs of our current subscribers, Limostation addresses those of future subscribers." Users also will have the opportunity to view ground transportation reservations, as part of their entire individualized itinerary, though the Sabre Virtually There site. Limostation.com will be listed under the specialty bookings section of the AgentExplorer site and go live sometime in the first quarter of next year.

Burlingame, Calif.-based Limostation, which maintains its own fleet of vehicles was selected not only because of its strong network of service, but also because of its "good XML capability with in-house providers, strong technology background, and strong travel-agency commitment, including a double money-back guarantee," said Moynihan.

Meanwhile, Dav El, one of the largest national limo and sedan services network companies, based in Chelsea, Mass., has unveiled One Road, an automated res system available both on Dav El's Web site (www.davel.com) and in Sabre. Agents booking Dav El cars through Sabre not only will be able to make a reservation within 15 seconds, but also will receive an instant confirmation of the booking, said Scott Solombrino, Dav El president and CEO.

Solombrino added that making a ground transportation booking through the GDS traditionally has been problematic because of agents' difficulties in getting the right protocol, along with a long waiting time for a confirmation. He said that an issue with using Genisys was that each reservation ended up having two or three confirmation numbers, which could be confusing. To solve the problem, Dav El contracted with a tech company to devise its own seamless system. Next month, it plans to introduce the system on Apollo.

Since Dav El rolled out One Road on its Web site two months ago, the Web has become a popular way to book cars, Solombrino said. In addition, "we're getting more requests for [inclusion on] corporate intranets than we did before." However, he didn't think more than 40 percent of his clients ultimately would use the Web to make bookings. "They don't want to book the CEO on the 'Net," Solombrino said. "Many will still want to make a phone call."

While Dav El is providing e-billing to its large corporate accounts, next year any size account will have access to their current booking activity by viewing it on the Web. They'll also be able to view a complete statement of all changes, which could eliminate the need to get receipts. Currently, Dav El can provide e-mailed receipts. Online customer profiles also will be introduced in the near future.

Competitor BostonCoach, which is based in Everett, Mass., plans to launch its direct automated booking system, Auto-Rez, on Apollo in early November. The system already is running on Sabre and Worldspan.

The company's Internet bookings have grown dramatically in the past year, noted Nancy Leeser, BostonCoach vice president of reservations. "Our Internet bookings went from 700 in January to 1,900 in September," she said. "Most are corporate."

Publicly held Carey International, based in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to roll out a new Web site on Dec. 10. One new feature will be panoramic virtual tours of the interiors of each type of car in the company's fleet. "If you're sitting in the center of the car, you'll have a 360-degree view and can scan up and down," said Rick Anderson, Carey executive vice president of sales and marketing. A section for meeting planners also will be added.

Although online bookings still will require e-mail requests, the response time will be reduced to less than an hour, said Anderson. After Jan. 1, the company will link the site to its new Enterprise System, which will enable reservations to be made and confirmed within a minute online.

Meanwhile, InterRide, a Piscataway, N.J., company whose Internet technology enables businesses to book cars from their preferred limo and sedan vendors online, in real-time and in an integrated way, launched its service in late September. InterRide has signed up 14 limousine companies so far and plans to establish a network of up to 100 vendors.

One of the advantages of InterRide is that it enables corporations to manage "all their ground transportation on one system," said InterRide chairman and CEO Himanshu Shukla. "The corporate travel manager can consolidate a department's or individual's use and manage their internal ground transportation spend more effectively." He added, "We're a very flexible solution. We allow the company to set parameters. For example, if a company only lets secretaries take a car home after 8 p.m., only trips booked for after 8 p.m. would be allowed. Our drivers would know about the policy."

Corporations could choose to access the system through the Internet, through their intranet or through GetThere.com, with which InterRide has signed an agreement. The company also plans to integrate with the GDSs, enabling corporate clients to integrate ground transportation bookings with the PNR.

Each limo supplier used by the corporate client maintains a site on the InterRide system. Among the features are instant confirmation, with a choice of three numbers--an InterRide number, a pre-PNR number or PNR number--and different billing options, including the ability to access and look at all accounts in total.

"You could take a look at consolidated usage across different companies," said Shukla. "You could track by client billing number or by company in a single accounting template. You also can drill down and see the trip while it's taking place. The system allows limo companies to send out e-mails or a cell phone message noting that the limo is waiting downstairs."

In order to participate, all that's required of limousine companies is a cable modem, he added. Training at the limo company typically takes from three to five days, although it can be completed in as little as two. InterRide charges each limo subscriber a transaction fee. Companies that have signed on so far include N.J.-based Air Brook Limousine and Best Limo, and Boston-based Joseph's Limousine.

One corporate client that has been using the system for the past four months is Silverline, a software developer company based in Piscataway, N.J. The company typically makes 50 ground transportation bookings a week from supplier Best Limo. Users include members of the company's development team, along with consultants and clients who regularly arrive into the Newark and JFK airports from India.

Shahab Alam, Silverline director of human resources, said that booking these airport runs through InterRide was saving the company up to one-and-a-half hours of labor a day. Previously, Silverline relied on paper reservations that had to be filled out by the traveler, faxed to the limo company, and faxed back for confirmation. The reservation "required a specific format," Alam recalled. "It was very time-consuming."

In addition, a staff member had to spend "all of Friday" consolidating all the bookings made during the week--a process that has been eliminated, since InterRide is sending weekly e-mails that list all the booking data. "I can track where a person traveled, the cost and when he traveled," said Alam. "With paper, I couldn't track some things."

By having a record of each transaction, Silverline also has saved money by eliminating the number of no-shows. In the past, "a lot of guys changed their plans. They'd never show after a car was booked, and we'd have to pay for it," Alam said. After discovering the extent of the problem through the data sent by InterRide, the company since has implemented a new system, in which each booking is assigned a number that easily can be tracked and changed.

Also, Silverline has made it easier for travelers to make changes to an existing booking: All they have to do is call their travel departments. Before, people had to go through a laborious process that included sending an e-mail and a fax.

Alam said he expected the process to become even easier once InterRide introduces its "integrated voice response" system--an 800 number that will enable clients easily to change or cancel a reservation. Travelers will be able to bypass the company travel department.

Silverline is in discussions with a second limo provider, located in Toronto, with which the company also does a lot of car runs. Alam said he hoped the vendor would sign onto InterRide, which would enable the company to consolidate its car services to an even greater extent, plus manage the service better on a daily basis.

Another new Internet booking service, which launched this month, is CorporateCarOnline Corp. The St. Louis-based company designs and maintains Web sites for limo and sedan companies, providing online reservations, confirmations by e-mail, fax or phone, and reviews of reservations and invoices.

Unlike most online limo and sedan reservation systems, which don't allow changes to be made to a reservation within 48 hours of departure, CorporateCarOnline lets travelers change a reservation on a last-minute basis, according to Charlie Miller, the company's director of sales and marketing.

"When somebody signs on to the Web site and submits a request, the livery provider is instantaneously e-mailed and paged," he said. "Within 30 seconds to one minute, the dispatcher knows he has a request. If time is of the essence, he'll know immediately and can respond. We give small companies the ability to react last minute."

Miller estimated that his system results in a labor savings of 25 percent to a limo company. The cost of the package is $1,995, plus a $125 monthly maintenance fee. So far, three limo companies have signed on with CorporateCarOnline: Millenium Limousine and Broadway Limousine in Minnesota and Style Limousine in St. Louis. Eventually, the Internet company hopes to put together a network of suppliers, Miller said.

Two corporations that have participated in the beta, Guidant Corp., a medical device supplier in St. Paul, and Banta Catalog Group, a Maple Grove, Minn., publisher of mail-order catalogs, both report more convenience in booking cars online, rather than by the traditional method of phone or fax.

Booking cars from Millenium through the CorporateCarOnline system "is a lot faster than calling and repeating the information on the phone," said Harriett Veenker, executive assistance for the catalog group at Banta Catalog. Plus, the company benefits from being able to make reservations on its time, rather than by the limo company's hours. "We run 24x7, and now our customer service people can make bookings on their own hours," Veenker said.

Another advantage for Banta, which has 500 employees and books about 25 cars a month, is the ability to pull invoices off the Web. In the past, "invoices weren't complete enough," said Veenker. "We had to send an e-mail to the limo company to find out who made the trip, what was the purpose and what job number it should be affiliated with." With CorporateCarOnline, she can look at specific tags to request information online, and she expects the ability to view invoices online to lead to more timely payment of bills.