When travelers are on the move, ground transportation can be considered in isolation or in combination with another travel element — a traveler could be taking a car to the airport, to a hotel or to the train, the list goes on.
It makes sense therefore that some companies are setting their sights on linking the bookings and data from various travel suppliers — a concept known as the "connected trip," which has been in development for some time across the industry.
“What we're seeing from a travel[er] perspective is that they more and more want to be in control,” said Veronica Diquattro, president of Omio's consumer and supply business in Europe. “They want to have access to all the information. They want to have all the options ... They want to be be able to then choose whatever way they want to travel and do it in [the] simplest, fastest [way] according to the criteria that they ... choose."
But as brands seek to smooth processes for travelers through interconnectivity, friction points remain, according to experts. Diquattro, Francois Le Doze, chief commercial officer of Eurostar and Jennifer Shepherd, global head of Uber Transit, discussed what was working well for their respective companies in a Center Stage panel at The Phocuswright Conference in November.
“We're making a lot of progress in terms of presenting the options to customer[s], being able to [seamlessly buy] more complex itineraries and juxtaposing rail with other rail operators, but also multimodal,” Le Doze said. “But then it's on the D day when people travel … how do you keep track of the customers when something goes wrong?”
Travelers are navigating through what Le Doze described as open hubs — not confined environments — so determining how best to reach, collaborate and to take care of the customer becomes more challenging.
“It's really anticipating, informing, rebooking and making sure that the carrier is also looped into this,” he said.
Uber’s Shepherd also said the connected trip is challenging to create from an operational standpoint.
Shepherd said Uber has “dabbled” with the concept in partnership with Brightline for its trains in Florida. The idea was travelers booking on Brightline to get a subsidy towards an Uber ride, which would be waiting for them upon arrival at their destination.
“We had about a 20% reliability issue trying to time when the passenger would walk out the door and the Uber would need to be there,” she said. “And so we've since pivoted the tech to have an SMS where you click it and the car will be there when you're ready. But it's very hard, and probably one of the biggest reasons why we haven't created the full connected journey inside our app is the operational and customer service side of it.”
The trio also touched on accessibility and sustainability, among other topics, during the conversation. Watch the full discussion below, moderated by Robert Cole, Phocuswright's senior research analyst for lodging and leisure travel.
Executive Panel: Grounded - Traveling Beyond Air
Conversation about the connected trip continued later at the conference when Mike McGearty, CEO of Meili, and Niall Carson, chief commercial officer for Mozio, joined senior reporter Morgan Hines in the PhocusWire studio for a wide ranging conversation on ground transportation.
Watch their full conversation below.
Executive Interview: Standing still or fast forward in ground transportation