For successful meetings, getting there is as important as being there – and chauffeured executive solutions provide the answer.
When incidents around passenger security and duty of care make headline news, the wellbeing and safety of meeting participants rise to top-of-mind concerns for travel managers and meetings planners responsible for making choices around group ground transportation solutions.
In planning events, there’s a chain of schedules, travel itineraries and appointments that need to come together more or less flawlessly to bring everyone together at the right place, at the right time. Still, as we all know, the best-laid plans can go wrong. Unexpected delays in the air and on the ground can result in disruptions or diversions, missed connections, drama and headaches, both for attendees and planners.
“The best planned meeting can go terribly awry if ground transportation to the event is disrupted,” says Robert Sanders, COO of LEROS Meetings and Incentives.
However, thanks to an extensive network of sophisticated ground transportation options, travel arrangers can rally from such potential disaster. Black car and chauffeured services are ready to transport VIPs, executives and speakers, while chartered airport shuttles move attendees to multiple hotels. Add to the mix passenger vans, mini-buses, passenger buses and motor coaches for large delegations and incentive excursions.
While ground transportation accounts for a relatively small portion of overall travel spend, a Global Business Travel Association survey conducted with the National Limousine Association in June 2024, indicates it is critically important for “duty of care, traveler satisfaction, and operational efficiency” in meetings and events. Group transportation is expected to be a strong segment, driven by the ongoing return of in-person meetings.
Rick Versace, president and CEO of A1A Global Ground Transportation says as travel managers and meeting planners raise the bar on duty of care, professional ground transportation isn’t a luxury. “It’s a strategic necessity,” Versace says, adding, “Through organizations like the National Limousine Association, our industry continually invests in research, safety standards, training and advocacy to meet those expectations.”
GBTA’s ground transportation research confirms the strategic value of group transportation. Since the post-pandemic recovery of business travel is being largely driven by in-person meetings and events, group transportation is considered essential to sustain this trend.
Consolidating travel into a single process, such as shuttle service for groups, is more efficient and easier to manage than numerous individual trips, and the majority of travel managers (63 percent) see shuttle/van services as more cost-effective for group and project travel than individual transportation. Further, ground transportation for meetings and events, specifically shuttles/vans, is widely considered more sustainable than individual transportation options, which helps companies with their green travel goals.