Getting With the Program - Carlson Wagonlit Travel

0Ground Transportation: Worth Another LookGround Transportation:Worth Another LookDave Kilduff, Managing Director of the new ground transportation practicewithin the CWT Solutions Group, explains how companies can benefit fromrevisiting their strategy in this area, which is often a low priority for travelmanagers.Ground transportation—rental car, “black car” 1 , limousine,taxi and rail—generally receives less attention from travelmanagers than air and hotel spend. Consequently, mostorganizations do not fully exploit opportunities for savingsor reap other benefits in this area. To help travel managersexplore the opportunities more effectively, CWT SolutionsGroup created a specialist ground transportation team lastJuly. CWT Vision talked to Dave Kilduff, Managing Directorof the practice.CWT Vision: Why should companies focus more on ground transportation?Dave Kilduff: Ground transportation can account for as much as 10 percent of anorganization’s overall travel program costs in the United States and even more in areasof Europe and Asia Pacific, where rail is a significant mode of transportation. Groundtransportation trails behind air and hotel spend, however, and is naturally lower on travelmanagers’ list of priorities. Even when companies do address this area, they do notalways have the specialists in-house to get the best deals from suppliers.CWT Vision: Which resources do you need to get the most value out of groundtransportation?Dave Kilduff: The most important resource is expertise or specialists with relevantinformation on suppliers and competitive agreements in the market. A lot of companieshave accurate data on their overall travel volume, which is the basic starting point foroptimizing a travel policy, compliance and negotiations with suppliers. You needspecialized market knowledge, however, to analyze the data and work through differentmarket share scenarios most effectively. This also enables you to ask strategic questionsin your request for proposal (RFP) and negotiate the most competitive terms, rightdown to the fine print in the contract.1“Black Car” refers to chauffeur-driven town car transportation.