Blog
-
For many meeting planners, transportation may feel like a “cog in the wheel” (pun intended!), but we all know how vital it is to a successful meeting, event, or convention. Today, more than ever, the transportation discussion needs to happen EARLY in the planning process in order to secure the best price, quality, staff, and service.
THE REALITIES OF TRANSPORTATION TODAY
Things have changed.
Fact: the transportation industry was the most ravaged sector of the hospitality industry post-pandemic.
Why? Let’s take a look:
- COVID forced many companies to decrease the number of vehicles and drivers. And if companies didn’t decrease them, then it meant vehicles were largely sitting idle for months, if not over a year, as drivers sat idly by on the payroll.
- While companies were able to temporarily decrease costs on their vehicles by turning off insurance, the resulting reality is that those insurance rates have largely skyrocketed post-pandemic.
- A generation of drivers flocked to Amazon, Walmart, UPS, Uber, Lyft, and Freight. Unfortunately, most of them are NOT coming back.
- New, inexperienced drivers replaced those with time-earned knowledge and experience forced to leave during COVID.
- Due to the shortage of drivers, compensation has increased dramatically in the three years since COVID– often more than doubling what drivers were making pre-COVID.
- Pre-COVID, motorcoach companies employed 2-2.5 drivers per vehicle; but now, they struggle to maintain more than one driver per vehicle. This means that they can’t turn that vehicle around immediately with another driver but rather must let the vehicle sit idle while a driver takes their Federal/ safety time off requirements.
- Oh, parts? Can’t get them! (Thank you, supply chain.) This means many vehicles are sitting idle for months waiting for new/replacement parts.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?While the net effect on meeting planners is that prices have inevitably increased substantially, and availability has decreased, solutions are available, and they begin with updating your strategy. When planning your meeting, our recommendations to avoid transportation headaches include:
- Book early— securing the best available coaches with reasonable rates requires reserving as early as possible.
- Avoid going rogue— don’t throw a wrench trying to save money by booking direct; mishaps abound, and the guest experience suffers.
- Hire a DMC – now more than ever, having a local DMC on your team that is intimately aware of a destination’s transportation vendors/challenges, and has the depth of relationships with those companies to overcome and/or mitigate those challenges, is absolutely essential!
The value a DMC provides in this equation, including vast due diligence done on local transportation companies, knowing which drivers are best and which need a little more support, creating detailed driving itineraries and briefing those drivers face to face, and properly managing drivers onsite who don’t have the plethora of years of customer service experience yet… all of these benefits and more provided by a great DMC are simply more crucial than ever and will translate to a win for your meeting.Transportation arranged on the side or on the cheap can quickly become your greatest liability. Now that you know the risk factors, be sure to protect your program with an accredited local DMC like Ultimate Ventures, the Peace of Mind experts.
Leave a Reply