ABOUT SCOTT FRANKLAND
Scott Frankland is Head of Content at Sengerio. His spirit of inquiry leads him to the world of transportation and mobility to connect with the industry’s leading experts and shine a light on the hot topics.
How to Efficiently Enter the Employee Transportation Industry
Businesses need safe and reliable transportation solutions to get their employees back to the workplace.
You’ve probably already heard it, but employee transportation is proving to offer exciting prospects for transportation companies.
Even despite the pandemic rattling the status quo of the transportation industry this year, we are witnessing transport companies adapt to provide safe and reliable alternatives for those returning back to work.
If you haven’t already heard of it, it’s definitely worth checking out.
In this article, we explore the ins and outs of the employee transportation industry and highlight 4 important tips to consider to ensure your company provides only the best standards of services.
What exactly is employee transportation?
You know the image. The overcrowded and stuffy bus, slowly plodding its way along the busy street at 8am. It’s not exactly the ideal way to start your day.
Let’s face it, the daily commute has become a worldwide problem.
On top of the additional unnecessary stress and other health complications that accompany a stressful commute, the effects of a hectic journey reflect on the performance in the workplace.
In fact, according to a Robert Half survey, nearly one-quarter of workers have left a job due to a bad commute.
However, companies have been quick to recognize these statistics, explaining the recent boom in employee transportation services over the past few years.
As more and more companies are looking into the world of employee transportation to improve the professional life of their employees, what are other benefits can we witness from this initiative?
Welcome to the world of employee transportation.
Benefits for the Employee
Employee transportation services ultimately take the stress out of commutes by providing services from accessible landmarks, that is, where employees can be picked up and dropped off at the end of the day.
The convenience of not having to face driving through copious amounts of traffic each morning provides the perfect opportunity for employees to sit back, relax, and prepare for the workday that’s ahead.
That’s not the only reason why employees tend to go with employee transport rather than more traditional methods such as owning a private vehicle. Workers actually save money by choosing employee transportation whereas on average they spend 20% of their income and at least two hours a day commuting.
Saving time, money and better health. Employee transportation has it covered.
Benefits for the Company
Having motivated and energized employees coming into the office each morning is an essential component to any company’s productivity goals. Therefore, investing into employee transportation is definitely the way to achieve objectives and ultimately create a better working environment.
Not only that, a report found the average cost across twelve U.S. cities to build a single parking space to be $24,000. By removing the need to accommodate employees travelling to work in their own vehicles, a company would be saving a lot of additional expenses.
Not to mention that the reduction of privately owned vehicles also drastically reduces carbon dioxide emissions and reduce traffic congestion.
Moreover, having a transportation scheme is an extremely attractive incentive to establish employee loyalty to the company and also to attract new talent.
In addition to salary and other benefits, company location and means of getting there are one of the most important factors job hunters look for when choosing where they would like to grow their career.
Potential benefits for charter bus companies?
While employee transportation seems a rather large umbrella-term that encompasses everything from bicycle-commuter programmes to transit passes on public transport, an important question is whether there is a hole that charter bus companies can fill.
The answer is simple: absolutely there is.
Charter bus companies provide many solutions to employee transportation that other methods cannot. More specifically, the most important feature is the charter bus industry’s ability to excellently accommodate each service to the exact needs of the passengers on board.
This is especially true as not all workplaces are situated at one location. Many businesses coordinate several projects at different locations and must adopt a transportation solution that offers a flexible model when it comes to scheduling and route planning. This includes providing transportation for businesses that aren’t directly connected to public transportation systems.
By combining this component with the fact that standard motor-coaches typically have more luxuries and features at their disposal when compared to the standard bus, the concept of having on-demand transportation services seems enticing for both employees and businesses.
But this is nothing new, so why should charter bus companies look into employee transportation in today’s competitive market?
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to reap havoc throughout the transportation industry, there has consequently been a severe decrease in the available services to transport employees that can still access their workplace.
This has created a potential opportunity for the charter bus companies that normally operate in the tourism industry to accommodate the demand for these types of services.
The Rome-based bus platform Busrapido is the perfect example with their recent partnership with the UK-based bus sharing company Zeelo to provide safe transportation for key workers.
Proving that even though the tourism industry is currently experiencing a drought and has a huge question mark lurking above its head, charter bus companies must observe and learn from the initiative from the likes of Busrapido and adapt to the context of today’s market and pursue every opportunity.
Employee transportation is this opportunity.
Let’s take a look at 4 useful tips a transportation company needs to consider before jumping in.
1. Safety First
Due to the potential risks associated with shared transportation during the pandemic, many services have not been able to meet the safety requirements to continue running throughout this period.
While several solutions have been implemented on the likes of public transportation, the question still remains as to how effective these measures are in protecting passengers.
For every business, the health and well-being of all employees have become the number one priority to ensure their safety is guaranteed and the security of the workforce is protected. A single infection within the workforce can bring the entire business to a halt.
It is for this reason that many businesses tend to opt for smart-working to minimize the risk of going under.
But by providing safe and controlled transportation solutions for employees, businesses may slowly begin regaining their trust in employee transportation programmes which can assist the transition from smart-working back to the office as we slowly get back to some normality.
Therefore, it is essential for transportation companies wanting to provide the answer to this problem to take all the necessary safety measures to protect their passengers. These measures include:
- Driver personal protective equipment (PPE)
- The use of middle-door entries if possible
- Optimal air filtration systems
- Sanitization measures for those onboard
- Controlled and limited availability on each services to maintain the advised distancing measures
In order to have success within this industry these factors are non-negotiable in the current climate. Any shortcuts or neglect will have a long-term impact of any business and the lives of the employees.
However, if a charter bus company can rise above alternative methods of transportation and guarantee the safety of their passengers, businesses will eventually recognize the true potential and benefit of choosing this type of employee transportation.
2. Utilize your fleet
Keeping in mind that charter bus companies can provide an elaborate degree of flexibility to any employee transportation programme, it’s important to remember that employee transportation isn’t always the standard line or shuttle transportation services that run parallel to public transport.
Depending on what types of vehicles a transportation company has at its disposal, there are plenty of opportunities to cater for the alternative necessities for a business. Some examples include:
- Transportation solutions for employees with disabilities/reduced mobility
If a charter bus company owns several smaller vehicles such as minivans that meet ADA requirements, this is an excellent opportunity to provide transportation solutions for employees that require vehicles with specific requirements such as wheelchair access.
For more information about transportation services for individuals with disabilities I would highly recommend reading Sengerio’s article on Non-Emergency Medical Transport.
- Executive transportation
Whether it’s attending important conferences, or just about making a statement, when a business wants to transport its executive staff it wants to provide elevated levels of standards that shine with professionalism.
Where else is look better at providing luxury transportation services than the experienced charter bus industry?
Providing highly professional drivers coupled with top-class luxury vehicles equipped with maximum comfort and all the essential features an executive member of staff needs to prepare for important meetings.
- Van-pooling
Federal tax law allows taxpayers to exclude from income ‘qualified transportation fringe benefits’. This includes employers using vans/ minibuses to transport employees to the workplace given that they comply with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s regulations.
Therefore, a more alternative approach is the possibility of leasing vehicles of a fleet for the use of employers, rather than supplying the service directly.
3. Manage costs wisely
So far we’ve established that a dynamic fleet combined with essential safety standards creates the ideal opportunity for entering the employee transportation industry.
Which is all well and good for getting your foot in the door, but how can a charter bus company maintain their quality services and flourish into a successful employee transportation business?
Efficiency and sustainability depend greatly upon managing the costs to provide such services.
Businesses want to invest in providing optimal transportation services for their employees, but naturally they want to keep the cost of this incentive as minimal as possible.
Therefore, it is important that transportation companies work in synchrony with businesses to provide only the most efficient services to reduce additional costs.
So what are the key areas to keep in mind to reduce operational costs from the perspective of the charter bus company?
Given that fuel expenses account up to 30% of the overall operating cost, this is certainly among the primary objectives to carefully moderate.
Transportation companies, or more specifically drivers, must acknowledge this statistic and aim to eliminate unnecessary additional expenses. This means avoiding speeding, harsh braking and accelerating, and excessive idling.
It’s important that transportation companies work closely with their business partners to establish suitable routes that ensure vehicles are as saturated as possible for every journey, avoiding dry runs that consequently bump up the additional operational costs.
4. Use dedicated transportation software to your advantage
This final pointers aims to stitch together the previously mentioned tips to provide a seamless and efficient employee transportation system.
Whether charter bus companies are still relatively small or are operating on a larger scale, in general they can greatly benefit from the use of dedicated passenger transportation software.
There are plenty of options out there when it comes to looking for digital solutions when managing the different aspects of a transport company, such as fleet management software, route planning software, and so on.
However, there are solutions that have centralized all the management tasks into one, unique platform. Sengerio is the perfect example of this type of software that strives to supply the powerful management tools needed for success.
Let’s take a closer look at why this type of software is worth the investment.
- Take the stress out of managing a fleet
Staying updated with vehicle maintenance, refueling information, and managing downtime can be very time consuming when done manually.
With Sengerio, you can input all the relevant fleet information directly onto the system, allowing you to keep control of all the various aspects of your vehicles. From this, it is possible to know exactly how much work a specific vehicle has done with automatically generated reports.
Thanks to the Sengerio Driver app,drivers can communicate directly with the operational manager to report any problems they may encounter with a vehicle, or to notify that it meets the required standards.
There’s no more need for the heaps of paperwork!
- Route optimization and fantastic scheduling tools
Route optimization is essential when entering the employee transportation industry in order to provide the highest level of service and maintaining operational costs under control.
With the help of transportation software such as Sengerio, route planning becomes a simple and easy task that ultimately reduces the likelihood of dry runs and the odd mishaps.
Not only that, Sengerio’s Agenda provides an excellent overview of all the services of a specific day where it is possible to directly manage all the specific details. This includes assigning vehicles and drivers to services, and of course modifying any of the service information.
- Generate reports to know exactly where you’re at
Keeping track of profits and losses is no longer a problem when you have software at your disposal. Having a dedicated dashboard means you know exactly how well your company is doing and identify where you can improve.
The truth is that the list could go on and on.
But don’t hesitate to contact us directly or request a demo to see all the other features of how this powerful software can empower your transportation services.
Conclusion
Today, the employee transportation industry provides the perfect opportunity for charter bus companies to influence how businesses see the world of transportation.
Now that you have 4 powerful tips at your disposal, you’re ready to provide sublime standard services for all the workers out there!
To summarize what we have covered:
- The safety of the passengers must be the priority in the employee transportation industry today
- Don’t limit yourself to only a select group of services if you have a dynamic fleet. There’s always someone who can be helped!
- Keep your costs under close control
And of course, all these elements combined with the use of power passenger transportation software like Sengerio to really maximize your business potential.