INTERNATIONAL Rail’s innovative global booking system International Transfer has released some interesting data on 2019 statistics, which backs-up agents’ feedback, that historically booking transfer services were generally unreliable and frustrating.
Managing director, Jonathan Hume, said figures showed an 81% increase from 2018 to 2019, which was equivalent to over 8,500 bookings on our partner booking platform “Mozio”.
He added, “We had anticipated that figures for 2019 would reach double the volumes booked in 2018. To discover it ended up being an extra 30% on top of that, reiterated the need in the market for such an important product that agents had communicated for years, was missing.
“Our global success pick up rate for 2019 was an impressive 98.5 percent, with the highest successful pick up rates for our “Business Class” Private Vehicle category, and the lowest for economy type vehicles such as mini cabs.
The international airports of Rome, London and Paris came in as the three most popular for airport transfers, with the most successful pick up rates for those transfers that included a “Meet & Greet” service, where a driver waits in the arrivals hall.
Over the last 18 months, the company has focussed on educating agents on how to maximise their success rates with transfers. Hume said the main advice we give is to include a working mobile phone number where possible so that drivers and passengers can communicate in the event of delays. Agents should also try to upsell clients to higher end global operators such as Groundlink, whose reliability rates are pretty much 100 percent.
International Transfer is partnered with Mozio Inc USA and is fully supported by International Rail in Australia giving agents the security and back up of a local partner if needed.
The company has further expanded its transfer division in 2020 in partnership with European provider “Daytrip” to provide intercity transfers with the option of sightseeing along the way. The new service which matches travellers with private drivers is the perfect complement to rail travel where customers may need assistance with their luggage or simply want the convenience of their own private driver and vehicle to take them between cities and towns.
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