Ground transportation is an integral part of almost every business trip yet it's still seriously lacking the focus it needs in many corporate travel policies. It's the part of the journey that can pose the greatest threat to business travellers and is something that companies need to take serious steps to address.
In my previous article, I talked about the complexities of this market and what organisations can do to ensure that they factor ground transportation options into their policies. Although the protection of the traveller is paramount, there's far more to consider when assessing which TNCs (Transportation Network Companies) or ground transportation providers should be approved for corporate use. The use of the wrong provider, whether sanctioned or not, can have far-reaching implications for your organisation.
The following is a basic framework that can be used by organisations of any size to carry out the necessary due diligence on proposed providers and assess their suitability for corporate use.
A step-by-step process to carrying out due diligence
1 List the countries in which your organisation operates or to which your employees travel routinely.
2 Award each country a risk level — Level 1 = low risk / Level 5 = high risk — according to your organisation's appetite for risk (or utilise the services of a travel risk management company to support you with this).
3 For higher risk level 4 and 5 countries, adopt enhanced due diligence measures to determine mitigation controls to be put in place, eg the use of secure journey management services.
4 For risk level 1, 2 and 3 countries consider what is the minimum level of accreditation your organisation seeks from a ground transportation provider to ensure the safety of your travellers, satisfy your duty of care obligations and protect your reputation.
The questions to ask ground transportation providers
As part of your due diligence, it's then important to ask proposed ground transportation providers questions about their operating procedures.
There are five key areas that you need to consider:
1 Insurance
The risk
There is an accident or theft of items from the vehicle, necessitating a claim.
Due diligence checks required
- Does the transport provider have company liability insurance? Does it provide umbrella cover for the whole fleet or do drivers have to insure their vehicles personally?
- What if there is no company? Whom do you claim against then? Assuming the driver and vehicle are insured, is the cover in effect 24/7 or only active when certain criteria have been met?
2 Data and cyber security
The risk
Theft and misuse of personal data and/or credit card information
Due diligence checks required
- Where is the data being stored, what is it being used for, who has access to it? Is it shared and if so, who with?
- Is the operator GDPR and PCI compliant?
3 Personal vetting
The risk
An employee is attacked by a driver or injured in an accident due to the driver's incapacity to drive safely.
Due diligence checks required
- Has the transport provider conducted CRB, biometric or equivalent testing and if they have, was it just done the once or do they routinely have a re-occurring check or subscribe to a service which alerts them to any misdemeanours or convictions?
- Has the transport provider undertaken an occupational health check on the driver to ascertain that they are fit physically and mentally?
- Is the driver fully licensed to carry passengers and in what jurisdictions? How often is that checked?
- Who is liable for workers compensation or personal injury?
4 Corporate governance
The risk
You sanction use of companies that could damage your reputation through their own lack of concern for important issues.
Due diligence checks required
- How does the transport provider deal with discrimination, inequality, general behaviour?
- What about the environment? Are they concerned with rising emissions and congestion?
- What about their profits? Do they entertain surge pricing and/or tax avoidance?
5 Monitoring
The risk
To fulfil duty of care obligations, you need to monitor the entire business trip, not just where your employee is travelling to and in which hotel they're staying. If you're approving an airline or hotel as a safe option, then why not the same for the ground transportation provider?
Due diligence checks required
- Can you monitor this part of the traveller's journey through your tracking system?
- Are you able to provide the traveller with key information before they travel, such as driver name and photo, vehicle description and registration number?
- Does your system trigger an alert for you to prepare a risk assessment in advance of the trip?
Remember, there may be significant differences in the operating standards of the same TNC across different jurisdictions. Do they apply the same checks and controls in all jurisdictions in which they operate? If not, in which jurisdictions do they apply them?
By following these simple steps and asking the appropriate questions, you'll be in a much stronger position to assess the suitability of any proposed ground transportation providers and ensure that your policies can better protect both your personnel and your organisation.
Dealing with the complexities
Deciding which ground transportation providers to approve can be complicated. It's a fragmented market and there's an ever changing mix of factors to consider: whether providers trusted in some parts of the world may be potentially falling short in others when it comes to passenger safety; the regional differences in transportation infrastructures; the ease of booking and use; the cost considerations.
With the rapid growth in the number of different ground transportation options, particularly the usage of ride-hailing services, it can be an understandably complicated minefield for travel managers to navigate — but it does need to be navigated.
By failing to address the issues, not only are you potentially putting your personnel at risk but your organisation could also find itself facing legal and reputational ramifications. As case law highlights, employers can be deemed to have breached their duty of care by failing to do everything that was reasonable in the circumstances to keep their employees safe from harm. Ground transportation may present complexities and challenges but organisations need to figure out how to overcome them.