Greg Mendoza is UK vice president and general manager of chauffeur service company Carey. He joined in 2004 with eight years” experience in the chauffeur drive industry, having previously held management positions within National Car Rental and Alamo Rent a Car. Mendoza has always worked in service industries.
How important are business travellers to you?
Business travellers represent the core of our client base, whether direct via corporate accounts or via our ever strengthening relationship with TMCs.
Corporate customers recognise their duty of care obligation towards their employees and understand that by utilising Carey's global network of franchised operations, they can be assured that their employees receive the best possible service with full confidence that their safety and security is being taken care of at the same time. TMC's can offer that same assurance to their clients when using Carey.
How do you tailor services to business travellers?
Carey provides a complete solution for chauffeur-driven ground transportation all over the world (in more than 480 cities). Services can be accessed on-line, or via one of our global call centres based in Europe and the United States. Carey is the only truly global chauffeured transportation provider.
Our US customers can book directly using their self-booking tools or via the GDS, and this service is soon to be available to our European clients.
Carey is well-placed to provide a global service enhanced with full account management provided locally to our customers. We have an established environmental policy, offsetting 100% of carbon emissions generated by our fleet in London and San Francisco, and plan to roll this out across our network in the near future. Our support for the 'One Water' project (a charity which helps provide clean water to communities in developing countries) has generated enough funds to buy a 'PlayPump' in South Africa, providing fresh water to school children who previously had to walk for miles each day.
Where are the growing markets?
We are seeing strong growth in Europe - particularly with our Meetings and Events services - and the Middle East, and are working in China and India to expand our network of service providers in order to meet the ever growing demand for service there.
How do you sell to companies?
Our services are distributed both directly, via our global corporate sales team, or via TMCs. Carey is unique in that we have a global team of Travel Industry experts working closely with corporate travel agencies to ensure that our service continues to be the best fit for their customers.
What are the big issues for your sector?
We are very concerned with our environmental impact and issues relating to safety and security. Our focus on our environmental policy and our ability to maintain standards via our global franchise network ensures we are well placed to meet these challenges head on.
Increasingly, our customers are looking to their service providers to minimise their impact on the environment. This has translated in our industry to a focus on the type of vehicles and fuels used. Recently, some customers have been looking at Hybrid technology as an answer. We have fully reviewed our vehicle choices and have concluded that there is no real environmental benefit in selecting Hybrid vehicles. For example, in the UK we have a fleet of brand new Mercedes vehicles - the E-Class model has better CO2 emission levels than the equivalent Hybrid model from Lexus. This, coupled to Mercedes” commitment to developing new technology in the future, has convinced us that we have made the correct choice for our future. Carey will continue to maintain this level of focus in our decision making process.
How are high oil prices and the weak economic climate in US and Europe affecting the business?
Fuel cost, and in particular diesel costs, have dramatically increased during the last 12 months. To date we have been able to shield our customers from the effects of this increase, but this situation is constantly under review. It is inevitable that unless fuel prices come down in the near future, some of this increase will be passed on to the consumer.
Some business segments are being affected by the current economic situation, it is no secret that banks and other financial institutions are suffering and this has impacted their overall travel spends, and we are seeing downturns in this segment. However, Carey has a very diverse customer base and our global presence means that while we see decreases in business in some markets we may benefit from increases in others.
How are you investing in your product?
We are a service-based industry that relies on our people to deliver on each and every occasion. We constantly invest in training. We also maintain an immaculate fleet of latest-model vehicles - for example in London we operate a fleet of more than 115 Mercedes with an average age of less than 18 months.
Globally, we are investing heavily in IT solutions that allow our customers to access our service easily using their choice of distribution channel, including our own booking tool on www.carey.com. Our service is available on many of the current booking tools and GDS systems in the US, and during 2008 and 2009 we will make the service available throughout Europe via the same electronic booking channels.