Buyers who do not have a 'ride-sharing' policy built into their travel programme are "violating" their duty of care responsibilities towards their travellers, according to the CEO of Boston Coach Chauffeured Transportation Network.
Scott Solombrino criticised government failure to properly regulate the industry and said transport network companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft, were “playing by their own rules”, whereas established ground transport companies have to comply with stringent laws and regulations.
“I wouldn't want my travellers getting taxis late at night on their own, and with TNCs most companies don’t have a policy for them, so no duty of care - this is a duty of care violation and not an acceptable risk mitigation strategy,” he said.
Solombrino added that the biggest concern was duty of care for traditional ground transport companies.
“Our drivers have random drug testing, we conduct background checks and not all players in the market are doing this. There is not a level playing field - TNCS are getting bigger not smaller and are playing their own rules," he said,
The discussion took place at the GBTA Convention in Orlando, Florida, and followed GBTA research published at the event which showed 71 per cent of companies don't have a policy for ride-sharing and one in four ban employees from using these services.
The study showed that while safety of travellers was regarded as being paramount, not all buyers were aware of specific aspects of duty of care.
Only around one-third of business travellers were familiar with issues such as pre-employment driver certification, driver training requirements, and regulations affecting different types of ground transport services.
The research also showed buyers were “more familiar” with most aspects of the duty of care than travellers themselves, but less than a quarter of buyers were "very familiar" with all of them.
GBTA executive director Michael McCormick added: “A large number of companies still have not adopted policies around ride-sharing companies, revealing a need for education about the benefits and the risks.”
Also speaking on the panel was David Seelinger, chairman and CEO of Empire CLS Worldwide Chauffeured Services, who echoed many of the same concerns.
“When you come into a market and ignore all state laws and regulations then that is what causes concerns,” he said. “There's no balance between the chauffeured industry and TNCs. We even extended an invite for them to join us on this panel but they didn't want to enter the discussion.”
Seelinger added: “We have to abide by rules, we have to give them employees rights such as the right to unionise, and yet none of these [ride-sharing] companies have to follow these rules. They should be required to do this - some of them have grown to be bigger than the whole industry.”
The GBTA survey was conducted online with 810 business travellers and 211 travel buyers in June 2015.