Industry leaders and decision makers come together to form TMC’s Mobility iQ advisory board
The Miles Consultancy have created and started their own Development Hub Advisory Board (DHAB) ahead of the launch of the eagerly-anticipated Mobility iQ. The mission for the DHAB is to ‘invent the future of mobility together’.
The board, consisting of industry leaders and decision makers within the fleet and travel sector, will come together regularly to discuss trends and topics, exchange ideas and define a common set of requirements to assist TMC in the development process for Mobility iQ.
Mobility iQ will look to transform a highly fragmented and de-centralised mobility ecosystem through the creation of a smart and sustainable mobility super-app.
The first meeting of the DHAB, although at first an introduction, brought together members to take part in an interactive session and participate with a number of polls relating to travel and transport spend to gather further research as part of the Mobility iQ development process. The results of these polls provided some interesting answers.
The first poll asked DHAB members what their daily priority was within their role in the business. Whilst reducing costs and increasing productivity received votes, decarbonising fleets and travel policies was the most popular answer with a 54% majority. Employee satisfaction and retention scored no votes. Fleet and travel managers across the globe will understandably be feeling the pressure to deliver on the emissions front with the 2050 net zero target in place.
TMC asked members about their travel spend and over a third said that between 60-80% is booked via their corporate booking tool. Another third said between 80-90% whilst only 8% said 90% and above. 23% confirmed that only 50% and less was via their corporate booking tool.
The same question was asked of their business’ ground transport. Two thirds admitted that 30% or less is booked using their corporate booking tool. 17% voted for 30-50% of overall ground transport whilst another 17% said 60% and above. Without having predominantly all travel and transport spend go through a corporate booking tool for complete visibility, travel managers can’t be expected to better steer their fleet and travel decision making.
Next, the board were asked if they had a minimum business mileage threshold for an employee to be eligible for a company car. 57% said between 5,001 and 10,000 miles would be their minimum threshold, whilst the remainder of the group were split at 14% each evenly between 2,500 and 5,000, 10,001 and 15,000 and 15,000+ miles. In essence, a fairly low threshold across
The final poll of the board meeting concerned the decision maker when it comes to travel and ultimately, who makes the call. 83% said that it was the decision of the employee themselves when it comes to travelling from A to B either for their commute or business mileage. The remaining 17% said it was the decision of the line manager and there were no votes for the business.
The results showed that there is room for improvement within many fleets, with there being such low percentages of ground transport spend going through a corporate booking tool and low mileage thresholds for company car eligibility, not to mention the majority of travel decision making being made by the employee themselves. How can you expect to oversee reductions in carbon and cost without having the ability to control how employees move from A to B in the most suitable and efficient way?
Stuart Donnelly, President Mobility at The Miles Consultancy, said:
“Even with such a high priority on reducing carbon, the biggest challenge facing travel managers with such low percentages of ground spend being bookable via the corporate booking tool, despite the rest of travel having high levels of compliance and the majority of employees deciding how they move from A to B, is that it’s near impossible to steer employees at point of search/sale to use preferred modes and suppliers for each journey they take.”
Fear not, because Mobility iQ will help you steer and reduce the cost and carbon footprint across your ground transportation program by facilitating smarter decision making with regards to travelling from A to B and sometimes C.
