Having been involved in British Columbia and Alberta’s transportation industries for a long time I like to read as much of the transportation blogosphere as possible. I have noticed a lot of company blogs are starting to write things like, “the cheapest rate is not the best rate”. Most of these blogs follow that statement with a paragraph about how the cheapest transportation rate will buy you the dirtiest, least safe and poorest maintained vehicle and driver on the road. These blogs are popping up everywhere… it is almost as though an industry group has passed out a template. For the most part I think that these companies are well intentioned; wanting to communicate that providing transportation is not inexpensive. In the current economic situation transportation providers (like most sectors) are finding that their guests are pushing back on price.
Providing transportation is not cheap but it is simply not true that there is a direct correlation between the price you pay and the service you receive. The cheap rate, cheap service correlation is not the only transportation equation that doesn’t work. The reverse is also suspect. Just because a company charges a lot doesn’t mean they place a high value on service.
In our experience the correlation between service received while booking and the service received in transit is a much better indicator. The level of interest and service you receive from your booking agent is a great way to determine the value the company places on great service. If you discover early that the agent you are talking to knows the industry, knows the community and understands your needs you can be confident.
With that in mind here are three questions that can provide you with lots of valuable insight during that first conversation with a potential transportation provider:
- Can you describe the vehicle we will travel in? The operator should take the time to describe make, model and year. In the transportation industry a 5 year old vehicle is getting old. Your operator should be able to instill some confidence that they understand the transportation industry.
- Tell me about your drivers. How are the licensed? I always want to hear things like… our drivers are all local and know the route, our drivers go through an extensive training and licensing process, our drivers wear uniforms etc.
- What is the weather like? The operator should give you a sense that they are to linked to the community in which they are providing service. Some operators are not in the location that the actual service is being provided… this isn’t always a major problem but I like to know that service providers care about and are engaged in the community to some level. This is also a great way to determine whether this company wants to help you or just get your name on the contract… do they care that you are going skiing or mountain biking on your holiday?
Because our company serves Vancouver, Whistler, Victoria, Calgary, Banff, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal we make sure that our people live in, care about and understand those places. Our goal has been to provide inexpensive and high quality customer focused services. We think cheap transportation can be GREAT transportation. We know expensive transportation can be LOUSY transportation. With that in mind make sure the provider you choose knows the transportation industry, understands their community and cares about you getting great service.
