Several times a month, passenger transport companies ask us to set up a reservation system with a calculator on their website. Let’s break the myth right away; the reservation system included in WAY-Plan does not allow it… yet it is not for lack of thinking about it, often even! Many of our colleagues do it after all : why not us ? Oh, it’s not a question of technical capabilities, no, we’ve done much harder… it’s a question of strategy!
In this post, we’re going to share our thoughts, the ones that drive our internal discussions and our discussions with you, the passenger transportation companies.
The number 1 marketing tool of the apps
Since 2009, the price calculator is the number 1 marketing tool of VTC booking apps, Uber in the lead. Moreover, it is the first argument of the co-founder Travis Kalanick: book a luxury car in one click on his smartphone and know the price of his trip in advance. No more queues at cab ranks, no more unexpectedly high bills on arrival… Even the cab booking centers have finally got into the act and developed mobile applications with estimated fare calculators
So, it is tempting for VTC’s Little Thumbs Up to equip themselves with the same tools. If the big players do it and customers like it, it must be a viable idea for them too!
Let you control your pricing policy
Very often, fare calculators are set according to the distance to be covered between the departure point and the destination of the passenger, with a surcharge for night hours. How is the fare of your transportation service calculated? Is it according to this time-kilometer logic?
If the mileage is important, in reality we notice that 4 modes of pricing stand out:
- Fixed rates (airport, station, city)
- Packages by zones, for example for the Paris region:
- Paris-Paris
- Paris-Smaller suburbs, etc
- Rates calculated by kilometers traveled from garage to garage
- Rates calculated on the basis of kilometers traveled on the customer’s route only
Increases may be applied according to :
- The day of the transport: Sunday or holiday
- The time of pick-up of the customer
- The number of people transported
- The age of the people transported: babies, children, adults
- The number of luggage
We have encountered all these elements during the installation and training of our users, VTC or LOTI, in France and in Europe. Our role is to accompany you in the development of your company, not to impose on you a way of calculating your rates, you alone are the master of the commercial strategy of your company.
So, to propose a relevant price calculator for transport companies, is to take into account all these parameters … ah and without counting the rates that you have negotiated with your regular customers..
What is the brand image of your company?
What makes you different from your colleagues? A cheaper rate or a superior service?
The answer is in the question, you might say!
Putting forward a rate calculator on your website is to offer him an easy to use tool to have an answer in real time but it is also to send him a signal: “the rate is my commercial asset”. Once he has his price, the Internet user may go to the website of one of your colleagues to see if it is even cheaper. This user will be diverted from your company presentation pages, the ones that value your company.
Will you increase your company’s turnover with Internet users who are looking for a low cost transfer?
