http://disqus.com/by/jameslimousine/enWed, 29 Jul 2009 19:25:21 -0000http://www.lctmag.com/news/news-story.cfm?id=2859#comment-13578552<p>Restrictions on travel expenditures is exactly the reason we added Business Class Service to our portfolio of offerings to corporate clients. Same level of on time, reliable, quality but delievered in a Toyota Camry with no frills and driver in business casual attire. Lower purchase cost, better fuel economy, and lower wage rate enable this service to compete with taxis and shared ride services on price for anything other than very short airport transfers, and unlike the taxis, we actually show up for early morning pickups.</p>jameslimousineWed, 29 Jul 2009 19:25:21 -0000http://blogs.lctmag.com/lctblog/archive/2009/07/21/LINDA-MOORE-Are-5-Affiliate-Phone-Calls-Per-Ride-Too.aspx#comment-13133172<p>As a technologist it is very frustrating that the industry doesn't evolve to eliminate inefficiencies and wasteful costs of doing business. The current state of the art in affiliate network management is manual, time-consuming, prone to error, and holds the entire industry back.</p><p>Two initiatives offer me some glimmer of hope.</p><p><a href="http://Ratebutler.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="Ratebutler.com">Ratebutler.com</a> has been released in the last 4 months by Lindsey Limousine as a central depository and sharing platform for all your affiliate information - vehicles, rates, contact information, areas served, insurance, etc. It holds promise in ending the redundacy in filling out unique affiliate paperwork that is asking for the same information over and over. While free right now, my prediction is it will become a fee-based subscription service in the near future. It does not address trip information at this time, only the affiliate company details along with some affiliate network management functions (e.g. selecting who you share your information with).</p><p>The second initiative does address some of the trip specific details of farm-outs. Fleetbook has been deployed and available for linking many of the most commonly used limousine reservation/dispatch systems. Reservation details are passed down into the affiliate reservation system automatically, and changes are synchronized automatically. I don't believe pricing, final charges, and trip statuses are handled currently. While I have received a couple of reservations through the system, it has not been widely utilized yet to my knowledge, probably due to a combination of technical issues, resistance to change, and lack of one of the "big operators" pushing the technology. <br></p>jameslimousineWed, 22 Jul 2009 17:50:11 -0000