Today Concur, a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions extended its partnership with GroundScope, an independently owned business that provides a fully managed global ground transport service. The partnership allows Concur corporate customers to address the last mile of travel and expense management by capturing ground transportation costs, which are still predominantly cash transactions. By enabling business travellers to book a taxi at a predefined price and automatically pre-populate their Concur® Expense report, they will be able to further simplify, streamline and reduce the cost of the travel booking and expense reporting process.

Arranging and managing ground transportation - such as taxis for a business trip - is a time-consuming process particularly if there are multiple journeys planned. With over one half of UK employees travelling on business between one and four times a month[1],  the partnership between Concur and GroundScope will significantly reduce employee hours lost to travel booking, by allowing them to order taxis online and then automatically having the relevant information added to their itinerary. The solution will both reduce the likelihood of employees misplacing their receipts and will save them time when submitting their expense reports. Furthermore, since the traveller’s payment details are securely stored online and the cost of the trip - including gratuity - is captured at the onset, there is no need for business travellers to worry about having local currency at hand for tips.

With ground transportation still predominantly being paid for in cash and currently accounting for eight per cent[2] of all travel and entertainment (T&E) expenditure, it is imperative for finance teams to gain visibility into this area of outgoing spend, to control cash flow and uncover hidden spend often caused by lost receipts or undocumented bookings. In addition to ensuring greater cost control, the online booking system and credit card payment option allows for easier invoicing and automatically accounts for VAT reclaim.

GroundScope is renowned for vetting all of its suppliers and maintaining detailed SLAs to guarantee a high quality of service and safety. This delivers peace of mind and security for customers accessing the service through Concur. The solution fully integrates all of the reservations into the traveller’s itinerary, including pick-up times, meeting place instructions and drivers’ contact details, ensuring the employee and their business have full visibility of their schedule on the road.

Isabel Montesdeoca, Senior Vice President and General Manager, EMEA comments: “Through the Concur T&E Cloud, we are constantly inventing and investing in new ways to make the experience easier for business travellers. The partnership with GroundScope will allow companies to manage their T&E spend on taxis more tightly, reduce cash leakage and avoid hidden spend, in addition to making life easier for employees out on the road.”

“GroundScope is delighted to partner with Concur as the new ground service and the partnership will allow travellers to save money by connecting with a global network of vetted taxis, limos and coaches in real time, safe in the knowledge their travel will be overseen by a 24/7 Customer Support Team available for any ground transportation query,” said John McCallion, Managing Director, GroundScope.