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Business Travel Show reports a win-win solution for travel managers and employees

A survey published by the Business Travel Show found that 58 percent of business travel buyers agree that alternative transport providers such as Rapido are a good option for business travel, a 32 percent increase from just two years ago. The survey also found that the number of travel buyers who remain undecided on the benefits of shared economy suppliers has plummeted, from nearly half to a mere 17 percent. These results affirm what we’re already hearing from the businesses we serve – that integrating services like Rapido into their travel programmes is a win-win, for both traveller and travel manager. We’re excited to continue to work with these partners so they can harness the full potential of on-demand technologies. As our General Manager, Strategic Initiatives, Mrs Aswathy Honeylal says “the benefit of this solution has increasingly been realised by most of our partners in terms of massive cost savings due to productivity improvements”. According to David Chapple, director of the Business Travel Show, business travel buyers’ approaches to shared economy services are evolving as they embrace the flexibility and convenience these services provide. “The introduction of the sharing economy to business travel has been a big upheaval for some travel managers,” Chapple said. “Attitudes are changing, and travel managers are finding the idea of using sharing economy providers less threatening.”

Boost Business Productivity with these Tips

The most straightforward way is to tidy up the office space. Studies have demonstrated that our physical environment has a significant effect on the way that we work, think and behave. When the environment is in a mess, so are we. Clutter can also affect general mental health, stirring feelings of stress, anxiety, or depression. In a clutter-free environment, people are able to focus better and their productivity increases. Very often, office desks are littered with tons of paper — invoices, physical receipts from transport, claims… the list goes on. Not just that, an organised space also makes it easier for you to find the documents that you actually need. What are you waiting for? Say goodbye to digging through piles of junk — time to clean up! Unnecessary administrative work? Let’s be real, it most definitely does not spark joy! A study has shown that managers in corporate environments spend almost two days every week on unnecessary administrative tasks that are not core to their jobs. As we all know, time is money. And that is a lot of time being wasted. Administrative work like filing and tracking transport claims may be unavoidable for some companies but luckily, we live in the 21st century where tech solutions are aplenty. Many businesses have turned to cloud platforms to manage operations such as invoicing or even transport claims. Utilising a business transport platform like Rapido Corporate allows companies to better oversee their transport budget, handle trip policies and billing options all in one place. With no more filing of physical receipts or forms, the amount of time needed to sort this out is drastically reduced. Your managers now have time to do the actual work they’ve been hired to do. It’s time for businesses to do away with unnecessary thing like paper. It should come as no surprise that this is actually related to the two solutions mentioned above.

Traveler first Business Travel Program

Your travel program may look effective from your side of the desk, but when’s the last time you sat down and booked a ride or submitted a receipt, from start to finish? How often do you spend a day or two on the road “in the footsteps” of your most frequent travelers, rigorously testing your policy? It sounds obvious, but it’s worth repeating. Employees want a travel program that’s easy to use and seamless from beginning to end. To achieve this, ask yourself the purpose of every click and every form filled out. If you find yourself confused, asking questions, or double-checking what to do, your travelers are most likely feeling the same way. Those pain points explain the “why” behind high rates of leakage from the travel program and other instances of noncompliance, signaling that it’s time to adjust the traveler-averse portions of the process. Action Item: Each quarter, sit down with five travelers at each stage of your travel process and silently observe their behaviors. Ask them where they would find your travel policy, too–you won’t get anywhere if they don’t know the rules! It’s pretty clear that employees don’t want to make and manage multiple accounts: four out of five people are deterred from using any website if they have to create an account. Why, then, should a travel manager require travelers to set up unnecessary accounts? Go to where they are — don’t force employees to meet you. By using a familiar, recognizable, and dependable app, travel managers reduce the number of employees overwhelmed by how to use the system within the program. The biggest category you’ll find these apps in is most likely the relative newcomer of on-demand travel, including apps like Rapido, so there’s no learning curve to overcome. All they would need to do is select a different option within their existing account — no passwords to remember, and no usernames to forget.

Make Commute Hassle Free

Customise your commute program to address your employees travel needs If time is money, then wasted time is wasted money. The kind of time-wasting activities we’re talking about here are explicit work-related activities that you don’t even realise are costing your business money. We’re talking about mundane admin tasks which add no value — the bane of every company. A report by the Global Business Travel Association found that a manual process has multiple inefficiencies. For example, completing an expense report takes an average of 20 minutes. Think of all the employees in your company that need to file a report and start multiplying. It becomes a significant number of man hours. The average cost to process each report? INR 4200! And what’s more, almost 20% of all reports filed will have some kind of error. Correcting a report takes an average of 18 more minutes and costs an average of INR 3800. They say you have to spend money to make money, but these costs are completely avoidable. Rapido Corporate portal is a powerful tool. The receipts are all digital now. No more manual processes. The online portal allows companies to digitize corporate transport. Admins can manage employees and payments, set policies, and get reports on all trip details.

Help your Business Grow and Travel Faster

We built Rapido Corporate to help organisations perfect the way they move the people that matter to them. And while our initial focus was on driving business travel efficiency through features like monthly billing and reporting, it didn’t take long before we realised that organisations needed Rapido for a lot more. Whether it’s helping employees stay safe when leaving the office at night, offering perks for efficient commuting, or creating a first-class experience for recruits. With Rapido Corporate, every member of the organisation — travel managers, finance, HR, and executive leadership — can deliver solutions that improve the business, whether it’s through cost savings, employee productivity or scaling the business. Traveler first Business Travel Program January, 5th, 2021 Traveler first Business Travel Program When your employees travel for work, do they find your company’s travel program more of a help or a hindrance? If it’s the latter, it’s time you considered some adjustments that can make a significant impact. In this post, we’ll look at four hallmarks of business travel programs that can work for both your control, while also respecting the long hours, rushed pace, and often challenging life of your business travelers.

Delight your Customers with this

Delight your customers with this! It’s time to reach the new customers and give them the importance they deserve. Keeping convenience at the core, we came up with Rapido Coupons to significantly speed up the process of coordinating courtesy rides for customers and guests, especially for companies in the service sector. What comes with Rapido Coupons? With features such as one-click trips, on-demand and easy availability, businesses are able to service their customer needs and get them on the road to where they’d like to be, faster. A dashboard that works harder for you The Rapido Corporate dashboard makes ordering, tracking, and managing customer rides simple and efficient. It’s simple, it helps you put more convenience of Rapido in the hands of your customers. You get the option to choose how the voucher works, control the amount you want to give out to your customer and much more.

HELMET AWARENESS CAMPAIGN BY RAPIDO

Research shows that two- wheeler riders reduce their risk of head injuries by 80 percent when they wear helmets. Most of the deaths and critical injuries reported in two-wheeler accidents are that the riders do not wear helmets and to increase awareness among the two wheeler riders, Rapido – India’s largest bike taxi took this great CSR initiative of a helmet awareness campaign in Vijayawada on May 15, 2019. It has been observed that people in Vijayawada highly resent wearing a helmet while riding a two –wheeler. To make them cautious and aware of the helmet safety, this initiative was taken. The major objectives of this campaign were: To bring necessary change in approach of two wheeler riders in every possible way- be it presenting a strong case about the benefits for helmet usage, constant reminders through messages at various locations, mass movement and engagement exercises at every step. To increase awareness & knowledge about the need for helmets in preventing head injuries and death. Rapido is extremely concerned for the safety of its Captains (riders) and the customers (pillion riders). It has a dual helmet policy – where helmet is provided to both the riders. Also, shower caps are provided to the customers for personal hygiene.

Rapido launches 11 Food/Refreshment Centers in Bangalore

The summer wave is sweeping over India and has been taking a toll on the health of everyone around us. Rapido is highly concerned for the health of its captains who brave the sun throughout the day so that the customers reach their destinations quickly and safely. To replenish the energy of its captains, Rapido has taken an initiative to launch 11 refreshment and food centers throughout Bangalore. These centers shall provide healthy and nutritious food & juices at highly subsidized rates so that the captains don't have to burn a hole in their pockets, every time they feel famished after a hectic shift on the bike. The whole procedure is as simple as A-B-C. All they have to do is walk in to any of the centers, show their meal voucher in the Rapido Captain Application/SMS and get their food/refreshments! Utmost care is taken to ensure that the quality of the food/refreshments in these centers is good. "I have been working as a Rapido captain for the last 2 years and have also been earning a decent income. Due to a large number of travel requests and non availability of hygienic and affordable food, I had been frequently skipping meals. These food & refreshment centers launched by Rapido have helped us in many ways. The quality of food provided here is really good and the cost is also affordable. Also, some refreshments are provided free of cost. Whenever I get time and am not serving a customer, I go to the nearest center to have my meals."

Rapido rolls out its Power Pass Subscription Program

India’s largest bike taxi service, Rapido has launched its Power pass subscription program to make the daily commute more economical for its users. With the subscription, users can avail huge benefits on all their rides. Also, Pass users will be able to book their rides without any surge pricing levied on flat fares. What differentiates the Power pass from the other subscription programs is that the in-house developed tool suggests only one best suited pass for every individual user by analyzing the user’s riding frequency and average riding distance. “We understand that every user is different and has unique preferences, which motivated us to develop one of a kind solution to cater to their needs. Our tool understands the user's behavior and provides the best suited pass rather than showing multiple passes and confusing them” Says Hiran Gunasekaran, Head Power Pass, Rapido. Rapido being a customer focused organization believes that such innovations will help its customers save more on their travel spendings. The organization also aims to tackle the issues that commuters face due to heavy traffic conditions, especially during the morning rush hours, by offering an alternative option of a bike instead of a car or public transport to navigate through traffic quickly and reach your destination on time.