For businesses with global reach, international travel is an essential part of corporate life. This means efficiency in getting from meeting to meeting and country to country — alongside reliability and comfort — are key.
There’s no time for a company to wait while an employee or client hunts around for a taxi, or incorrectly navigates to their next destination. And for the employee, any time spent away from their tasks is time that could be used to focus on something more productive.
MYCAB, which was set up in Sweden in 2008, has focused on providing a seamless transport solution for corporate travel to avoid this situation. It operates a fleet of chauffeur-driven “ground travel services” from airports and train stations in more than 75 countries, offering a personalised and immediate pickup to fit with flight arrival times.
The company goes further than its competitors and current offerings from travel management companies by covering the entire travel itinerary — taking people from door to door.
In addition, MYCAB offers round-the-clock support and its services are designed to slot in effortlessly with existing travel management companies, meaning there’s “virtually no lead time” between deciding to use the company’s services and making the product a core part of an organisation’s arrangements.
The company has been led by business specialist Nigel Clarke for the past two years. He joined after a stint as Vice President of Sales and Operations at B2B cloud engagement platform Covisint which was acquired by OpenText in 2017.
“The pre-booked management transport market is fragmented, but worth €30bn. It’s quite rare to find an investment opportunity in a market that big that’s so fragmented,” he told Global Shakers. “It’s not a demand issue — no one is consolidating it properly.”
Writing on LinkedIn, Clarke added that a clear leader is yet to emerge in the pre-booked management transportation, while on-demand services are dominated by Uber and Lyft.
“Everyone’s been so focused on the transportation side — the car, the vehicle, the passenger experience — which is obviously important, but we’re thinking about the travel industry and integrating it with the transport. No-one’s really got the end to end itinerary.
“They’ve got the air flight, the hotel/accommodation and car rental, but there’s a fourth tower that’s been missed off, and it’s is this fully-managed, chauffeur piece of the business.”
He said 80% of the world’s corporate businesses book through travel management companies ironically they stop at car rental. “Why don’t they extend the end-to-end booking experience to the chauffeur?”
Clarke is adamant that MYCAB will be the business to take advantage of the rigid status quo by being one of the only companies disrupting it. He told GS that the company plans to expand its passenger services from the current crop of 76 countries to over 100, and to also open more offices and operations outlets around the world — joining current setups in the UK, Sweden and across the Middle East. “Slowly we’ll build up country by country, region by region. Germany, for instance, has the second-biggest demand.”
Clarke’s career has also included a period as Northern Europe Sales Director at Nokia and was kicked off with a degree in Business, Management and Marketing at the University of Surrey.
