In the past I have written about issues that I feel will impact this industry in an adverse way. I have written about the new green revolution and the peripherals of that reform in our society, such as the Cap and Trade legislation now before the Senate. There is also the sense of urgency that has been place upon business to “Go Green” which has its own impacts on transportation providers. Today, I am writing about something that will have a real and determinable impact on all of us.

There is another revolution that is taking place as well. Technology in the travel space is exploding. There are so many new advancements in travel technology that it is a wonder that the industry can keep up. As an example I had attended a technology conference in Orlando Florida not too long ago and the new technologies that were unveiled at that conference were truly astounding. There are technologies that can organize your entire travel itinerary automatically and make travel arrangements automatically. There are still others that will plan a list of entire trips, including bookings and pricing instantly. These technologies are simply amazing.

One of the things that have always fascinated me about chauffeured transportation is how far we as a group lag behind the rest of the travel sector in technologies that avail our services to the consumer. Our particular leg of the travel industry has always been somewhat of the “ugly stepsister”of the whole travel spectrum and the reason for that is obvious. Of all of the components of travel, we as an industry are by far the most fragmented.

Major travel agencies, hotels, airlines and rental car companies are hooked into a system known as the GDS (Global Distribution Systems – Amadeus, Sabre, Worldspan and Galileo just to name a few) these systems built for the airlines in the early 1960’s revolutionized the travel industries ability to have instant access to multiple airlines seating availability and pricing. Soon, hotels, and car rental companies were made part of the system too, which gave travel agents the ability to book an entire trip for the consumer making travel much more convenient.

A little over fifteen years ago a new technology came into being that caused a revolution in travel. Through the power of the internet the OTA (Online Travel Agency) was born with Expedia being the first to take advantage of online travel. All of the major OTA’s like Hotels.com, Expedia, Orbitz and dozens of others have changed the way people book travel because of the convenience of being able to book all their travel needs at one time right through their personal computer. These OTA’s were built on a model that offers at a discount, unscheduled inventory such as empty rooms, empty airline seats and unbooked rental cars.

Due to the fragmentation of our industry, directly hooking in to the GDS system is not an option for most chauffeured transportation providers, in fact, even though there are technologies available to providers out there that can give our industry a direct line to the GDS, they are so expensive as to make them cost prohibitive to the average operation. So the question is how do the little guys compete? The answers are available to anybody who owns a chauffeured transportation company if they are willing to look.

With the advent of the world wide web, companies have been created in recent times that have harnessed the power of the internet and utilize its tremendous capacity for instant communication to bring the travel industry right to the doorstep of the small to midsized operators. These companies allow the smaller operators the opportunity to plug in to these technologies and offer their services to a larger segment of the travel industry.

Companies that are building the technologies through the internet can aggregate hundreds if not thousands of small operators into one cohesive web platform, thus creating a virtual GDS. These new technologies give the larger search engines like Orbitz and others access to those small to medium size operators quickly, accurately and in real time. This ability to access the smaller operators, give these new internet technology based companies an opportunity to make CPC (Cost per Click) or CPA (Cost per Action) as well as other marketing agreements with the OTA’s, which in the very near future will drive millions of consumers to the smaller chauffeured transportation providers.

At no time in the history of this industry has the future looked so bright. Whether you are an airport shuttle service, a sedan or black car service or strictly a limousine provider or a combination of them all, there are technologies that are focused on your particular niche. If such opportunities are of interest to you, I recommend that you do a little research and find a company that suits your particular needs.  CheapLimoRates.com is a company that can get your company headed in the right direction and bring the new technologies to your world.

In today’s economic climate and with the introduction of these new technologies, if your company is sitting on the sidelines, operating as usual in the antiquated methods of the past, you are going to find yourself well behind the curve over the course of the next few years. The technological age is upon us. It is coming with a vengeance and the smart money is on those who see it and most importantly those who take advantage of its arrival.