BCD Travel partners with routerank to provide trip planning that considers work productivity & environment

BCD Travel Partners with routeRANK to provide trip planning that considers work productivity & environment

With unique travel planning tool, agency offers trip choices based on traveler preferences

ATLANTA, July 19, 2012 – BCD Travel, the world’s third largest travel management company, has announced its partnership with routeRANK Ltd, an award-winning travel technology company that provides travelers the ability to weigh productivity and the environment in their travel decisions and gives them full visibility of the various modes of transportation available. The innovation partnership marks the commitment of both companies to delivering powerful new trip planning capabilities to managed business travel.

In a single search, routeRANK’s unique engine pulls together an extensive list of possible routes and transportation modes that a traveler should consider in getting from point A to point B. routeRANK blends traditional sources with less traditional ones used by business travelers like public transportation routes and schedules as well as drive times and fuel prices. This gives the traveler a bigger picture of travel options. Users can lay out the journey that’s best for them – whether their decisions are driven by price, scheduling, the ability to work or sleep en route, or the trip’s environmental impact.

For example, a traveler might learn her journey’s first leg is cheapest if she drives her own car, but taking the train for that same segment would let her work for two hours. Search options include flights, trains, public transportation, driving routes and video conference locations. It’s especially helpful to travelers who are visiting destinations for the first time and are unfamiliar with public transportation options and local drive times.

“Until now, no single solution has been able to provide travelers with commercial, public and personal transportation options so they can piece together trips as they see fit. We want to provide a travel planning alternative that gives travelers more say in how to best put together their journey while still driving bookings straight through our client’s preferred channels,” said April Bridgeman, BCD Travel SVP Strategic Marketing. ”Our partnership with routeRANK lets us complement the information currently available while adding route and mode options in a very useful way.”

First targeting customers with heavy European travel, BCD Travel will offer a planning capability that is lightly integrated with the client’s online booking tool. Agents can also be equipped with the same information to support traditional bookings. Future development efforts will target deeper integration in the online booking process and the incorporation of corporate policies and rates at the point of sale.

“BCD Travel and routeRANK share a strong commitment to customer choice. This offers powerful benefits for the customer and for the environment,” said routeRANK Chairman and Founder Jochen Mundinger. “The companies are perfectly matched as innovation partners.”

About routeRANK

routeRANK provides a software solution for travel planning. Unlike other solutions that consider only one means of transport at a time, routeRANK addresses the entire travel route by integrating rail, road and air connections. In a single search, routeRANK’s patent-pending technology finds and ranks the best possible travel routes, allowing users to sort them according to their priorities such as price, travel time and CO2 emissions, leading to substantial savings in cost and time, and benefiting the environment at the same time. Custom developed versions of the proprietary software are offered to corporate customers and organizations, for their internal use or use on their own website, in both travel and logistics. Small and medium size companies in particular can easily sign up for the Standard Professional version and website owners benefit from the routeRANK widget. For another version illustrating the software and for more information, visit www.routerank.com.