There are six major elements to every limousine service reservation with Global Alliance Worldwide Chauffeured Services. While there are many details that go into every order for car service, these basic elements are fundamental to the services provided by Global Alliance and organize the reservations process. We’ll be looking at these elements more closely in a series of posts, considering how each one relates to the larger service and how our reservations and dispatch team draws on experience to ensure accuracy and efficiency in your reservation. First, let’s look more closely at the date and time of the reservation.
The date and time information is, along with the pickup location information, the most essential detail of any limousine service reservation. In order to deliver world-class chauffeured service, it is key to know when and where our vehicle and driver need to be.
Global Alliance’s Livery Coach reservations and dispatch computer software records dates in month name and numerical day, and records times in the 24-hour military-style clock. In case clients or passengers choose not to utilize the 24-hour clock, Livery Coach displays all pickup times in confirmation emails in the 12-hour AM/PM style, and reservations agents are trained to recognize and convert times listed in this form to the 24-hour clock (3 pm becomes 15:00, and so on).
Commonly, clients will request service times without mention of whether it is AM or PM. Whether this request comes in email form or during the progress of a phone call, our agents are trained to confirm if the pickup time is in the morning or in the afternoon/evening, AM or PM, thus avoiding a potential error in reservation time. Our team is particular cautious when presented with pickup times after midnight, carefully confirming the correct date for such services (which night is the service on, and therefore which date is the early morning transfer?) to avoid a service booking a day too late or a day too early.
Our agents are also careful to verify flight times on airport transfers. On arrivals, verifying accurate flight times is extremely important, as scheduled gate times of flights become the pickup times for such orders (flights are tracked on the day of the service by our dispatch time, thus ensuring that if a flight is delayed or arriving early, the pickup time is adjusted accordingly). On departures, reservationists and dispatchers can assess if requested pickup times are sufficient to ensure that passengers reach the airport in a timely manner and do not miss their departing flights. Our team can also recommend a pickup time for departure services, based on travel time from the pickup location to the airport and an assumed period of time to clear check-in, security, and customs (as applicable) for either domestic or international flights.
Clients are asked to keep service duration in mind when reserving as well, as this allows dispatchers and chauffeurs to be aware, if at all possible, of approximately how long a vehicle will be required by passengers. Stops can also be tagged with times, allowing multi-hour schedules of meetings or appearances to be clearly and accurately expressed in the dispatch office, on client confirmations, and on a chauffeur’s trip sheet. Please keep in mind that although drop off times, which are listed on email confirmations, may accurately represent an estimated end time for a car service on hourly livery service, they may also represent the hourly minimum on a reserved vehicle or reflect total travel time for a longer-distance service. Ask your reservations agent for more information if you have any questions or concerns.
Giving date and time information their full and keen attention is one of the ways that Global Alliance Worldwide Chauffeured Services’ expert team of reservations and dispatch agents ensure accuracy and timeliness in professional chauffeured limousine services.