The Reservations Process
The entire process of booking a roadshow or other project couldn’t be simpler – you just need to send us your itinerary and we’ll take it from there.
Below, we have summarised the entire lifecycle of a pan-Global project, from the moment we receive your itinerary to the production of the final invoice for your approval.
During virtually every stage of the process, we employ innovative procedures and technology to ensure operational and administrative integrity.
1. You send us your itinerary and we acknowledge receipt
2. Your project is allocated to one of our Project Coordinators
4. We check your itinerary for any obvious errors or omissions
5. Individual reservations are input into Palmtree
6. We send reservations to all affiliates as appropriate.
8. The project is completed and the invoice raised
1. You send us your itinerary and we acknowledge receipt
Itineraries are usually sent to us as e-mail attachments in Word, Excel or PowerPoint format to the main reservations e-mail address for the UK or US office, which is either:
uk@drivenworldwide.com or usa@drivenworldwide.com or hk@drivenworldwide.com
You can also fax your itinerary to us or if you have a last minute requirement please just call us directly at any time and we’ll be delighted to help.
We will acknowledge receipt of your communication within 15-20 minutes.
2. Your project is allocated to one of our Project Coordinators
This individual is responsible for managing every aspect of your project, even in respect of any amendments or additions that are made by our out-of-hours staff and the final sign-off of your invoice before it is sent to you. This ensures one individual remains accountable for the entire project and you have a single point of contact throughout.
3. We create a new project in ‘Palmtree’, our bespoke reservations system and upload the itinerary directly into Palmtree’s ‘Itinerary Management Module’
Each project is assigned a dedicated alphanumeric project code and every reservation within it, a five digit booking reference. All projects are also referenced by the client company and the relevant individual, so we can easily pin-point individual bookings very quickly, whomever you speak to.
The Itinerary Management Module is a particularly powerful tool and allows us to store, manipulate and distribute your itinerary accurately and efficiently and ensures our chauffeurs are equipped with the very latest version prior to commencing a service.
4. We check your itinerary for any obvious errors or omissions
The Project Coordinator will check through your itinerary, looking for any obvious errors such as incorrect addresses or flight details, inappropriate vehicle selections, spelling errors and that enough time has been allowed to complete the requested journeys.
Because our Project Coordinators only handle roadshows and events, they become very familiar with the standard templates and formats that each our of clients employs and the individual ways that each roadshow coordinator prefers to work.
We will revert to you with any queries that arise from our initial analysis of the itinerary within 2 hours of receipt and offer solutions to any issues that may exist.
5. Individual reservations are input into Palmtree
Once the Project Coordinator is happy that everything is in order, they will begin inputting each individual reservation and as part of the reservations process, we have built in safeguards to ensure the information we are inputting is correct.
Palmtree has a comprehensive and constantly evolving address database that allows us to verify the integrity of the information we have been given.
It also automatically crosschecks any flight information we are given with an external database to ensure the flight number, airport, terminal and arrival/departure times are correct.
As soon as all reservations have been input we will revert to you with confirmation numbers and drivers telephone numbers within 2 hours of receiving your schedule. We employ ‘Callagenix/FreedomVoice’ technology, which enables us to provide driver details in advance of the service, no matter how far in advance the service is due to take place.
An example of a Client Confirmation’ document can be seen by clicking here and this document is sent by e-mail as a PDF attachment within two hours of your receiving your itinerary. When we send you updated confirmation, the details of what has changed compared to the previous document are shown in red.
6. We send reservations to all affiliates as appropriate.
We expect an immediate response back from our own affiliates and we record exactly when and in what format it is received so we can maintain an audit trail and also monitor their administrative performance.
7. The Project Goes Live!
Once the project goes live, our role is to manage each individual booking on a day-to-day basis.
Given the nature of roadshows, conferences and events there will usually be daily updates that will be handled in much the same way as the initial booking process.
Each individual booking is checked in three separate ways to ensure the service is delivered exactly as requested:
1. Project Coordinator Check
At the end of each working day, every Project Coordinator will telephone each of their active clients to chase for any outstanding updates there may be as it has been known for a roadshow coordinator to forget to send an update! Any such updates that are received will be actioned accordingly.
They will also double check any bookings that are due to take place in the next 24 hours by viewing the latest itinerary in the IMM and cross-referencing this with the actual booking details in Palmtree. Assuming this is all correct, they will then send the final job sheet and appended itinerary to the affiliate company.
Once completed, they will tick a box within on the reservation screen that indicates this booking has been updated, sent to the affiliate and that we are not expecting any further updates today. This booking can then be handed over to our out of hours team
2. Duty & Supplier Itinerary Check
This is essentially the same check as the ‘Project Coordinator Check’ but is conducted by one of our Night Coordinators to cast a fresh pair of eyes of the reservation. They will check every component of the booking to ensure it is correct and also to familiarise themselves with the booking should there be an issue overnight.
3. Driver Dispatch Check
One hour before the scheduled pick-up (or two hours in London) for every service we handle anywhere in the world, we telephone the driver to check the following:
- That the Callagenix/FreedomVoice number is diverting to the driver correctly and that his details have not changed.
- That he is either en route or actually in position for the pick-up, the exact address of which is also checked.
- He is driving the correct vehicle and has newspapers and bottled water in the car for passengers.
- He has the correct itinerary for the service and we check every sector to ensure no assumptions have been made in respect of common addresses.
- That he is displaying the name board as requested on the booking.
The Driver Dispatch check is our last line of defence in ensuring the service is performed impeccably and is conducted in sufficient time to allow us to respond to any issues that may exist.
Our final request to the driver is that they remember to contact Driven Worldwide directly if there is a deviation from the itinerary for any reason, perhaps if a meeting overruns and the party is running late for the next meeting.
8. The project is completed and the invoice raised
We pride ourselves in providing rapid and easy to reconcile invoices within five working days of project completion. We can either send hard copies through the post or e-mail the invoice as a PDF attachment.
Our pricing will always be consistent as we price from a fixed tariff in our reservations system, we don’t just take whatever price the supplier gives us and mark it up. This helps us to ensure we are being charged correctly and if there are any issues, we can still produce an invoice for you and resolve any queries behind the scenes.
The individual that handled your project is also responsible for checking through the invoice and signing it off before it is sent to you. This ensures that invoice errors are kept to an absolute minimum but if you do wish to query a charge, do not hesitate to let us know and we will look into it immediately. Obviously, given the many thousands of services we handle every year there is potential for the occasional error but we do take every step to avoid them and we will respond swiftly to resolve any that are brought to our attention.
We do emphasise that the prices on your invoice may not be exactly the same as the prices on our published tariff because of exchange rate fluctuations.
A specimen invoice can be viewed by clicking here.
