12 Jun 2025
Fragmented taxi booking: The hidden cost to business travel
While many businesses have invested heavily in optimising their travel operations – particularly for flights, accommodation and expense reporting – ground transport remains a common blind spot, despite most business trips beginning and ending on the road. This creates a patchwork of booking methods, a lack of visibility and serious vulnerabilities in cost control, safety and compliance. According to CMAC Group’s Business Travel Report, 50% of business travellers still book their own taxis directly, and 63% of companies lack any form of managed taxi programme. For organisations striving to improve travel efficiency and protect their workforce, this is an issue that demands immediate attention.
Disconnected systems create operational chaos
One of the most critical challenges is the fragmented nature of taxi booking responsibility. Employees may book their own taxis, but just as often the task falls to line managers, HR departments, executive assistants or travel coordinators. This decentralisation means that no single party has complete visibility or accountability. Without a unified platform, tracking who booked what, where and when, becomes an almost impossible task.
This lack of transparency directly undermines the ability to ensure compliance with corporate travel policies. It also inflates costs, as independent bookings frequently bypass negotiated rates and preferred supplier agreements. Furthermore, finance teams are left with a huge administrative burden.
The hidden risks of poor visibility
Beyond inefficiency, a greater concern is traveller safety. CMAC’s data shows that 40% of business travellers make every trip alone, and nearly half use taxis outside standard working hours. Despite this, a third of travellers do not inform anyone of their journey details. This presents a major duty of care gap. If a crisis occurs, companies are unable to locate or support their employees quickly. Unregulated providers or late-night bookings increase security risks, with no reporting or response protocols in place.
Restrictions intended to control spending may inadvertently heighten these dangers. For instance, 27% of businesses impose limits on taxi costs, while 18% restrict the number of journeys and 17% cap mileage. Such controls may drive employees to prioritise cost over safety, reliability or accountability.
The cash problem: safety and compliance at risk
The outdated practice of paying for taxis with cash continues to be surprisingly common. Almost one in four business travellers still rely on it. This introduces several challenges. Cash cannot be tracked, verified or automatically reconciled, which makes it incompatible with any robust expense or compliance system.
In contrast, electronic and centralised payment systems offer greater transparency, streamlined expense management and improved financial control.
The solution: a centralised platform for every ground journey
Solving the challenges of fragmented taxi travel requires more than better policy enforcement. It calls for smarter, integrated systems. CMAC simplifies ground transport through a fully managed taxi solution that consolidates all aspects of business taxi travel into one configurable platform with a range of built in automation. Whether used directly or in partnership with a travel management company, the system integrates with more than 35 ground transport supply APIs to give customers access to 6m vetted vehicles, from taxis and electric vehicles, to exec, MPVs and even coach, delivering a consistent, scalable solution for nationwide and international travel.
Every journey booked through CMAC is supported by real-time monitoring, GPS tracking and a 24/7 operations team. This ensures full visibility and swift intervention. Travellers receive automatic notifications about their driver and vehicle, adding an extra layer of reassurance. Finance teams benefit from centralised invoicing, removing the need for cash transactions and significantly reducing the reconciliation burden. Most importantly, the system ensures that travel aligns with internal policy and duty of care requirements without creating friction for the end user.
With more than five million journeys annually and 99% customer satisfaction, CMAC delivers both scale and reliability. Businesses can be confident that their taxi provision is not only efficient but also safe, compliant and cost-effective.
From fragmented to future ready
The message is clear. Fragmented taxi booking creates risk as well as inefficiency. Disconnected systems lead to higher costs, weaker compliance and reduced traveller safety. For those that care about protecting their people, managing budgets effectively and meeting regulatory responsibilities, the current approach is no longer fit for purpose.
CMAC empowers organisations to swap reactive travel management for a smarter, safer and more transparent future.
For more information visit CMAC’s booth L43 at the Business Travel Show.
Disconnected systems create operational chaos
One of the most critical challenges is the fragmented nature of taxi booking responsibility. Employees may book their own taxis, but just as often the task falls to line managers, HR departments, executive assistants or travel coordinators. This decentralisation means that no single party has complete visibility or accountability. Without a unified platform, tracking who booked what, where and when, becomes an almost impossible task.
This lack of transparency directly undermines the ability to ensure compliance with corporate travel policies. It also inflates costs, as independent bookings frequently bypass negotiated rates and preferred supplier agreements. Furthermore, finance teams are left with a huge administrative burden.
The hidden risks of poor visibility
Beyond inefficiency, a greater concern is traveller safety. CMAC’s data shows that 40% of business travellers make every trip alone, and nearly half use taxis outside standard working hours. Despite this, a third of travellers do not inform anyone of their journey details. This presents a major duty of care gap. If a crisis occurs, companies are unable to locate or support their employees quickly. Unregulated providers or late-night bookings increase security risks, with no reporting or response protocols in place.
Restrictions intended to control spending may inadvertently heighten these dangers. For instance, 27% of businesses impose limits on taxi costs, while 18% restrict the number of journeys and 17% cap mileage. Such controls may drive employees to prioritise cost over safety, reliability or accountability.
The cash problem: safety and compliance at risk
The outdated practice of paying for taxis with cash continues to be surprisingly common. Almost one in four business travellers still rely on it. This introduces several challenges. Cash cannot be tracked, verified or automatically reconciled, which makes it incompatible with any robust expense or compliance system.
In contrast, electronic and centralised payment systems offer greater transparency, streamlined expense management and improved financial control.
The solution: a centralised platform for every ground journey
Solving the challenges of fragmented taxi travel requires more than better policy enforcement. It calls for smarter, integrated systems. CMAC simplifies ground transport through a fully managed taxi solution that consolidates all aspects of business taxi travel into one configurable platform with a range of built in automation. Whether used directly or in partnership with a travel management company, the system integrates with more than 35 ground transport supply APIs to give customers access to 6m vetted vehicles, from taxis and electric vehicles, to exec, MPVs and even coach, delivering a consistent, scalable solution for nationwide and international travel.
Every journey booked through CMAC is supported by real-time monitoring, GPS tracking and a 24/7 operations team. This ensures full visibility and swift intervention. Travellers receive automatic notifications about their driver and vehicle, adding an extra layer of reassurance. Finance teams benefit from centralised invoicing, removing the need for cash transactions and significantly reducing the reconciliation burden. Most importantly, the system ensures that travel aligns with internal policy and duty of care requirements without creating friction for the end user.
With more than five million journeys annually and 99% customer satisfaction, CMAC delivers both scale and reliability. Businesses can be confident that their taxi provision is not only efficient but also safe, compliant and cost-effective.
From fragmented to future ready
The message is clear. Fragmented taxi booking creates risk as well as inefficiency. Disconnected systems lead to higher costs, weaker compliance and reduced traveller safety. For those that care about protecting their people, managing budgets effectively and meeting regulatory responsibilities, the current approach is no longer fit for purpose.
CMAC empowers organisations to swap reactive travel management for a smarter, safer and more transparent future.
For more information visit CMAC’s booth L43 at the Business Travel Show.
