eJourney Booking

The public sector spends huge amounts of money on private hire vehicles, whether the journeys are for picking children up from school to take them home, or transporting people to and from hospital. These activities are often booked centrally by a buying organisation, generally a local authority. With so many small companies available obtaining quotes from these can be a time consuming process, which may not guarantee the best price.

The @UK PLC eJourney Booking system is designed to work with the @UK eMarketplace and to provide a quicker and easier method for all private hire booking activity undertaken by a buying organisation.

Functionality

The module automatically integrates with the @UK eMarketplace and provides a tailored interface with the request for quote functionality. This allows departmental users to place their requirements for a journey and takes them through an authorisation loop if required.

From this a ‘route specification’ is sent to selected, contracted providers and the replies are received electronically. Once the company who offers the best price or service is selected an electronic purchase order is created and sent electronically to the successful supplier. The system can send out an automatic message to the other providers, informing them that on this occasion they have been unsuccessful.

Once the journey is complete and has been confirmed this is receipted in the system. An electronic invoice is then automatically created by the private hire company using @UK’s supplier technology. This is sent electronically back to the buying organisation where it is matched automatically with the electronic purchase order and passed for payment into the finance system.

The purchasing department has visibility of all spend on travel and can create activity and expenditure reports.

Key Benefits

• Visibility of all journey requirements.
• Electronic Request for Quote/Service to travel companies.
• Elimination of use of non contracted suppliers.
• Linkage to the organisations core buying and authorisation processes.
• Electronic orders and invoices directly into the FMS.
• Elimination of paperwork, collation and re-keying.
• Electronic audit trail of all activities related to private hire vehicle booking.
• Ability to contact many suppliers for a quote very quickly.