Corporations.
In-house travel programmes. Policy applied at booking, duty-of-care tracking and one coded invoice.
For corporationsFor travel agencies
Your clientstays your client.
Ground transport in 1,200 cities you can quote in seconds, book under your own brand, and never worry about us going around.
- We do not market to your travellers
- Commission or net rates, your choice
- A 24-hour desk that answers in your name
We will not go around you.
Your travellers are not added to our marketing, not emailed offers, and not contacted after the ride. It is a contractual term rather than a promise, because you should not have to take our word for it.
Priced before your client finishes the sentence.
A firm price for any route in any covered market, instantly, without raising an enquiry and waiting for a local supplier to come back tomorrow.
Somebody awake when you are not.
Your client lands at one in the morning in a city eight hours from your office. Dispatch handles it, in your name, and tells you what happened before you are asked.
What is a trade account for ground transport?
A trade account lets a travel agency, tour operator or travel management company book chauffeur transport for its own clients under agreed commercial terms, rather than sending clients to book direct. The agency controls the price the client sees, keeps the client relationship, and receives either commission or net rates.
For the agency the practical value is coverage and speed: one supplier that can quote and confirm a car in any of 1,200 cities immediately, instead of a folder of local operators to email and wait on. For the client, the ride is identical to any other RYDES booking, with the same fixed pricing, tracked flights and named chauffeur.
Four ways to make money on it.
Pick the one that fits how you already trade. Agencies with mixed books often run two side by side.
| Model | You earn | Who pays RYDES | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| CommissionThe default | Commission on the fare at the rate in your trade agreement, paid monthly | The client, at booking | Agencies who do not want to carry the payment |
| Net ratesBuy and resell | Whatever margin you set on top | You, on account terms | Advisors and operators who price their own packages |
| Pass-throughNo margin taken | Nothing on the ride; you charge a service fee | The client, at booking | Fee-based advisors and corporate TMCs |
| White labelYour brand throughout | Your own pricing, end to end | You, on account terms | Agencies embedding ground into their own product |
Commission is paid on completed rides. Cancelled and no-show bookings do not earn it, and neither do we charge you for them where the client cancelled inside the free window.
The thing you are actually worried about.
You introduce a client to a supplier, the supplier collects an email address, and eighteen months later that client is booking direct. Every advisor has watched it happen, usually with a company that swore it would not.
So we write it down. Travellers booked through your account are not added to our marketing lists, not sent promotional email, and not contacted after the ride for anything other than the ride itself. Your client list is not visible to our sales team. If a traveller later comes to us direct of their own accord we will not stop them, but we will not have gone looking.
What each kind of agency needs.
The account is the same. What matters to you is not.
| You are | What you need most | Usually configured with |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate TMC | Policy compliance for your client, and reporting they can audit | Client-level cost centres, scheduled reporting, service levels |
| Luxury travel advisor | Consistency in cities you have never visited, and discretion | Net rates, First class defaults, a named trade contact |
| Tour operator | Fixed costs you can build into a package months ahead | Net rates, manifest booking, group vehicles |
| Destination management company | Capacity in markets outside your own footprint | Net rates, white label, API |
| Online travel platform | Instant pricing inside your own booking flow | API, white label, automated reconciliation |
| Independent advisor or host agency member | To look like you have a supplier in every city, because you do | Commission, portal booking, no minimum volume |
Booking on behalf of a client.
Six steps, and the client is only involved in one of them.
1
Quote it while they are on the phone.
Any route, any covered city, a firm price immediately. No enquiry raised, no local supplier to email, no calling the client back tomorrow with a number.
2
Book in the traveller's name.
Their name goes on the booking and on the arrivals sign. Your agency stays the account holder, and the confirmation, the amendments and the receipt all stay with you.
3
Send documentation they can travel on.
A confirmation carrying your branding rather than ours, with the meeting point, the vehicle and the contact details, ready to drop into the itinerary you were already building.
4
Change it without a conversation.
Times, addresses, vehicle class and passenger names are amendable from the portal. Free cancellation up to 1 hour before pickup, or 24 hours on hourly bookings.
5
Watch it happen, or do not.
Flight tracking, chauffeur assignment and live journey status are visible on the booking. Most agents look once, at the airport pickup, and never again.
6
Get paid or get invoiced.
Commission paid monthly on completed rides, or one consolidated invoice on net rates. Either way it reconciles against your bookings rather than against a pile of receipts.
Speed is most of the product.
The reason ground transport gets left off itineraries is not price. It is that quoting a car in Lisbon means finding a Lisbon operator, emailing them, waiting, converting a currency, and doing it again for Porto. By the time the number comes back, the client has booked something themselves.
One account, instant firm pricing everywhere, and the same booking flow whether the city is New York or Kuala Lumpur. Ground stops being the piece you leave until last and starts being an easy line to add to every itinerary you sell.
What comes with a trade account.
No sign-up fee, no annual charge and no minimum volume at any tier.
Client confidentiality
Traveller details are used to deliver the ride and nothing else. No marketing, no promotional email, no post-ride contact, and your client list is not visible to our sales team. Written into the agreement.
Your branding on documents
Confirmations and travel documents carrying your identity rather than ours, so what lands in your client's inbox looks like it came from you, because it did.
Multiple clients, one account
Book for as many end clients as you like from a single login, with each one separated for reporting and reconciliation. Sub-accounts are available where you want agents kept apart.
Amendments without friction
Change times, addresses, vehicle class or passenger names from the portal. Free cancellation up to 1 hour before pickup, 24 hours on hourly bookings.
A named trade contact
Somebody who knows your agency, in your timezone, for the things that are not a booking. Alongside 24-hour dispatch for the things that are urgent.
Group and event capability
More than seven passengers, or several vehicles across several days, quoted as a programme with a coordinator rather than as a pile of separate bookings. Events and roadshows.
Integration where you want it
Booking through your existing travel management workflow, or the API for platforms and DMCs embedding ground into their own product.
Consortium and host agency members
Independent advisors trading under a host agency or consortium can hold their own account. Volume is not a condition of opening one.
Against a folder of local operators.
Which is how most agencies do it, and it works right up until the ride is in a city nobody in the office has been to.
| RYDES trade account | Local operators, market by market | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting a price | Instant, any covered city | An email and a wait, per operator |
| Coverage | 1,200 cities on one account | Whichever cities you have found suppliers in |
| Standard | The same everywhere, verified before they get work | Varies by operator, discovered on the day |
| Out-of-hours problems | 24-hour dispatch, in your name | Whoever answers in that timezone |
| Payment | One relationship, one invoice or one commission run | A payment relationship per operator |
| Currency | Quote and settle in yours | Theirs, converted after the fact |
| Amendments | Self-service in the portal | Another email, another wait |
| When it goes wrong | One escalation route that owns the outcome | A conversation about whose fault it was |
Keep the local operators you trust. Most agencies do, and use a trade account for everywhere else. It is not an either-or, and we are not going to pretend the good ones are not good.
Trade account questions.
To open an account or ask something not covered here, write to reserve@rydes.co or call +1 888 881 7933.
What is a trade account for ground transport?
A trade account lets a travel agency, tour operator or travel management company book chauffeur transport for its own clients under agreed commercial terms, rather than sending clients to book direct. The agency controls the price the client sees, keeps the client relationship, and receives either commission or net rates. One account covers 1,200 cities with instant firm pricing.
Do you contact our clients directly?
No, and it is a contractual term rather than a promise. Travellers booked through your account are not added to our marketing lists, not sent promotional email, and not contacted after the ride for anything other than the ride itself. Your client list is not visible to our sales team.
What commission do you pay?
Commission is paid on completed rides at the rate set out in your trade agreement, settled monthly. Cancelled and no-show bookings do not earn commission, and equally we do not charge you for rides the client cancelled inside the free window. If you would rather set your own price, net rates are available instead.
Should we take commission or net rates?
Commission if you would rather the client paid us directly and you did not carry the transaction. Net rates if you price your own packages or want to set the margin yourself. Agencies with mixed books frequently run both, using commission on transactional bookings and net rates where ground is part of a package they have priced.
Can we book under our own brand?
Yes. Confirmations and travel documents can carry your identity rather than ours, so what reaches your client looks like it came from you. Full white label, where the entire booking experience sits inside your own product, is available through the API and is normally paired with net rates.
How fast is a quote?
Immediate, for any route in any covered city. There is no enquiry to raise and no local supplier to wait on. This is the main practical reason agencies open an account: ground stops being the piece of the itinerary you leave until last.
Do you integrate with our booking tool or GDS workflow?
Where you already have a travel management workflow, ground can be booked inside it rather than in a separate system, arranged jointly with your technology provider. For platforms and DMCs embedding ground into their own product, the API covers quoting, booking, amendment, tracking and reconciliation.
Who does the traveller call if something goes wrong?
Dispatch, on the number in their confirmation, around the clock in 24 languages. They will handle it in your agency's name and you will be told what happened rather than finding out from your client. If you would prefer every issue routed to you first, that can be configured.
Can we amend or cancel on the client's behalf?
Yes, from the portal, without contacting anyone. Times, addresses, vehicle class and passenger names are all amendable. Cancellation is free up to 1 hour before pickup on transfers and 24 hours on hourly bookings, and the amendment history stays on the booking for your records.
What documentation do we get for the client's itinerary?
A confirmation carrying your branding with the meeting point, vehicle class, chauffeur contact and booking reference, ready to drop into the itinerary you were already building. Three hours before pickup, the traveller receives the chauffeur's name, photo, vehicle and direct number.
Can we manage several end clients from one account?
Yes. Book for as many clients as you like from a single login, with each separated for reporting and reconciliation. Sub-accounts are available where you want individual agents or branches kept apart, with their own permissions and their own reporting.
Do you work with consortia and host agencies?
Yes. Independent advisors trading under a host agency or a consortium can hold their own trade account, and there is no volume condition on opening one. Consortium-level arrangements can also be discussed where the group wants consistent terms across its membership.
Can we see where our client's ride is?
Yes. Flight tracking, chauffeur assignment and live journey status are visible on the booking in your portal. Most agents check once at the airport pickup and never again, which is roughly the correct amount of attention for a service that is working.
What about groups and events?
More than seven passengers, or several vehicles across several days, is quoted as a programme with a named coordinator rather than as separate bookings. It runs on the same trade account and settles the same way. Notice matters more than price at that scale.
Is there a sign-up fee or a minimum volume?
Neither. No sign-up fee, no annual charge, no minimum volume and no lock-in. An account can sit dormant between bookings without costing you anything, which matters for advisors whose ground volume is seasonal or occasional.
How long does it take to open an account?
Send your trading name, your agency identifier where you hold one, and the markets you sell into. Verification is usually a matter of days rather than weeks, and you can be quoting and booking as soon as the account is approved. Net rate and credit arrangements take slightly longer because they involve finance.
Elsewhere in business.
Same platform, different relationship to the traveller.
Hotels and resorts.
A car in 1,200 cities for your concierge, billed to the property or the room, without holding a fleet.
For hotels and resorts
Strategic partnerships.
Airlines, platforms and loyalty programmes embedding ground transport inside their own product.
PartnershipsAdd ground to the next itinerary.
No sign-up fee, no minimum volume, and an account that costs nothing while it waits.