Five Minutes with Daniel Price, CEO and Co-Founder at Jyrney

James Beagrie
James Beagrie
Last Updated: 28 July 2022
Daniel Price, CEO and Co-Founder at Jyrney.

Our Five Minutes with… this month is with Daniel Price, Co-Founder and CEO of Jyrney.

What’s your role and how’s it going?

I’m CEO and co-founder of Jyrney. We started the business just before lockdown – it wasn’t the best timing to deliver a global travel platform three weeks before global travel stopped completely, but travel was always coming back. Because of the way it did, with homeworking more of a thing, people are travelling differently, ground transport has moved up the agenda and we’re generating a lot of interest. Meon was our first TMC client, taking a passenger across London, and we’ve another four or five TMCs coming on board. We also won the Innovation Faceoff at the Business Travel Show against some big hitters. The phones and emails haven’t stopped since.

Do you have a giant-killing USP?

Yes, we’ve built this whole system for the intermediary, with the TMC in mind. That’s not been done before. Most of our competitors built systems to go either direct to corporate or consumer or just rebadged a product from another industry. They can provide content, but it’s not the same service. Our customers can access all the ground transport they need, they don’t need to plug in several different solutions; if they want ride-hailing, black car service, or just a minicab, they can get it all on a single platform. We’ll manage that service as well.

Are there other benefits for a TMC?

Ground transport is less than 3% of a TMC’s business, but every airport trip is two journeys, so where are those bookings going and why don’t TMCs have them? We’re giving our customers the opportunity to collect all those bookings. TMCs don’t want the burden of managing a small ancillary like ground transport, so it makes sense for us to do it.

How is the focus on duty of care affecting you?

It’s one of our cornerstones; when you’re booking a taxi outside of plan, not only can you not follow the cost, the CO2 and other things that are important, you’re putting someone into a car with a stranger. It’s possibly the most vulnerable part of the trip for the traveller. Jyrney enables a TMC to put their arms around the traveller during the riskiest part.

What about sustainability?

We’re not going to hit net zero with a scruffy hand-written receipt that says £45, A to B Cabs, because we don’t know the car, we don’t know the journey, we’ve no idea how many miles or what the CO2 is. Our tracking will enable us to do that. We will soon be able to show all the CO2 emitted and offer an offsetting programme.

Will you deal directly with corporate clients?

If there is a corporate that wants to use us, we are happy to have the conversation to see how we can integrate into the tools they use.

What’s the next big thing in your sector?

The next big shift will be electric vehicles (EV), a big factor in sustainability. You can book them on our system and where you can’t, we offset the CO2. It’s about providing EVs but ensuring the TMC knows this and that they’re tracked.

What’s next for Jyrney?

We’re starting with UK bookings, but in the next six to eight weeks we will switch on our international reach. We will be bringing on board large partners you will want to work with. There are a lot of players and we’ll be simplifying the booking process.

Any advice or travel hacks to recommend?

There’s a shortage of staff in travel, including taxi drivers. There are probably 20-30,000 fewer drivers than last year. A lot of TMCs are booking taxis last minute, but it’s harder to obtain a vehicle. Usually, flights are booked three weeks in advance, hotels three days before and taxis three minutes after you need it. If you book a taxi early, you can always change it.

Finally, tell us your after-dinner story

In the 2008 financial crisis, I was still travelling, but a lot of people stopped and there was an abundance of loyalty programme miles and free nights given out. My wife and I flew business class with our miles and stayed in Cozumel. We were not long married and it pretty much cost nothing. We met two older couples who took us under their wing and bought us dinner even though we told them how little we’d paid for our holiday. I told them at great length how to earn and spend air miles and as we were leaving, I got business cards from both guys we’d befriended. One was the CEO of an oil drilling company and the other the CEO of one of America’s largest banks. And there was I telling them how to amass air miles and save money!

To find out more about how Meon and Jyrney can help your company with its ground transportation needs please get in touch with us by email at [email protected] or by telephone 0116 264 5270.

get in touch

View our privacy policy for details on the use of your personal data.

Like this article? Share it!

LinkedIn
Twitter