Q&A With Amir Zafar CEO of GRiDD Technologies
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With close to 30 years of experience in system integration and technology-related ventures, GRiDD Technologies CEO Amir Zafar launched his current company in August 2011 to provide much-needed connectivity solutions for the luxury ground transportation industry. Chauffeur Driven spoke to Zafar about GRiDD’s groundbreaking connectivity platform GNet, and what’s coming from the developer.
GRiDD Technologies CEO Amir Zafar
Chauffeur Driven: How did you get involved in the chauffeured transportation industry?
Amir Zafar: I come from a systems integration background. We connect systems and apps to each other—and that’s basically what we’ve done for the past 30 years. Several years ago, we had a client who owned a transportation company, and they were building their own reservations system. As they were building the system, it was being created in a way that forced their affiliates to use the same proprietary app. That’s when we came up with the questions: Why isn’t there a network? Why should everyone use the same app? Basically, from there, we developed the idea of building a standard of communication in this industry. We did research for a couple of years to see who was doing it, who was trying it. While another company had something similar but without a closed loop, there was no one doing what we were trying to do. We decided to build a platform that connects everyone to each other and makes it easier for operators to communicate with each other. Basically, the business model was to give it to the transportation companies to control the direction of how it goes, rather than to travel businesses or other verticals. We built it in a way that this is the industry’s own system.
CD: Tell our readers what GNet by GRiDD does for operators.
AZ: Simply put, GNet connects different dispatch systems together so transportation companies can work with each other in real time. It makes things seamless. For instance, if your affiliate partner in France is using a different dispatch system than you, there’s no difficulty or problems with how you send the trip order. There’s no more time-consuming phone calls or emails. With a push of the button, your reservation ends up in your partner’s system—and that is what we did. It’s created an industry network. And we’re looking to see how we can enhance this.
CD: What problems are solved by using GNet?
AZ: First of all, there are no more data entry errors. The info came from the source system, which most likely came directly from a passenger’s app. In other words, nobody’s touched it or retyped it. It ensures that there are no more errors in data entry, which happened regularly in the past.
Another thing, GNet’s platform has cleaned up the standard of how people type in addresses. Before, people would freeform the address and put in notes like ‘knock on door number two’ in the address line. Now, the platform forces users to enter it accurately and put their notes in a different field. This guarantees that the chauffeur finds the pickup and drop-off efficiently. That’s a big enhancement. For the driver, it’s huge ... they don’t make mistakes or need to call the office for help. If, for instance, the address is wrong, then it was typed into the app incorrectly by the client two systems back, not by the local company that’s performing the job.
Errors have gone way down, and chauffeurs are a lot happier because they are using their own company’s app. GNet has very good location tracking, so it tells them where to go, making life easier for the driver. Response time has also become much faster. It used to be that you’d have to make a reservation 24 hours in advance for a pickup. I remember being in a dispatch office some years ago and it was early in the morning. A partner called and asked for a 4 p.m. LAX pickup. Immediately, he got a “no.” It was seen as just too difficult and tedious to take a reservation and deliver the same day. Here we are many years later and response time has become much faster. Today, at least 20 percent of reservations that go into GNet are executed the same day. It’s made life that much easier.
Also, we’ve made things cheaper to operate because you’re no longer paying a human to do what is now automated. So, data entry, updates, calling back affiliates with chauffeur/vehicle information, all those manual communications are eliminated. Today, it’s done between the systems. Notifications go directly to the passenger showing them that the chauffeur is on the road. Our whole thing was, we need to make it cheaper to operate and work between companies.
Now, GNet has a directory that lets operators find each other using the platform. There are about 3,300 companies, and rising, around the world able to be searched. Say you’re looking for an operator in Paris: You can zoom in on a map and see a number of dots that represent the companies in that area. It lists the contact person, phone number, website ... everything for each operator. GNet is evolving.
Today we are seeing 99 percent of companies that stay and keep using it. At the beginning, they may have been hesitant, but after a month or two they’ve found themselves expanding and working with new partners. It’s cost effective: Operators are paying roughly $1 per reservation, saving them $8-10.
CD: What are the most popular features of GNet?
AZ: I would say that operators appreciate the real-time synchronization because you know exactly what’s happening with your partner or affiliate. Also, real-time tracking of the vehicle is invaluable. You can see the farm-out being executed, without making phone calls.
CD: Tell us about the development of the Ground Reservation Exchange Standards (GRES) and what that means for GNet.
AZ: One of the top requirements and issues in the industry for our systems is vehicle types. We asked a National Limousine Association committee to help us develop a standard set of terms to describe vehicle types used in the industry. We’ve seen many times that a Mercedes S 500 may be considered someone’s business sedan, while their luxury sedan may be a Rolls-Royce. In reality, that Mercedes may fall into someone else’s luxury category. For the system to make an accurate decision based on the vehicle type that’s being communicated, there needs to be a standard. We’ve had calls where the client has said “I sent my partner a vehicle request for a corporate sedan, and they sent a Lincoln MKT.”
We are developing a second set of standardization that looks at the specific make and model of vehicle and what category/vehicle type they fall into. We think GRES is a great start that needs to be expanded.
CD: Your integration with Santa Cruz was big news for the industry. How did that come about?
AZ: All our integrations start with a user of a dispatch system asking us to get them connected into GNet. The number one question we get at shows is “Will my system work with GNet?” The user wants to be connected so they can send/receive reservations to partners who aren’t on the same ground exchange network. So, it starts with the user. Then we approach the partnership by discussing terms, detailing how we operate, and showing how we want to connect with the software companies. In the next step, we hand it to the technical team, and they get the connectivity done. It’s a relatively simple process. For Santa Cruz, it was just working out terms and conditions, and then building the system. They have a good team, and they’re supporting GNet very well. That’s another good thing. Our support teams are connected with each other. We do very well with the coordination. When there’s an issue, we’re able to easily work together and find a solution. It was great news for Santa Cruz users, and we’re doing our best to make sure there are no hiccups. Everyone’s very happy.
CD: What’s new in the world of GNet by GRiDD? Do you have any new products or services?
AZ: We’re always working on new features, and rely on user feedback to further enhance them. We’ve had a few new products that have been used effectively. One is our Farm House, which is the automatic distribution between affiliates and is location aware. It’s very smart, and sends text messages to operators within a 50-mile radius of pickup narrowed down to vehicle types served, etc. It’s being used by a select few companies, and they like it. It works so fast that some affiliates have complained that they weren’t able to accept the trip quickly enough. By the time the affiliate got to their computer or phone, the trip was filled.
We’re also working with software companies that are building apps for independent operators (IOs). They are a big segment of the industry and should be included within this network. Limousine companies have their favorite IOs that they work with, and today, they’re working with them blindly. There are many reasons why IOs should be visible and interconnected to the industry. Basically, we’re trying to limit the barriers of software politics and include everyone on this platform.
The newest product we have is a portal that is an upgrade from what our users are using today, which has improved search capability for partners by service offering or by vehicle types owned. If you’re only looking for companies that do corporate shuttles or offer wedding services, you’ll be able to get immediate results.
Another new feature for the portal is its documentation management that allows users to upload their paperwork, whether it’s insurance information or licenses, and share with their partners. This way affiliates can see each other’s insurances, permits, and licenses instantly. Further, it allows operators to automate sharing tasks, so they don’t have to repeatedly scan and send documents; documents remain there in the system and shared with only who they choose.
The portal is also going to become smarter and provide good analytics. For example, it’s valuable for the companies using GNet to know that 20 percent of the trips that go into GNet are performed the same day, this was unheard of 10 years ago. It’s good for the industry to have metrics. We are going to provide users with statistics and metrics, to show trends as they happen. We’re building tools, reports, and software that make sense of all statistical data. Ultimately, these metrics will give us a leg up on TNCs and any other competition that comes in. That’s the whole idea.
We’re always looking to improve. Things change fast, and you must keep up like using AI. We’re now using AI as a smart assistant in the new portal so that operators can auto-build their profile. If a limousine company needs help building their GNet profile, the AI assistant will grab information from all over the net. It will dive into your website or Facebook and pull out your service information and build that profile. It’s almost like a personal assistant who’s really fast. Our goal for the new portal is that it will be like a LinkedIn for transportation companies, where you can search for a company on Google and one of the results will be their GNet profile. This can specially help smaller companies that do not have a web site and now can have a public profile.
We’re coming up with a couple of other products and partnerships for the next year to address rates and pricing. Ultimately creating a marketplace where software companies and other service providers can offer their services or apps through GNet.
Our goal is to keep operators away from the computer and phones, so that they can use their time effectively to work on their operations. The mechanics and technical stuff can be done behind the scenes.
CD: How do you maintain top-notch customer service for your customers?
AZ: We have a great team and I’m very thankful for them. It all starts with the team that is interacting with the customers. Obviously, a certain company culture comes from the management… I’ve always considered myself to be customer-service oriented, but its our team is that is primarily responsible for keeping our GNet community happy.
CD: What is the most important thing that you want our readers to know about the company?
AZ: We built GNet to serve the industry, not to serve verticals. For us, the client is the transportation industry, and it’s important that this is understood and acknowledged. Our clients control the direction of GNet platform, we built many of the features based on feedback from the users and will continue to follow the same philosophy. [CD0724]