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Evolvi
Evolvi's Record Year Helps Corporate Sector Beat Rail Fares Increase
7th February 2012Evolvi Rail Systems enjoyed another record year of sales and transactions in 2011 with its online rail booking and fulfilment platform – and in doing so helped corporate travellers nullify the effects of the headline fares increase announced in January last year.
Announcing a 9% rise in revenues to £286m and a 10% increase in transactions to 4.7m, Evolvi revealed that its average ticket value for last year was £60.85 compared to £61 in 2010...this despite the introduction of a general 6.2% fares hike at the start of 2011.
“These results confirm the positive impact of smart, online procurement of rail journeys for Travel Management Companies and their corporate clients,” says Ken Cameron, Managing Director of Evolvi Rail Systems.
“Buying in advance and within a managed travel environment made possible by Evolvi functionality, corporate travellers actually managed to off-set the increase in fares implemented at the start of last year. While part of this was likely due to businesses placing further restrictions on first class travel in times of austerity – as happened in 2010 – I believe it’s also a clear reflection of the much smarter approach being taken to rail travel procurement.”
The total market for online rail ticket retailing, including leisure traffic, grew by around 33% to over £1.2bn in 2011. Out of this, just under half of transactions were processed through agencies such as TMCs, with Evolvi’s system responsible for around 50% of the bookings in this sector.
In fact, the average value of tickets booked through Evolvi fell for the third year running – from £66 in 2009 to £61 in 2010 and £60.85 in 2011.
The company’s online rail booking and fulfilment service – used by 90% of all UK TMCs and the preferred choice of eight of the top 10 – is helping drive the industry-wide trend towards self-booking, with over 60% of TMC corporate clients now opting for this approach.
The Evolvi results come just ahead the Business Travel Show, which the company is using as the first public showing for its new generation platform – evolvi-ng – which features a whole host of innovations and new functionality.
Ends
Evolvi press enquiries:
Philip Colley or Charlotte Vine, Harvest PR. Tel: 023 9244 9655
Mob: 07785 306378
E-Mail: philip.colley@harvestpr.co.uk / charlotte.vine@harvestpr.co.uk
About Evolvi
Evolvi’s online system focuses exclusively on business rail travel and is used by Travel Management Companies (TMC), including eight of the top 10 in the UK, to meet the needs of their corporate customers.
Evolvi has been designed by business travel specialists to provide travel managers and procurement professionals with an online rail booking and ticket fulfilment service. It is able to deliver significant advantages in cost centre and project code transaction cost attribution, travel policy compliance and on-line management information capability. The system can also provide a complete on-line C02 emissions report using multi-modal comparative data.
The Evolvi system offers five ticket booking/fulfilment options in addition to production of a ticket by the TMC:
- Walk up “Touch Screen” kiosk
- Walk up “Desk Top” printer with keyboard data entry
- Operator driven “Desk Top” Self Booking
- Transmission of ticket issue data to National Ticket on Departure (TOD) network
- Mobile booking platform
The system also integrates with other Self-Booking Tools (SBTs), Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) and expense management tools.
