Let Blacklane’s experts guide you on how to keep events on track by making sure everyone arrives on time and that transportation stays sustainable with these five tips to keep the Christmas party season transport moving smoothly…
Avoiding overwhelm in the festive party season is like asking Father Christmas to avoid eating the mince pies. No matter how resolute the planning ahead, and the determination to be single-minded and say no, there are more opportunities than ever and no one wants to miss out.
End of year planning away days, team celebrations, client parties, festive events, plus all the organisation for ensuring the year wraps up seamlessly and successfully on top means this time of year is a lot.
Chauffeur service Blacklane shares advice to ensure the full-on season comes with some moments to breathe, and some recommendations on how to keep colleagues in tip-top frame of mind to tackle a frantic festive schedule.
5 tips to keep Christmas party season transport moving smoothly
1. Prioritise wellbeing
Limping to the end of the year exhausted is no fun for anyone. The knock-on impact of stress has a negative effect on wellbeing and productivity, making it impossible to tackle the year ahead. Blacklane’s research highlights that fragmented journeys cause unnecessary stress, often costing several hours in working time. The research report ‘Premium meets Productivity’ found that 86 per cent of business travellers who found their journeys stressful lost at least one hour of productive time once they arrived at their destination. Among C-level people, almost half (45 per cent) reported losing between four and eight hours of productive time – essentially a whole working day.
The loss of productivity is stark, however it is more worrying to consider the long term impact of such stress. Protecting wellbeing has a huge host of benefits, not least to ensure happy, engaged people who perform better. Where it is possible to remove pain-points from working life, such as fragmented and stressful journeys, it makes a tangible difference to productivity. Schedules at this time of year are extra-packed, with more journeys than ever to cram in. Choosing the right chauffeur partner to make sure that all elements of a journey are seamless and comfortable is not a nice-to-do, it’s an essential part of your party season survival check-list.
2. Plan ahead for travel to make schedules smoother
Don’t leave travel to chance. An organised PA doesn’t ask their executives to turn up at a hotel and see if they have a room. Yet it is commonplace to add ‘take a taxi’ to schedules and leave it with the traveller to find their way to the next festive event or home again. Open an account with Blacklane or download the app to book reliable chauffeurs in over 50 countries around the world. Planning ahead means you stay in control of the schedule, with chauffeurs booked in the right location at the right time, and feel confident that your executives are safely taken care of, and can arrive and depart in comfort.
3. Make the most of journey time
Travel time doesn’t need to be lost. When the travel choice is smart and comfortable, it can create an office on-the-go. Calls and meetings taking place on the move make for highly productive schedules and ensure parties are not prioritised over productivity. Blacklane’s highly trained chauffeurs can be relied on for ultimate discretion, meaning confidential updates can take place in cars or clients and colleagues can take journeys together for greater collaboration and preparation ahead of pitches and presentations.
Of course, scheduling down-time to take a breath is also highly important. Choosing the music of choice, taking a device to catch up on podcasts and preferred viewing, or simply watching the world go by are all great ways to spend your time in a Blacklane.
4. Book a chauffeur-by-the-hour
Running from meeting to meeting, lunch appointments, team gatherings and festive evening celebrations is made extra challenging by fitting in the travel between all the different engagements. Add the great British winter weather to the mix and the risk of arriving cold, soaked and fed up makes heading out even less appealing.
A chauffeur booked by-the-hour eases logistical worries and ensures that days – and nights – stay on schedule. The chauffeur booked for a set number of hours delivers guests on-time to each event, with no delays lost to checking maps or waiting for a vehicle to arrive. A knowledgeable and trained chauffeur will be waiting at agreed pick-ups points and can work flexibly adding and removing drop-off points as required. This means guests can fit in multiple engagements on busy evenings, or even escape to their car from the appointments that disappoint.
5. Deliver on good intentions
Don’t wait until the New Years to set sustainability goals. All chauffeur journeys booked with Blacklane have their carbon emissions offset. Plus, PAs have the option to choose an electric vehicle when making bookings to ensure that all journeys booked with Blacklane support your company’s efforts to reduce emissions and enhance sustainability. In cities like London, stylish electric vehicles such as Mercedes EQS now provide almost half the journeys delivered by Blacklane.
With the peace of mind that comes with a reliable and quality chauffeur partner, there’s more room for a mince pie break in everyone’s diary. Register for a dedicated corporate travel account with Blacklane to book journeys quickly and easily, and enjoy rewards to take the overwhelm out of organising festive schedules.
For more information please visit Blacklane.com
We are thrilled to have Blacklane as a Gold Partner at PA Life Christmas Party & Star Awards 2024.
