Until I embarked on my first Trransfer ride, I must admit that I had some preconceived notions about the luxury chauffeur service. I assumed that it wouldn’t be different from an Uber or a GrabCar, except that I’m guaranteed to ride in a classy car. Gladly, I was proven wrong from the onset. On the day of my ride, an exquisite Mercedes Benz E-Class limousine arrived at my doorstep half an hour earlier. Neither did I have to incessantly call the driver to locate his whereabouts nor did he scramble to find the pick-up point. Everything was just smooth. And I was greeted with a bottle of mineral water, a much-needed relief on a scorching summer day.
These gestures may seem simple, but Trransfer believes it’s a crucial start for any luxury travel providers. Co-founded by CEO Michael Chiay, together with partners Jenna Toh and Dwi Wahyudi, Trransfer is a premium ground transport service provider that was launched in October 2021. Travellers can choose from six different classes of vehicles (Standard Class, Business Class, Premium Class, MPV, Minibus and Coach) at an all-inclusive fixed price. Customers can pre-book the service up to two days online before their pick-up day. Prior to Trransfer’s entry, the private ground transfer segment badly lacked two key standards—consistency and reliability—which Chiay says are the cornerstones of his company. “Ground transport records the highest service failure rates among other travel aspects, such as flight and accommodation. For every 10 private ground transport bookings today, up to three will experience service failure,” Chiay says. “In fact, one research shows that, globally, the private ground transfer segment was worth US$27billion in 2022. Imagine the missed revenue opportunity!”
So because private ground transfer was unreliable, Chiay says travel providers often declined arranging such services for their clients or they would book the rides from the most expensive source—hotels. “Travel providers have online access to flight, hotel, car rental and attractions content but, strangely, not to private ground transfers. They struggle so much to manually source, book and manage private ground transfer service that many will try to avoid providing the service as much as they could,” he says. “So, at Trransfer, we set out to solve this from day one by digitalising both sides of the demand and supply chain. We built our platform to significantly reduce the effort of travel customers coordinating ground transfers, while enabling transport providers with technology to automate their business operations.”
Operating in more than 48 destinations, Trransfer primarily chauffeurs business executives, affluent families, celebrities and millionaires, who Chiay says, “expects everything to run like clockwork”. The company only assigns drivers with valid documentation and with prior working experience in the travel industry. I can testify to that. My driver, Zahar, had 18 years of chauffeuring experience and he is well-adapted to endure flight delays and long waiting hours. He assured me a smooth and quiet ride, which felt almost like a cruise, with no intrusive questions along the journey. The ride also felt safer with Trransfer’s 24/7 Contact Centre monitoring my trip in real time.
Through Trransfer, Chiay also wants to encourage travel companies to once again include private ground transfer services in their offerings. As such, Trransfer offers travel companies an API integration into their existing booking sites so that customers can stay on their sites while booking a ride; or a booking widget that makes their website instantly bookable. That way, travel providers can grow their revenue in a hassle-free manner as the bookings are managed digitally.
Chiay hopes his clients, at the end of their rides, will remember Trransfer as “the easiest, most reliable and guaranteed way to get around town when they travel”. Along with that aspiration, he also offers an important takeaway for travellers: “The next time you book your ground transport service and your service provider isn’t offering online booking or confirmation, demand the change and innovation. The ground transport is the final travel frontier and you can help revolutionise it.”
His parting words made me recall why exactly I started opting for e-hailing rides over taxis. And, for my next airport trip or simply to cruise the countryside, I now have another tempting option: Trransfer.
