TapTrip has unveiled a new service designed to help marine and energy workers during the pandemic after the online business travel company secured £1.7million investment.
Founded in 2018, TapTrip is a cloud-based online booking tool offering travel policies and expense tracking. Its new tool Vessul is described as a specialist business travel service designed to support the movement of goods and people within the marine and energy industry in a more efficient way.
According to TapTrip, a massive 98 per cent of travel booking for the marine sector is still handled offline. This is leading to issues with crews not arriving in the correct location, at the correct time, for the correct job with the knock-on effect of delays and issues further down the supply chain.
Companies using the online booking tool can book and manage small to medium crew rotations, see the availability of seats on chartered flights and offer spaces out to companies within their industry. TapTrip says this will ensure flights are at 100 per cent capacity, crews get to vessels on-time, while reducing carbon footprint simultaneously.
“During lockdown, it’s become more important than ever that our energy and marine services run smoothly,” says Thomas Young, CEO of TapTrip. “Thanks to Brexit and travel restrictions, we’ve already seen the large-scale disruption that can be caused by a simple supply chain issue, and with the massively increased pressure on both sectors – there just isn’t room for error. Vessul will completely remove the burden of arranging travel for crews around the world, allowing employers to direct more of their resources to other areas of the business that are currently under strain.
“We created Vessul in direct response to a sector need to facilitate more fluid travel for essential workers that still need to move around the world to make sure we can keep the lights on and the goods moving so we can go about our daily lives.”
TapTrip has investors including Barclays, Techstars, Startup Funding Club, easyJet and ATPI.
