Business travellers whose companies are both FREENOW for Business and American Express customers for the centralised payment of their travel expenses will no longer have to download their receipts after their errands, or create expense reports. In fact, these key players in business travel, each in their own field, have entered into a partnership to connect the urban mobility solution to American Express business travel card accounts. This enables centralised payment of taxi and VTC bills from the company's Business Travel Account (BTA). Companies also gain greater visibility over all aspects of urban transport expenditure, as well as optimising administrative tasks by automating payments.
" We know that an efficient means of payment is an essential element of business travel management." said Valentin Naidja, VP Global Sales at FREENOW for Business. " By integrating FREENOW for Business into the American Express BTA Business Travel Card Account, companies can centralise the booking, payment and reconciliation of ground transport expenditure in one place " underlines Pierre-François BrézèsManaging Director of the Corporate Division at American Express in France. However, this partnership covers not only France, but also the six other European countries where FREENOW for Business operates, namely Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Ireland and Italy.
At the same time as simplifying payments for travellers, FREENOW is continuing to develop its booking application by a "super app" for mobility. Since 2021, FREENOW has already been working to expand its multimodal offering by providing up to eight modes of mobility within a single application (taxi, VTC, car-sharing and car hire, scooter, electric bike and scooter, public transport). Now the company is going one step further by becoming the first private platform to integrate public transport servicesIn this case, the Rhine-Ruhr region in Germany, which includes major cities such as Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Bochum, Wuppertal and Duisburg.
In collaboration with the Rheinbahn, users will be able to buy bus, tram and metro tickets directly via the application, including single tickets, day passes and 48-hour passes in the first instance. This will be done from the customer's account for all the fare zones of the Rhine-Ruhr public transport association (VRR), covering almost 1,100 routes. " This is another important step for uscommented Thomas Zimmermann, CEO of FREENOW. Our aim is to make urban mobility in Europe more sustainable, intelligent and interconnected." .
While Thomas Zimmermann considers it crucial to " linking up the various mobility services to successfully transform mobility in Europe" Other partnerships with European transport companies should be announced in the coming months. In particular, this service should be extended to France during 2023, with Paris making a naturals priorities.
