Veolia Transportation’s SuperShuttle International is letting consumers book rides to and from the airport via a new application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.

The free SuperShuttle application lets consumers get a fare quote, book and/or cancel their airport ride from their iPhone. The new SuperShuttle application also provides consumers with the location of their assigned vehicle by incorporating the SuperShuttle “Where’s My Van?” Google map locator function.

“The target demographic is any iPhone or iPod touch user who travels,” said Ken Testani, senior vice president of global marketing and partnerships at SuperShuttle, Scottsdale, AZ. “We’re trying to provide a much easier way for folks to book their ground transportation and also track where their vehicle is when it is their time to be picked up.

“App users can book reservations, cancel reservations and it allows for folks to earn airline miles,” he said. “It pretty much mirrors the capabilities of our Web site’s booking engine, but I actually think the process is much easier using the iPhone app, because it’s a more condensed version.

“Any kind of travel service is really going to mobile, and we’d be missing the boat if we didn’t have a mobile app at this point—for the travel sector in particular it’s key to be mobile right now.”

Based in Chicago, Veolia Transportation claims to be the largest private-sector operator of multiple modes of transit in North America, including bus, rail, paratransit, shuttle, sedan and taxi services.

SuperShuttle and ExecuCar are two of its primary brands. SuperShuttle serves 33 airports, carrying more than 8 million passengers a year.

Mobile drives convenience
SuperShuttle tapped app developer and mobile commerce company MobiLaurus to create the application and power its mobile marketing initiatives, which are still being finalized but that will most likely include click-to-download mobile advertising.

MobiLaurus worked closely with the IT group at SuperShuttle to integrate with the internal booking engine and other proprietary technology developed by SuperShuttle.

With the SuperShuttle application, consumers can get a fare quote, book reservations for SuperShuttle and ExecuCar airport rides by entering their credit or debit card information and cancel reservations.

In addition, they can locate their vehicle with the “Where’s My Van?” feature and earn airline miles with select airline partners.

IPhone users can participate in the Summer Lift program featuring family discounts with five dollar rides and double airline miles on SuperShuttle.

SuperShuttle airline partners include Delta Airlines SkyMiles, Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns, United Airlines Mileage Plus and US Airways Dividend Miles programs.

Consumers can earn 100 airline miles on round-trip fares all summer.

While the iPhone was SuperShuttle’s priority, Mr. Testani said that the company will venture out to launch an application for other devices as well when the time is right.

“We take about 50 percent of our reservations via our Web site now, and having it available on mobile device more of an enhancement and a convenience mechanism,” Mr. Testani said. “Now consumers can book a ride without their laptop handy, at airport and on the go.

“We are promoting the application on our Web site and  with email blasts to consumer database, and we’re also getting the message out through other partners that sell our service,” he said.