MARCH/APRIL 2013
Ancillaries
Some add-ons are of benefit – parking, for example, because it means employees do not need taxis. However, duty of care must always be taken into consideration. “It has to be tempered where
long-haul travel is concerned,” says Butcher. “We don’t want them getting off a flight at 5am and driving into someone.”
DUTY OF CARE Jef Robinson, global category manager for software company Citrix, adds that duty of care must be taken seriously, even though purse strings are tight. “This is something that needs to be stressed to travellers – a travel programme isn’t just about costs, it’s about traveller safety as well,” he says. Robinson looks at the ‘value’ of the travel cost, rather than just the price
Reporting all these disparate elements and determining their value is a headache for any buyer
– for example, determining whether something like lounge access will result in greater productivity. “Reimbursing the cost of access
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would very much depend upon the circumstances. For example, 30 minutes’ access prior to a 90-minute flight would not necessarily be justified, whereas four hours in- between legs of a long-haul flight may well be. There can be hard and fast rules within policies, but equally, there must be increasing flexibility to take into account the rapidly changing ways that we all work.” Reporting all these disparate elements and determining their value is a headache for any buyer. Robinson believes there is a need for increased visibility of each element, as currently return on investment is judged only on the complete package. “Cost-effective tools to help tackle this area are slowly becoming available, but currently it is still not necessarily possible to benchmark all travel costs using a single source
without incurring significant additional costs,” he says. Alcatel’s Butcher notes one real success in breaking down travel into component parts. “In regard to airport parking, not many of our staff were doing advance booking – they were paying the public rate. We did a proposal with Meteor Parking for meet-and-greet and that has worked quite well. It’s more economical than paying the full public rate in business parking.”
No.1 Traveller lounge, Gatwick North LOUNGING AROUND
IF NO.1 TRAVELLER HAS ITS WAY, business travellers using Heathrow’s Terminal 5 will have an alternative to the delights of the Club lounge, being able to purchase an economy ticket and use a generic facility. No.1 Traveller plans to open in all Heathrow’s
terminals – it is currently only in T3. Quite how British Airways, the sole occupant of T5, will feel is questionable, but Howard Ebison, No.1 Traveller’s head of commercial, believes the airport’s owners will back him. “I don’t think the airport wants T5 to be the only one in the country without a common use lounge,” he says, but admits that this particular ambition was “somewhere down the line”. Ebison says more lounges would be opened at
Heathrow when space becomes available, adding that he wanted “full coverage of the London airports” among “eight or nine” in the UK. “We are hoping to open four this year,” he says. No.1 Traveller has operated for only four years,
but already has two lounges at Gatwick and two at Stansted, as well as Heathrow and Birmingham, and is building relationships with TMCs via a dedicated trade team. Around 50,000 passengers a month flow through
the lounges. Usage by business travellers has grown as premium short-haul flying is either withdrawn by airlines or banned by corporates, with Heathrow and Gatwick North up 40 per cent year-on-year.
Ebison says 47 per cent of those who log on to
No.1’s wifi are business travellers. Its latest opening is at Birmingham. “We take
a long-term view – it is the only airport building a runway extension in the UK and it is a credible alternative to restrictions at Heathrow.” The brand will not extend too much into other
areas, Ebison insists, but adds that insurance is being looked at.
KEEPING IN CONTROL Other companies are more lenient when it comes to travelling in business class, but still want to keep ancillary buying in-house when staff travel in economy. Aberdeen-based Stork Technical Services, which specialises in oil and gas, bases policy on the budget for each project, but has
Stork works in some risky locations and it is policy to have drivers meet staff at airports
a tighter remit for the 30 per cent of its staff who travel conventionally, rather than offshore. Once again, safety is not sacrificed. Stork works in some risky locations and it is policy to have drivers meet staff at airports, rather than use hire cars.
On a more day-to-day basis, there are still savings to be made. Ryan Taylor, Stork’s global travel manager, says he is in talks with independent airport lounge access provider Priority Pass to give staff lounge access rather than paying the full premium fare. “It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than buying business class or premium economy,” he says. Taylor says these contracts are always negotiated direct, rather than bought using a TMC’s package. Lounge access is a bone of contention, with some believing staff will just use it to relax, while others believe there is a genuine duty of care and cost consideration. If, for example, a company has a policy not to fund food, drink or even wifi costs,
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