HAVE YOUR SAY AND SHARE YOUR VIEWS AT
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
RESPONDING TO THE GLOBAL ACTION PLAN GUEST COLUMN (ISSUE 68): AS USUAL WITH THE GREEN lobby, you are very free and easy with the numbers and statements, which have to be challenged. The article states: “Compare a journey from London to Glasgow... in terms of productivity – the journey may take 30 per cent longer by train rather than plane. However, on the train, the worker can spend the majority of the journey with approximately 90 per cent productivity. The same journey by
aeroplane...is only 50 per cent productive.” How do you work this out? On a flight now, you can use your devices for the duration. Travellers can be productive when not connected to the internet. Many of our travellers are not using phones/laptops – they are engineers/buyers travelling to a site to begin work. Many employees would fly to Glasgow and back in a day, thereby not needing a hotel. This is not possible on the train. The first Easyjet flights depart around 07.00, arriving at 08.30. The first train departs at 07.30, and arrives at 12 noon. The train journey I just looked at for two weeks ahead was £270; the flights were £88 – with early morning departures, and late returns. Flights are nearly always full; many trains are nearly empty. What do you think about this ‘green’ aspect? Do you have data on the true emissions from trains? Geoff Allwright Travel manager
84 BBT JULY/AUGUST 2014 BBTWEETS
Travel tweeters: follow us on @BBT_online and @Travelbizpaul
@JohnAmaechi Hope #GTMCconf14 enjoyed my talk: As a leader, every interaction counts, it’s no good trying to predict & prepare for ‘key moments’
@lisaminot
Farage: my family sought refuge in UK as Protestants living on French/Belgium border – so there you are. I am Johnny Foreigner #itt14
@ATWMoores
On average, airlines make $6 per passenger, according to @IATA CEO Tony Tyler. A known, but still shockingly poor figure. #ATIS2014
@richardbranson Great news @VirginTrains customers & staff: new DfT deal will mean free wifi, 1000s more seats, new direct services
@TripIt #BizTravelTip: Never take last flight of the day since any delays or cancellations will affect it the most.
UBER’S BATTLE WITH LONDON CABBIES THIS ONCE AGAIN SHOWS people interested only in themselves and not caring about their customers. I still remember how, when I lived near Heathrow, taxi drivers would complain about how taking me home was depriving them of a long fare, to the point when I ended up only using pre-booked taxis. Now they are threatening gridlock (selfish) because they won’t let customers have choice (also selfish).
UBER DRIVERS WILL NEVER EVER match our detailed knowledge of London... so they will always lose on quality. Their drivers don’t know how to travel from Buckingham Palace to Paddington without needing a postcode.
YOU MAY HAVE SCORED a spectacular own goal with your action – not only will blocking traffic annoy people, and not do your cause any good, but you managed to give your new rival a huge amount of free advertising. I downloaded the Uber app this morning, having never heard of them before...
BUYING BUSINESS TRAVEL GROUP ON LINKEDIN: RAIL BOOKING FEATURE YOU CAN’T EXPECT MOST business travellers to book rail tickets in advance with the current ticketing options, as the cheaper advance purchase tickets only allow travel on specific trains. In my experience, most people would be happy
to commit to a specific outbound train, but they want flexibility with the return leg. If a new ticket type was introduced which reflected this – that is, specific train for the outbound leg, flexible return), it would be much easier to persuade business travellers to buy their tickets in advance, and also to go by train.
BUSINESS TRAVELLERS also want a solution for what is often a relatively low-cost purchase that doesn’t require complex internal approval processes, is as easy to use as the standard ‘leisure’ train sites and makes the walk-up alternative redundant. A mix of usability allied with corporate mandates is the usual trick.
THE ONGOING RUNWAY EXPANSION DEBATE WAS UK PLC CAUGHT NAPPING? Politicians were told, and anyone in the aviation business could see what was happening, but we have a political paralysis in this country sometimes. The Turks have just laid the first stone in building the world’s largest airport in Istanbul. The Davies Airports Commission states that adding a third runway will mean a boost of £100 billion to the economy and 123,000 jobs. It’s a no-brainer for us aviation professionals. How long will it be before we break ground and just get on with it? By the way, I'm an environmentalist, but I'm afraid if you don't like the noise, don't live next to an airport.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92