THE CONSUlTANT
SANDY MORING, director, Institute of Travel & Meetings (ITM)
MANAGING LAND-LINKED SPEND can be just as important as air, hotel and TMC costs, whatever the size of your spend – even if only from the perspective of supporting your duty-of-care policy. With the increasing number of op-
erators providing business services for rail, taxi, car hire, meet and greet, and airport car services – all of which are often closely scrutinised when evaluating your environmental footprint – it makes sense to bring this category spend into
your managed travel programme sooner, rather than later. That could also include ‘sharing economies’ providers. With the opportunities to increase access to these services via online and mobile apps, in addition to the traditional offline booking process, spend in these categories can be better managed. The functionality of each booking process will be influenced by the hosting platform, and the established connectivity of your providers will determine the cost to host (if any) structure.
Being able to link providers to your usual online self-booking tool will also
allow you the flexibility to change pro- viders as required, which can be more beneficial for this sector of the travel programme, as suppliers may change more often according to your needs. By bringing this spend, often from multiple suppliers, into your managed programme, you will have better sight of the patterns of spend of individuals and divisions, via data capture at point of booking – which is cleaner and smarter than relying on gathering financial information via expenses – to enrich your consolidated data reporting and support future deal opportunities.
Business is a global environment, THE SUPPLIER
CRAIG CHAMBERS, managing director, TBR Global
WHILE MANY TRAVEL BUYERS and managers sign preferred agreements with airlines and hotels, some do not consider a similar deal for ground transportation. Spend on ground transportation can amount to a very significant figure throughout the year, so having visibility
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
and control is important. If organisations do not have a policy in place, there could be high levels of leakage. It also leads to a lack of control over the type of ground transportation being used, and means employees are probably spend- ing more than they would if rates were negotiated. Consolidating allows com- panies to negotiate better rates against larger volumes.
yet some companies only focus on negotiating within their local market. Saving a few pounds on a Heathrow airport transfer could be great value, but if other locations do not receive adequate attention, then it may well be a false economy. In today’s world, employees want a better and more varied choice than ever before. Offering limited or no options will lead to travellers falling outside policy, leading to more leakage.
As well as focusing on the cost-saving element and compliance, travel buyers and managers also need to consider service quality and duty-of-care. Buyer must ask if a supplier is properly licensed and what the repercussions would be if something was to go wrong. Organisations know when travellers
have checked in at an airport or hotel, but may not have a clear understanding of how employees arrived there in the first place.
BBT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 43
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