FLEEING FLOODS Keith Wright, business environmental health and safety specialist, Alstom
KEITH WRIGHT WAS ON BUSINESS in a remote part of India in autumn last year when the weather took a turn for the worse. He is an employee of energy company Alstom, and was in Vadodara, in the western state of Gujarat, carrying out health and safety audits with colleagues from India and China. He was aware it was the tail end of the monsoon season and that there might be some flood- ing, but the worst should have passed. However, the area then suffered the heaviest rainfall for that period for over a decade – and more rain was forecast. On realising the severity of
the
situation, he called his company booker, Joanne Parsons, and asked to be repatri- ated as soon as possible. The airline with which Keith had booked didn’t appreciate the severity of the situation, so Joanne contacted Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the
company’s TMC. Senior business travel consultant Jo Parkin answered the call and requested the airline supply a quote to reissue the ticket for an earlier flight. It didn’t respond. With the clock ticking, Jo recommend- ed Keith get to the airport to catch the Jet Airways flight to Mumbai. It meant Keith had to stay for one night in Mumbai, where there were very few rooms available at such short notice. However, Jo was able to gain authorisation from the airline to book a room at the airport Hilton. The following day, Keith caught the first flight from Mumbai to Paris, and then on to Newcastle.
The moral: Involve suppliers and partners as soon as possible and draw on all the experience of your con- tacts. If you use a TMC, then contact them
as soon as possible to help you – you never know what solutions they can provide or strings they can pull with suppliers they know. Use travel alerts and have the data available to see where your travellers are when an incident occurs, to ensure you are proactively contacting them to get them to safety when they need it.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING BATH MAT A travel manager in the global hospitality sector
AS A TRAVEL MANAGER, I spend a lot of time working out ways to provide my travellers access to the best possible travel products and services, while making sure the company is deriving value from its investment in the programme. We work tire- lessly on the policy
and
duty-of-care to make sure em- ployees are as comfortable and safe as pos- sible no matter where
82 BBT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
they go in the world. Risk mitigation brings together my travel department with a number of other stakeholders from across the business. However, sometimes things happen over which you have little or no control. Last year, a senior executive was on business in Europe. He was staying in a five-star property in the capital city of one of the most developed countries on the continent. We’re also talking about a man who spends, on average, more than 170 nights a year in hotels. This was no rookie. One morning before breakfast he was going through his usual routine, which involved brushing his teeth in front of the mirror before stepping into the shower. In this particular room the shower was in the bathtub, and not a separate walk-in
shower. As he pulled back the curtain and stepped over the side of the bath, his foot slipped in the running water. He fell and hit his head on the side of the bath, and was knocked out cold. He sought medical attention on-site, but the issue was not brought to our attention until weeks later. The hotel should have provided a bath mat or grip as part of its deal with us. Unfortunately for our traveller, the bath mat was folded and stored in a cupboard under the sink.
The moral: Risk is not confined the world’s trouble spots – nor rookie travellers. But on the other hand, there are some things you can’t anticipate – even if bath mats are included in your request for proposal...
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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