global government services director Mike Holmes.
The same applies to rail travel, where booking lower fares prevails. “Fifty per cent of our rail tickets are the cheaper options, which equates to a saving of around £18 million across our UK public sector clients against fully flexible, anytime tickets,” he says. Because hotels have not been subjected to the restrictions of air travel, there is still programme management of accom- modation, with added-value extras such as wifi, parking or meals included, and properties are chosen according to best value to meet business needs.
PUBLIC BOUNDARIES TMCs do not police government policy but, “we have added numerous reason codes to our online and offline booking to allow the booker to explain why they may need to go out of policy”, says Holmes. And according to Redfern Travel’s Bowers: “We have the facility to question the need to travel in the public and private sectors alike.”
The main difference between public and private sector travel is in the procurement process
Another boundary that exists in the public sector is investment in order to save. “Would the public sector support us in the investment of a new product or service to support their travel requirement or travel management needs? It is a dif- ficult argument to sell in the public sector but in the private sector it’s possible,” says Mark Bowers, and others agree with him. The main differences between public and private sector travel are not the booking process and actual travel, which are driven by best value and business
What can the private sector learn?
THERE ARE A NUMBER OF AREAS where the public sector leads the way and the private sector might do well to follow. One of these is in day-to-day procurement, which the public sector has embraced, making best available rate on the day the norm. Another area for consideration is collaborative procurement. Both the charity and public sectors procure on a group framework basis, combining requirements to negotiate better rates. This is a missed opportunity in the private sector, where collaborative buying might command serious savings. And in the public sector, the contract drives the relationship, leading to contract management rather than client management. As a result, the TMC is accountable to contract, which means it looks for every opportunity to drive down cost and realise benefits to the organisation.
90 BBT JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016
convenience, but the procurement process, which is “very prohibitive”, as one TMC put it. Consider a shed-load of EU regulations and directives, and brace yourself for the long haul.
Takeaways
through a framework, but because a number of departments/organisations are subscribing to it, tender documents can read as though ‘written by committee’.
sector is not living high on the hog, and there is a genuine desire to balance savings with the practicalities of getting the job done.
public sector as it is in the private, but because TMCs hold access to discounted fares, there are advantages to compliance.
the public sector have to justify going out of policy or, in the case of MPs, they can book what they like but have to pay any amount outside IPSA guidelines out of their own pocket.
especially for rail and air fares (and often for hotels) as government rates do not always match up.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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