SHIP TO SHORE


Virtual payment cards are helping to simplify the complexities around arranging travel for energy, marine and mining clients


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anaging payments and expenses for the energy, marine and mining (EMM) industries has always been a complicated process because of


the nature of their travel itineraries, which involve not just getting to a destination but then travelling onwards to an oil rig, mine location or a ship. Unlike more conventional business


travel, where TMCs are typically putting together itineraries for a single traveller, arranging travel for the EMM industry often involves organising complex crew rotations for large groups of travellers – often up to 20 or even 40 people at a time – with crew members normally coming from all over the world and so necessitating the booking of multiple itineraries with different airlines. If that wasn’t difficult enough, plans often have to change at the last minute – a helicopter taking crew to an oil rig may be grounded due to bad weather, which means hotel rooms have suddenly to be found for the stranded crew members. Then there could be an emergency situation where an installation or location has to be evacuated at short notice.


PAYING FOR HOTEL ROOMS Traditionally, dealing with these issues has been a predominantly manual process using emails for itinerary planning and changes, while hotel bill back has been the most popular method of paying for accommodation, especially as crew members are normally contractors, rather than full-time employees, so issuing them with corporate cards is effectively a non- starter for EMM firms.


20 BBT ENERGY, MARINE & MINING SUPPLEMENT 2019


Jason Geall, vice-president and general manager for Northern Europe at American Express Global Business Travel, says: “While it’s similar to transient business travel, it can become more complex when you have contractors working on behalf of a company. “This is particularly common if they


are ramping up a project, with more third parties and contractors getting involved. In this case, it’s typically the responsibility of the client to manage their expenses, including all their travel and accommodation.”


In the bill back system, a hotel will send the invoice to the organisation’s TMC, who will then bill the client for reimbursement. But managing payments and expenses in this way is obviously a time-consuming, expensive and inefficient administrative process, with TMCs needing to obtain and reconcile hotel invoices from around the world and then passing the administrative costs on to the client.


One of the consequences of the collapse in the price of oil and other commodities back in 2014 was that it forced companies in the oil and gas sector to look far more closely at all of its costs and processes, including how they dealt with travel payments and expenses. “The pressure on costs was intense when oil was down at US$30 a barrel,” recalls one buyer in the energy sector. “This created an enormous focus on driving down costs at all levels of the business, including travel. This was a major factor in adopting more automated processes that helped us to reduce administrative costs. “We would have done it anyway but the low price of oil meant the process was put


“THE INDUSTRY HAS


TRADITIONALLY USED HOTEL BILL BACK AS THE WAY TO PAY FOR ACCOMMODATION


BUT NOW WE HAVE PRE-PAID VIRTUAL CARDS”


In association with


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