Freelance journalist and editor of Public Sector Travel Betty Low
wrote a great feature for Buying
Business Travel recently called ‘The Art of Persuasion’. She argued that it’s time for travel managers
to start managing travellers rather than suppliers.
Why? Because it’s travellers who are responsible for racking
up a multitude of hidden expenses and, by controlling those, you may end up
making bigger cost savings than constantly trying to squeeze already-squeezed
suppliers.
Hidden, or unmanaged, spend is also the subject of a recent
report by BCD
Travel, which revealed that it accounts for a massive 26% of all travel
budgets, supporting Betty Low’s opinion that it is this that holds the key to
cost savings.
The BCD report claims hidden spend can be broken down into
three areas:
- Dining and entertaining – accounting for 16%
- Ground transportation – accounting for 6%
- Mobile – accounting for 4%
If we look at ground transportation first, it quickly
becomes obvious how managing the traveller can make a massive difference. This
area of hidden spend may account for just 6% now, but if taxi fares continue to
rise as they have been over the last five years, it’s about to hijack an even
larger share of the pot and become an even bigger problem.
Thanks to rising fuel prices, the cost of London black cabs,
for example, have risen on average 18% in the last five years and by 42% over a
four-mile journey. The fixed rate fare from Heathrow to London is now £65, up
£10 from 2008. Buying Business Travel recently highlighted the world’s
most expensive airport transfers. Travelling into Tokyo from Narita is
close to £200.
And faced with indisputable facts like this it’s hard to
question the importance of traveller management and the only question to remain
is how do we manage the traveller once they have left the office and are out of
the travel manager’s reach?
According to the BCD Travel report, this can be partially
tackled psychologically as many travellers choose options based on ‘the
bandwagon effect’.
“Social norms are massively powerful because we
ultimately seek the approval of others. In fact, travellers, like everyone
else, are often quick to abandon their own best judgment if they feel out of
step with others. Use this lever to steer travellers toward public
transportation, by, for example, sending out an email: From: Travel Manager
Subject: Get on the Bandwagon 80% of your co-workers have switched to using
public transportation in New York City. When are you going to join them?”
And of course, increasingly the answer to traveller
management is through mobile technology and the introduction of apps that are
designed to encourage travellers to make cost-efficient and compliant choices
once they arrive at a destination and not just during the booking process and
before they leave.
Whichever method travel managers opt for, it’s clear that,
if cost savings are ever to be maximised, then the end of rogue travellers must
be nigh.
David Chapple is event director for the Business Travel
Show. www.businesstravelshow.com
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