Companies that clamped down on travel costs during the recession must now turn their attention to the unmanaged spend, delegates to the Business Travel & Meetings Show were advised.
Speaking at a BTMS seminar, Chris Pouney, owner of Severnside Consulting, said unquantifiable spend was hampering corporates’ ability to manage their travel costs. Pouney said areas beyond the purchase of the actual ticket needed to be examined.
“If you can’t measure it, how can you manage it?” he said.
These areas included foreign exchange purchase, where many travellers were left to their own devices and bought at the airport.
“The airport is probably the most expensive place you can get it,” he said. Other areas included excess baggage charges, telephony costs and airport car parking. Still more savings could be gained by abandoning the use of hotels to hold off site meetings when there were adequate rooms at company offices.
Companies should also think of savings that could be offered to staff visiting from other parts of the world, such as extending the use of discounts with local restaurants that were already negotiated.
Another example was ground transportation. A simple email to the visiting employee directing them to the local transfer company that had an agreement in place with the corporate would suffice, he said.
“Send a message saying this is the car company we use and tell them how to book it.”
Companies were also urged to do a sample audit to see, for example, how many employees used room service and how many took public transport to the airport.
“It will take a couple of days, but you can get some fabulous conclusions,” he said.