Global chauffeur car company Carey has signed a deal with the Worldwide Independent Travel Network (WIN) which has agencies in the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy.
The two year agreement, which came into force this month, give Carey preferred supplier status with WIN's corporate and leisure customers.
A spokesman for Carey said WIN members would recommend it as the preferred car company. “This is a huge opportunity for Carey to grow our customer base.”
The company has many such deals with agencies and leading TMCs in America but has been looking to strengthen its presence among European agencies and travel consortia.
WIN's UK member is the Advantage Group which includes the Advantage4business agencies.
WIN has 5,000 offices worldwide in 11 countries which generate about $15bn in travel sales each year.
* See BTE Analysis
Procurement view of travel management
Sven-Anders Stegare, chief procurement officer for the Swedish banking group SEB, told the ACTE Forum in Stockholm he used three criteria to bring travel management under the control of his department.
These were strategic control from the top with the travel policy enforced throughout the company, a system of preferred suppliers and deals which reduced prices and a group view of spend, including the consolidation of statistics.
Mr Stegare said he had re-organised the bank's procurement policy over three years and expected to achieve “best practice” by 2007.
The key to travel management he said was “one global policy and one global TMC although with local solutions” and a “simplified process with higher compliance.”
But he said that for any changes, support from top management was essential. “You will also need detailed information to form your strategy, prove your case through pilot studies and have the right people in place with the right competence.”