As E-travel came on line, some of the most vocal complaints that we heard from the program offices and individual travelers involved the sudden “appearance” of fees for booking online or going through an agent.  The fee schedule was confusing and could be complex.  Many claimed that they had never had to pay the fees before (they had, but often they were considered part of the ticket price), and there were a lot of complaints about having to pay fees if the traveler was “doing all the work” to book the travel on line. A good part of the initial outreach involved educating people about the fees, and how to budget for the fees when planning travel. Our government travel staff provided a working estimate for a “typical” online and agent-assisted ticket, and that helped programs simplify their budgeting which also reduced their anxiety about having enough funds on hand on the authorization.  Over the last three or four years travelers have become much less sensitive to changes in the ticket fees.

Today, we have seen the price sensitivity shift from the really minor cost of ticketing fees to more requests for waivers from having to use the city-pairs contract tickets.  This becomes a major issue particularly during the first quarter of the fiscal year and the very end of the fourth quarter when funds are in short supply.  Congress’s perpetual inability to pass a budget in a timely manner exacerbates the problem because continuing resolutions only provide a portion of an agency’s budget with a 10% reduction from the prior fiscal year.  When a researcher has travel scheduled several months in advance timed to attend a conference or do field research, it is not feasible to simply delay the trip.  This larger price sensitivity is also a long-term issue for GSA’s City-Pair program that will have to be addressed in future City-Pair negotiations if the program is to continue to be viable.  The paying programs and their travelers have become much more sophisticated in their use of the e-travel systems, both government and private, and they are expecting more from the government programs as well.

by Julie Speers

Book the FedRooms rate using either your E-Gov System, your travel management center (TMC) or online at www.fedrooms.com.  If your agency allows, you may call the hotel directly and request the FedRooms rate.  As of today, there are more than 5,000 hotels covering more than 2,000 cities, which offer the FedRooms rate.  The FedRooms rate may be available to you even if your travel plans are for leisure.  Be sure to select Leisure as the reason when searching for the FedRooms rate.

When you book online using the FedRooms website, you will immediately receive an email confirmation from NoReply@Fedrooms.com.  Therefore, you will want to be sure not to delete the email.

FedRooms distributes a quarterly newsletter.  You may subscribe to this newsletter in order to stay abreast of the latest changes to the FedRooms program.

To learn more about this great program, you can take the free FedRooms 101 training webinar.  If you have any questions about the FedRooms program, a traveler may call them at 1-800-226-1741 or email them at hotels@fedrooms.com.

by Pam Morton

In Customer Service, we are primarily focused on providing our SSP customers with helpdesk support for the travel system software. This includes walking them through creating authorizations, assisting with basic reservation questions for airfare, hotel, rental car, and rail, and the creation of vouchers and local vouchers. Aside from the helpdesk, there are other functions within Customer Service that are performed by other employees. These include:

• Changes in Routing Lists/Groups
• Invitational Travel
• Exit Clearances
• Agency Travel Software Training in a Classroom Environment
• Registration Access to the Travel System
• New Agency Implementation
• Profile Updates/Changes
• Report Creation
• Post Payment Audits
• Travel System Issues that Require Further Research

These are just a few of the travel functions that our Customer Service group is responsible for but the main point is that it takes many subject matter experts to adequately service travelers. This flows into the other two areas of our Temporary Duty Services Branch, which are Accounting and Charge Card.

Our accounting area, also known as Systems and Accounting Support, is responsible for making sure travelers receive their travel reimbursements in a timely manner. There is an automated process that travel accounting technicians run every morning to process the documents from the travel system into the accounting system. Most documents post to the accounting system without issues but some will require additional assistance. For instance, if a traveler receives an advance in the authorization, it becomes a manual posting to the financial system. The same applies after the trip when the voucher is processed so that the advance can be deducted from the total cost of the trip.

As all document types (authorizations, vouchers, and local vouchers) are interfaced to the accounting system, many ‘checks’ are in place to ensure timely payments. Accounting technicians are proficient in running different reports throughout the interface process so that travel payments are issued to the traveler and charge card vendor to make sure that the payments are accurate. Travelers’ payments are directly deposited into their bank account within three to five business days after the voucher is approved in the travel system.

There are many factors involved to ensure that all runs smoothly from the beginning of the travel process to the end result. It takes all areas of our office to accomplish the following process.

When a new employee is hired by an agency, the first thing they must do in order to travel is to apply for a Government charge card and supply their direct deposit information to our office. Their profile is built in the travel system and the charge card information is added as well as the other pertinent information that leads to a successful payment. After a profile is built and the traveler creates their ID and password for the travel system, they create a travel authorization before traveling so that the funds can be obligated in the financial system.

After their authorization is complete with reservations and the other information such as accounting code, expenses, and proper routing, the document is electronically signed. It then follows the electronic path and is ultimately approved by an approving official. Some agencies route documents to an Examiner before it is approved so that a budget officer can review the accounting information to ensure the funds are available to cover the trip. After the authorization is approved, it is interfaced to the accounting system in our office. When the traveler returns from the trip, he/she creates a voucher.

The voucher is created from the authorization in the travel system. All information that was previously entered in the authorization populates into the voucher. The traveler updates the voucher to reflect the actual expenses incurred on the trip and they attach the required receipts to the voucher by either faxing or scanning. After reviewing the voucher for accuracy, it is routed electronically. It must first be signed by the traveler and then proceeds to route to the approving official. Our office interfaces the document to the accounting system and then the reimbursement will be deposited in the traveler’s bank account.

It takes all areas of Travel to accomplish a successful trip for a traveler. I have covered what it takes from my office’s perspective but other offices are involved as well. We all work as one big team from the traveler, the travel management center, our office, and many others to make the whole experience an enjoyable one.

By: Cindy Moore Pomrenke

The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.

http://www.fms.treas.gov/news/split_travel_disbursement_waiver.pdf

Split disbursement offers a higher level of convenience by eliminating the hassles of writing a personal check, the cost of a stamp, and the worry of getting the payment in by the due date.

The traveler remains responsible for timely payment of all charges to the Government travel charge card and should verify that payments have been credited properly on subsequent statements. The traveler should contact the charge card provider if payments were not credited as expected. Collection of any overpayments made to the credit card company is the responsibility of the traveler.

For my agency, these expenses are set up in the travel system to be paid to the individual credit card account via split disbursement:

• All airfare, lodging, and rental car reservations made in the travel system are automatically paid to the traveler’s credit card account (including TMC fees).
• All TAV fees for vouchers and local vouchers are automatically paid to the traveler’s credit card account.
• Non-mileage expenses (Optional: Travelers may change the method of reimbursement in the system if they want these expenses to be paid to their credit card account).
• Travelers may also request additional amounts be paid to their credit card account by indicating the amount in the appropriate field in the travel system. Travelers use this option for expenses that were charged to their credit card such as meals, parking, incidental expenses, etc.

Many travelers have access to their IBA on-line which allows them to easily calculate the split disbursement payment amounts in order to pay their account in full each month.

by Julie Gilchrist

“The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.

In reading section 5b, I also thought of the term “Best Practices” to describe most of the material. As the section initially stated, travel is a small part of most employee’s jobs. The less time it takes to make official travel arrangements, the more time there is to devote to other aspects of their position. Within the Postal Service, I am truly amazed and satisfied with the ease of our electronic travel system. The initial step we do in making our airline (hotel and/or car if needed) reservations through Omega is so quick and easy. Our profile is already in the system so it seems like in a matter of minutes, the reservation is made. Then, upon completion of travel, when we make our electronic travel voucher, the system makes it easy to enter all of our expenses. It even makes the per diem and mileage calculations! I still remember preparing hard copy travel vouchers and calculating all those numbers. Once the voucher is completed, it also prompts the travelers with the required receipts for processing. Then, in a matter of days, the voucher is processed and payment is made.

Joyce Wahoski, USPS Stamp Development

One of the goals of the President’s Management Agenda E-Gov Travel Service was to provide a cost savings to the agencies. The agencies can only achieve these cost savings by promoting and encouraging self-service reservations whenever possible. A simple trip from Washington Dulles to Atlanta should not require agent intervention. Yet it does even if booked online, because the City Pair carrier is Air Tran. It is conceded that Air Tran and another similar carrier, Jet Blue offer very low city pair fares, some of the lowest in all the markets. In this day and age of automation and 3GB I-phones, a Government traveler should be able to book any city pair fare online as a self-service transaction.

by Jacqueline Lynch

The GDS houses the necessary information that will allow travel agents to book and sell airline tickets, book hotel rooms, make rental car reservations, and reserve rail reservations and more. The first GDS, Sabre, was created by the airlines in the 1960s.  Sabre has been around a lot longer than its competitors; Amadeus was created in 1987, Worldspan in 1990 and Galileo/Apollo in 1993.

These complex systems have numerous capabilities.  Besides what was previously mentioned, the GDS can even allow a traveler to select a particular seat on an aircraft.  The GDS will also allow a traveler to enter their frequent flyer number, so that the traveler can receive rewards for flying with a particular airline.

Sabre also provides a website that gives the travelers the latest information concerning their reservations.  This site is very helpful to my agency as some of our travelers neglect to electronically attach their invoice/itinerary to his/her voucher.  We can easily go to the Sabre’s Virtually There website, print a copy of the traveler’s invoice, and attach it to their voucher.

Federal Government travelers must use their E-Gov Travel System or book the traditional way by calling their travel management center (TMC).  Even though Federal Government travelers are not allowed to use a commercial used on-line booking engine, Sabre owns Travelocity.com, which is the leading on-line travel website.

No matter which GDS is used in connection with your agency’s E-Gov Travel System, one factor to keep in mind is that not all airlines participate in a GDS.  Currently the following airlines do not participate:

• AFRIC AIR CHARTER
• ALASKA MARINE HIGHWAY
• AIRTRAN AIRWAYS
• AIR NORTH
• BERING AIR INC
• BIG SKY
• CANADIAN NORTH/AIR NORTERRA INC.
• CAPE AIR
• EXPRESS JET
• FRONTIER FLYING SERVICE
• FRONTIER FLYING
• FORTY MILE AIR
• FJORD FLYING SERVICE
• FS AIR SERVICE / TRANS AIR BENIN
• GREAT LAKES
• HAGLAND AIRLINES
• HOMER AIR
• ISLAND AIR
• JET BLUE
• KENMORE AIR HARBOUR INC.
• LAB FLYING SERVICE
• LARRY’S FLYING SERVICE
• OLYMPIC AIRLINES
• PACIFIC COAST AIRLINES
• PAN AM CLIPPER CONNECT/BOSTON MAINE AIRWAYS
• PENAIR/PENISULA AIR
• PROMECH
• SOUTHWEST
• SPERNAK AIR
• SPIRIT AIRLINES
• VIRGIN AMERICA
• WARBELOWS AIR VENTURES
• WINGS OF ALASKA
• WRIGHT AIR SERVICE

by Pam Morton

The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.

Government travel is regulated by numerous laws and regulations.  Understanding the laws and rules that apply to government employee travel and each branch they are employed by is essential to doing business with any government agency.   All travel activities from contracted city-pair airfare to per diem, requires travelers and travel arrangers to comply with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), Defense Acquisition Regulations (DFARS), Federal Travel Regulations (FTR), Joint Travel Regulations (JTR), and Standardized Regulations (DSSR).  It can seem cumbersome trying to understand what laws and rules apply to the traveler, the travel management company, and what specifically applies to a particular branch of government.  It is always best to do research through the SGTP, and the GSA websites.  Both of these resources can answer questions, but also refer any government employee or civilian doing business with the federal government to the specific regulation they may be inquiring about.  Any individual’s best bet is to read and understand the laws and rules that apply to civilian government employees and uniformed active military and the specific branch of government they are employed with, or are doing business with.  These laws are the fundamental foundations to understanding where the government travel industry will head in the future as well as give up to date regulations for all government traveler and travel planning.

Is the future of government travel and travel planning with ETS, Electronic Travel Systems, or the full service TMC, Travel Management Company?  That seems to be the question concerning not only government employees, but the TMCs alike.   ETS, Electronic Travel systems are currently have TMCs embedded or accommodated for each specific branch of the federal government, and the ETS solution such as GovTrip.  What that means is the TMC is still ensuring each reservation gets ticketed and there are no glitches with the reservation. Once a reservation is made through the ETS, it gets electronically sent to the TMC through the GDS, Global Distribution System of their agency.   TMCs run each reservation through their quality control software to ensure the government traveler’s record is free of errors, consistent, and airfare is set for ticketing.  Quality control software internally used by TMCs utilize automated, manual tasks, that take the reservation further than what an ETS can accomplish.  Quality control systems can be modeled around federal per diem rates and other federal lodging requirements to provide a great cost (and time) savings for government travelers.  These unique collaborative suites of quality control file finishing modules works with the GovTrip and other ETS solutions.  Understanding that the TMC has just as much power behind the ticketing a government reservation as the actual ETS booking engine itself, shows that the TMC is needed for self service reservations and full service call centers alike for all government travel.

Other government organizations such as the General Services Administrations, GSA, play a vital role in shaping the government travel industry today and into the future.  The General Services Administration is an independent agency of theUnited Statesgovernment, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies.  The GSA supplies products and communications forU.S.government offices, provides transportation and office space to federal employees, and develops government-wide cost-minimizing policies, including regulation and approving TMCs and policies for Federal Government Travel.  GSA also regulates and publishes FTR Federal Travel Regulations.  Former President Herbert Hoover was asked in 1947 by President Harry Truman to lead a commission to make recommendations to the President and congress on how to improve administrative activities of the federal government. GSA became an independent agency on July 1, 1949.  In 1980 The GSA launched the City-pair program testing 11 city pair contracts for reducing airfare cost to the federal governement.  GSA now administers over 5,000 city pairs contracted airfares for up to 70% savings for allUSfederal travelers.  As part of their effort, GSA maintains the large GSA Schedule, which other agencies can use to buy goods and services, schedule 599 refers to the services GSA administers for the federal government travel .  Specifically if a TMC would like to do business with the federal government, GSA TSS approval is recommended. The GSA Schedule can be thought of as a collection of pre-negotiated contracts. Procurement managers from government agencies can view these agreements and make purchases from the GSA Schedule knowing that all legal obligations have been taken care of by GSA, and TMCs meet all federal requirements.

The variety of TMCs available to the federal government started with Scheduled Airline Ticket Offices, SATO.  Today, although only 37 TMCs are currently GSA approved and TSS, Travel Services Solution certified, deregulation and the fair in competition acts and laws along with thousands of Travel Management Companies benefit the federal government procurement process for travel services.  The Billions spent annually benefit the economy by revenue flowing through, airlines, hotels, car-rental agencies, not to mention the food service industry, restaurants, and entertainment.  Interesting? Who is there to help manage the process from the civilian side of this industry? The TMC.  In partnership with the federal government, with great relations, unwavering application of laws and policies, from communication to accounting for every dollar spent, this partnership is immeasurable and most beneficial to the federal governement as well as the TMC.  TMCs in today’s federal governement travel industry, must not only provide a service for the federal government, but must know the industry, study the ongoing changes, and be able to properly guide all government travelers to be in compliance with their entire travel plans from start to finish.  The TMC and the federal government travelers can look forward to many years in partnership together, managing this robust expense for theUnited States of America.

By:  Scott Carver

As Director of National Sales for Carlson Hotels Worldwide, my subject matter expertise is hotels.  I feel some of the points made in this document could perhaps be the most valuable contribution I have given to my fellow SGTP affiliates.  As a result, the strategies outlined in this manuscript will be strictly from a hotels sales perspective.

Three highly under-rated values (intangibles) that a supplier/hotelier can offer a federal government buyer that meet important government criteria are diversity, security and corporate responsibility.

DIVERSITY

Today, every government organization has diversity as one of its goals.  If your company can help a potential government buyer reach its diversity goal, your offer becomes a far more valuable asset to that government buyer.  There are several government recognized categories of diversity.  In many cases, the federal government will specifically “set-aside” solicitations for which only the business classifications listed below qualify.  Below is general list of diversity categories.

• Small Business:  Small business size standards are based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).  The guidelines are industry specific based on either dollar volume and/or number of employees.  A small hotel, motel and/or casino hotel is defined as one not exceeding more than $6 million in gross annual receipts or total income. This total income includes all affiliate average over a firm’s latest three fiscal years as reported on the firm’s federal income tax.
• Woman Owned Business:  A business that is owned and controlled (51% or greater) by a woman or a group of women.
• Veteran Owned Business:  A business that is owned (51% or greater) by a veteran or a group of veterans.
• Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business:  A business that is owned by one or more disabled veteran or veterans.
• Small Disadvantaged Business:  A business that is owned (51% or greater) by a person(s) who is/are socially or economically disadvantaged.  These include: African Americans, Asian/Pacific Islander Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and Subcontinent Asian Americans.
• Hub-Zoned Business:  A business in a distressed area defined as a “Historically Underutilized Business” (HUB) Zone.

SECURITY

Obviously, security at lodging destinations is top concern for government organizations.  Guaranteeing the safety of military personnel and all people is unarguably the most valuable objective for any business.  In recent experiences, I have discovered hotels which offer outstanding security services and solid security protocols/procedures have proven to be viewed as true intangibles by government decision makers.  Below are some examples of worthwhile and advantageous security features.

1. Video surveillance covering all entrances and exits of the hotel.
2. “On property” security that is visible and frequently “walks” the hotel.
3. Signs at all entrances advising those who enter about property security and high-tech video surveillance.
4. Only one accessible entrance for the hotel in the late evening.
5. The monitoring of all buses, vans and other large vehicles parked at the hotel over night.
6. The registration of all vehicles at the front desk.
7. The training of all employees and executive staff to report suspicious activity.
8. The hotel’s participation in monthly meetings with area hotels and law enforcement officials to discuss best practices and all recent illegal activity in the area.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILTY

All businesses both new and existing should serve as models for a healthy workplace with minimal negative environmental impacts.  In order achieve true corporate responsibility, work places need to be environmentally safe, ethically sound, community oriented, and they most also put strong priorities on learning and culture.

Today, most federal government organizations put very high emphasis on the environment.  Collectively these agencies are starting to strictly adhere to EPA standards.  Although specific EPA features and practices can vary from state-to-state, I recommend being proactive and listing all of your environmental initiatives on government solicitations.

Ethics is also clearly a serious initiative, and very strong policies pertain to all government employees.  Businesses that promote scrupulous ethics guidelines usually find themselves in very good graces with government contractors and key constituents.  In short, success is often found by those who promote solid principles and ethics as a matter of course.

Lastly, proper training, learning, professional development and continuing education are huge factors that play into the role of corporate responsibility.  Following these guidelines in chorus with those mentioned above will certainly help any business better solidify a consistent, long-term partnership with the U.S. Government.

Charles H. Green once wrote, “The biggest difference between selling ‘things’ and intangible services is the pivotal role of trust. Trust is even more critical to selling intangible services than it is to selling things.”  In the final analysis, being a leader by proactively understanding what is important and offering those important intangibles to your best customers will speak volumes about your integrity, and thus build trust.  Without a doubt, trust is a very important commodity to the government and will unquestionably prove to be advantageous to your business.

by Chris McLaughlin

When we were in the initial pilot format, and the problems became more acute and obvious shortly after we required mandatory use of the system agency-side, we discovered several problems in our internal practices.  Many of our managers, especially those in the program areas, are here only as temporary personnel.  These interim managers do not understand appropriations law, government accounting, and they have no interest in complying with the FAR or the FTR.  Civil service staff often understood the rationale for the regulations and agency processes, but had a difficult time enforcing compliance when their management was telling them to do otherwise. There was a strong underlying culture of “make-it-work” and pro-forma paperwork (in some cases no paperwork until the travel vouchers were presented for payment).

Some of the problems discovered had been suspected for years by accounting personnel who did not have the political influence to correct them within the organization.  These issues included such things as traveling without evidence of advance approval for the travel (no written and approved orders); and violations of the Anti-Deficiency Act (traveling without funds committed and obligated in advance of expenditure by an authorizing official);   A significant amount of the organizational resistance to the implementation of the ETS, in my opinion, came not from just the complexity of the ETS, but also from the enforced standardization and compliance with the letter of the law and internal regulations.

Mandatory use of the ETS has successfully standardized travel practices and forced  cultural change at the agency that can only improve financial integrity and compliance with federal regulations, and the internal policies that require us all to be good custodians of the taxpayers’ money.

by Julie Speers