The introduction of electronic travel systems for civilian agencies was initiated in 2002 by the General Services Agency (GSA) to create an end-to-end travel service to connect travel authorizations, reservations, and expense voucher processing. This initially began as the e-Travel Project, which eventually evolved to E-Gov Travel Service (ETS).
The Federal Travel Regulations were amended to require use of a Travel Management Service (TMS) and the ETS for cost efficiency. This comes from 301-73.106.
Federal agencies were given their choice of three ETS vendors: Carlson Wagonlit Government Travel’s E2 Solutions, EDS’s FedTraveler, or Northrop Grumman Mission System’s GovTrip.
I happen to be the Bureau system administrator for ETS, so I have been very involved in this process. My agency did not convert to full e-travel end-to-end services until June 2008.
I find that once traveler’s give the system a chance; they find it fairly easy to navigate through. There have been up’s and downs in the learning curve, and I expect that there will continue to be those as updates and new versions are implemented.
The main benefit I find from utilizing the ETS system is it forces the traveler to follow the rules and regulations. It is causing heartache for a lot of travelers and approving officials who were doing things that weren’t allowed before, and are just now getting caught.
I believe that the biggest benefit for most travelers is the quick turnaround in reimbursement time. Most travelers are reimbursed in less than 5 days, unless their voucher should happen to get selected for audit.
By: Shirley Keller
“The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.”