However, all corporate preferred travel programs experience some leakage at one point or another.   The loss of transactions through the corporations recommended reservation system or the loss of spend and performance with the contracted suppliers proves difficult for both the buyer and supplier side.   Controlling slippage to achieve contracted terms and policy compliance is fundamental to effective travel management.   The most important key is to communicate to travelers the emphasis on policy and reasons for compliance.

Most travelers do not understand loss of market share or loss of transactions, they care about seeking the better deal and perhaps doing the company a favor.  Travelers are not realizing the company is losing the ability to track spend which weakens future negotiations with vendors, much less the program benefits associated with preferred rates.   A common argument for employees using an alternative website or alternate TMC for booking air is they are perceived to be booking a cheaper airfare or avoiding a transaction fee.  What they may not know when using an alternate website is the pricing does not include taxes and other up- front fees.

Hotels seem to be the largest area of slippage for many companies.  According to recent publications, only fifty percent of hotel bookings are captured through travel management companies.    This is attributed to hotels offering rates through leisure sites and frequent stay membership perks that employees feel they will not receive if booked through their travel management company (TMC).   Employees also think they are getting better deals with car rental companies whose leisure rates may be lower – but they do not include the insurance coverage that should be required for all renting employees.

The answer to the problem is measuring the extent of the leakage and implementing a plan to control it.   The first step is to find out the percentage of leakage through the company’s expense reporting tool.  This will show, through original receipts, how much of the travel was purchased outside of the travel program.  For example, all hotel folios can be matched up with passenger name records (PNR) history, the airline receipts will show the dedicated airline reporting corporation (ARC) information indicating the airline ticket was purchased through the TMC and the rental car will show the designated corporate ID on the receipt.  All these elements will give you an excellent indication of who is following processes and procedures.  Or, if original receipts are not required by the organization, using available data through the TMC, credit card and vendors to find the source of purchase is necessary to track and educate.  This provides the ability to measure travel policy compliance by aggregating and comparing credit card data against your travel data.

Once the offenders are determined, the second step to reduce or control leakage is to develop a well thought-out communication program between upper management and the employees.  By showing upper management the negative impact to the program, you have better buy-in and the support you need.  When word comes from the top, employees will listen.   The employee must understand that they will forfeit his/her right to the following benefits provided through the company’s managed travel program:

• Insurance Coverage - Travel Accident Insurance is typically provided by the TMC in addition to the corporation’s own insurance.
• Profile Information - Specific profile information (i.e. frequent flyer, special requirements, etc.) on file with the TMC will not automatically be available to the travel vendors.
• Reservation Assistance - Flight cancellations, changes and refunds must be processed by the traveling employee through the channels in which they purchased their travel, as the TMC or the travel department are unable to assist travelers with reservations made outside of the managed travel program.
• Receipts - Ticket receipts, itineraries and copies of either, will not be available from the TMC.
• Employee Tracking - Employees will be responsible for advising managers, corporate security and the travel departments of their travel plans to ensure safety and security of the employee.
• Reconciliation Assistance - Due to lack of insight into travelers’ records, reconciliation assistance provided by TMC and/or the travel department is diminished.
• Unused Tickets - Employees will be responsible to ensure unused tickets purchased through alternate websites are used towards future business trips.  Reimbursement of unused tickets can be delayed.

In addition to the communication plan, restrictions can be applied to both on-line bookings and off-line bookings and reinforced when rules are broken.  When employees are educated on the benefits of their company’s managed travel program, they are more likely make better decisions and in turn, improve compliance and cost savings.

by Stefanie Tretola

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

Once the data does become available, the government will not be left without challenges. The most significant remaining challenge is that the roles and responsibilities of travel manager must evolve accordingly. Currently the primary role of federal travel managers is to ensure travelers understand and comply with policy, which are two necessary and important roles. A third, and somewhat overlooked role, is to modify traveler behavior to minimize costs.

An example is the FedRooms program, which currently is not a mandatory program. Although not mandatory, travelers could save the federal government money if they booked hotels using the FedRooms program. However, program usage is only 2% demonstrating that the goal of saving money is tertiary. Some might argue that saving money is the job of the procurement folks. I would argue the opposite, in that it is the travel managers who provide the procurement officials with the “ammunition” (traveler volume, spend, and compliance results) needed to effectively leverage the governments significant purchasing power.

By Ted Schuerman

Since August 2009, travelers have been required to provide Secure Flight Passenger Data (SFPD) at the time of reservation.  SFPD data includes:

• Full Name which matches the form of ID used for the trip (required)
• Itinerary (required)
• Date of Birth (DOB) (required)
• Gender (required)
• Redress Number (optional)
• Passport # for international itineraries (if available)

The ETS contractors and travel management centers (TMCs) responded immediately to this requirement and added SFPD data fields to the traveler’s electronic profiles and reservation processes to capture this information at no cost to the government.

TSA’s Secure Flight Program is now moving into a final phase which will require 100% participation on all reservations booked for travel beginning November 1, 2010 and beyond.

Our ETS vendors have once again responded immediately to this new requirement and modified the system to prevent travelers from booking an online reservation if they don’t have the required SFPD information in their profile. The system will allow them to continue the reservation process only after the information is provided. Since SFPD information is considered personally identifiable information (PII), and some travelers are reluctant to store that data in an electronic system, they have the option of saving the information to their permanent profile or completing the information on a trip-by-trip basis. The TMCs are also assisting in this effort by requesting the SFPD information when travelers call for assistance in booking reservations.

Our agency has extended extra efforts to help facilitate the Secure Flight requirements for our customers. After the initial phase was implemented in August of 2009, we reviewed every active account in our ETS system to identify those without SFPD in their profile.  We sent individual emails to our account holders that were missing SFPD and provided education on the Secure Flight program as well as instructions on how to update their account profiles.

We requested reports from our ETS vendor to identify all account profiles that did not have the SFPD data stored electronically. The reports were distributed to our individual agency contacts so they could relay the upcoming changes to their travelers and encourage them to update their account profiles. Additional reports were obtained from the TMCs to identify all reservations previously booked with a departure date of September first and beyond. These reports were distributed to the agencies to alert their travelers to call the TMC and update their Passenger Name Record (PNR) information to include SFPD. This will avoid their reservations being affected by any airline policy that could inhibit ticket issuance.  Contacting the TMC to add SFPD to an existing reservation will likely result in an agent assisted fee being charged when the ticket is issued. The ETS contract permits TMCs to charge agent assisted fees when reservations require agent assistance to ticket, even if the original reservation was made online.

In addition to the extra work being done by our office, the airline industry is also implementing processes to ensure compliance with TSA’s requirements. The airline industry’s reaction to the new Secure Flight requirements has been to inhibit the issuance of a ticket if the passenger’s Secure flight data is not present in the PNR and in some cases, the carriers will take actions such as cancellation of the reservations and issuing debit memos. With no uniform airline approach to implementation, our ETS vendor and TMCs are targeting September 15th to have their own SFPD capability in place to avoid possible cancellations and potential liability.

While the new Secure Flight requirements are important for keeping our airways safe and secure, the impact on the ETS vendors and TMCs as well as the ETS FATAs has resulted in an increased workload. A great deal of time and work has gone into updating the ETS systems, providing customer information and training, updating electronic profiles, monitoring reports, updating current reservations, and answering questions that come in through the travel help desks.

By Carole Byrd

Disclaimer: The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.  Use of this equipment is consistent with the agency’s policy governing limited personal use.

Now, thanks to technology and E-Gov Travel, the traveler needs only to update the trip expenses on an electronic version of the travel voucher, electronically attach receipts, and then electronically sign the document initiating his/her claim for reimbursement. The travel voucher is automatically routed to the appropriate approving officials for review and approval by electronic signatures. The travel administrative office receives the completed and approved travel voucher through the travel system. The payment data for the travel voucher interfaces into the financial accounting system directing the payment to the traveler’s bank account and/or the traveler’s individually billed travel card account by an electronic funds transfer. In two or three days the traveler and the travel card vendor receive their payments.

With the built in audit features of the E-Gov System, on-line booking, and the use of various travel programs, the agency can be reasonably assured that travel arrangements are made and expenses claimed in compliance with the Federal Travel Regulations and established travel programs. In lieu of the time consuming hundred percent prepayment review of each submitted travel voucher, the travel office performs an audit of a random sample of the paid vouchers processed during the month to ensure the integrity of the travel system and accounting processes. Streamlining the payment process benefits the agency and the Government traveler. The agency adheres to the regulatory requirements for travel management and for accounting of federal funds while reducing the cost of voucher processing. The Government traveler receives reimbursement in a timely manner.

by Regina Potter

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

Gathering airline and car rental spend is easy, just contact the TMC or car rental contractor.  The challenge that we face is gathering the hotel spend, especially the instate hotel spend where there is no air travel involved.   Since only ten percent of the states travelers use the corporate travel charge card, we can only estimate based on that spend.  The easiest thing would be to make use of the card mandatory for all travel spend, but with collective bargaining agreements and the tightening credit market, this has become impossible.

Oregon currently uses permissive agreements with instate properties who honor per-diem rates for state travelers.   Without accurate spend data, it is challenging to enter into actual agreements with negotiated savings.   This provides a disservice to both the properties and the Oregon tax payer, by not being able to capture savings where possible and guaranteeing a minimum number of room nights to a property.

Once a complete end to end and automated solution is developed, it will certainly maximize time and provide savings to the government travel program.

by Tim Hay