My government agency not only uses the imbedded TMC in E-Gov Travel, we also use an accommodated TMC. In addition, we also have a task order on the GSA TSS Schedule (Travel Services Solutions) with a TMC that is used apart from E-Gov Travel for telephone reservations only. We have a mechanism to still prepare the authorizations and vouchers for travel in our E-Gov Travel system and record the transportation expense.
We are glad that our chosen E-Gov Travel vendor recently allowed more TMCs to participate in E-Gov Travel.
Prior to E-Gov Travel, we created our own independent contract for travel management services, since the existing GSA contract was non-mandatory.
One thing the travelers find cumbersome is the fee process. It’s difficult for the infrequent government traveler to know the difference between the TMC fee and the TAV (travel authorization and voucher) fee. Currently ETS uses a TAV fee for each completed voucher in addition to the TMC fee. In studying for this class, it was pointed out in the material that DTS has the ability to charge a management fee based on the number of vouchers created rather than charging a separate TAV fee to each traveler’s document. I hope this is applied later on to ETS as well.
By Daniel Carozza
“The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positon of the Bureau of the Public Debt, or the U.S. Department of the Treasury.”