Rail travel / Spend management
professional services and legal firms from the mix, that figure drops down to 2%. “It’s generally revenue-generating employees using first class, and not always necessarily the top earners,” says Konradsen. First class is undeniably a good product and the case for improved productivity is strong, says Click's Chris Vince. “Advance first class tickets are often the cheapest option if you look at total travel cost and add up the cost of the coffee, bacon roll and wifi. We recommend a tolerance level in the policy – an extra £10 might let them upgrade and be more productive.” Travellers at MBDA, for example, are permitted to purchase Advance first class tickets if they are cheaper than standard tickets on the day of travel. Some companies are utilising data analytics to find the ROI of first class over standard class. If a traveller is able to work one more hour in first than in standard class on London-Manchester, for example, then “you don’t have to be earning much more before that ticket is paid for,” says CWT’s Harman.
Capita suggests trying for a deal on those routes where there is modal competition between air and rail. Some TOCs will offer a deal to the TMC as a reward, or to Evolvi, rather than on a per client basis. “My message would be, if you have a reasonable amount of spend with a train operator then approach them and ask,” says Melanie Glass, Head of Client Services at Evolvi. Adds HRG's Ian Windsor: “If you don’t ask, you don’t get. London-Manchester is a really busy route so there is no reason to give anything away, but on London-Scotland there is more scope.” Another strategy is to take advantage of emerging technology such as price tracking, advises CWT’s Harman: “Firms like Yapta are well established and work with businesses and TMCs to find savings through automatically tracking flight and hotel prices but there’s also similar technology for rail. “Trainline now offers a price prediction tool allowing business travellers to track the price of Advance tickets through its app,” she says.
Doing a deal
One travel manager trying to take all this good practice on board is Imelda Aspinall at MBDA. Having tackled air and accommodation over the last three and a half years she is now turning her attention to rail. Aware that the company loses out on MI as there is no mandate to use their TMC for rail bookings, the first change will be the implementation of an online booking tool later this year and to mandate its use. MBDA's employees travel between four UK offices in Stevenage, Bristol, Bolton and London as well as bases in France, Italy, Germany and Spain on a regular basis. “Car hire is our major competitor to rail as our major sites are out of the way so we use an Avis implant,” says Aspinall. “We know we spent £1.4million on rail last year through the TMC but we also know that’s only a fraction of the total.”
Aside from educating travellers on ticket types and the times of meetings, buyers can approach the operators to negotiate soft benefits. Success will depend entirely on your volume of spend. It’s worthwhile approaching them if your rail spend is over £100,000 a year. It will also depend on your routes: those with more competition, such as Birmingham-London where there are three train operating companies, are more likely to negotiate.
Putting it into practice
Having had the freedom to book what they want to date, her plan is to get the 100 or so travel bookers on-side and she has already created a focus group of top users to start the process of change. “The question ‘What’s in it for me?’ will always be the main issue but once I have strong MI I'll start looking at negotiating soft benefits and those will be the rewards. But first, TOCs want to know what volumes can be shifted,” explains Aspinall. Both e-tickets and m-tickets will be requirements once the booking tool is implemented too. “Rail is a difficult nut to crack,” she says. “There are so many ticket types and it’s still very confusing. I think booking tools struggle sometimes in presenting rail as there are so many algorithms to go for but I know that there are better solutions out there.”
[ Ten Top Tips ] 1. For internal meetings, book the rail ticket first before deciding on the time of the meeting. 2. Take advantage of off-peak fares. 3. Changing an Advance ticket can be as little as £10 so it's worth committing to early. 4. Put in prompts on a booking tool's log-in screen to help influence behaviour. 5. Negotiate soft benefits with the operators, such as parking, lounge and coffee vouchers, if your spend is over £100,000. 6. Look at Advance first class fares as they can be the cheaper option on a total trip cost basis. 7. Book as far in advance as possible. 8. Try and avoid Anytime (open) rail fares. 9. Make use of season tickets for travellers on long-term projects. 10. Fix the outbound ticket to save money rather than an open return for the trip. If you don’t know what time you’re returning, book a single Advance ticket for the outbound leg and a separate, flexible ticket for the return leg. That could save up to 40% on the total journey price.
Buyers should approach train operators to negotiate soft benefits if your rail spend is over £100,000 a year” 68
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Spend Management.indd 68
3/26/18 11:23 AM