RAIL: TTCE versus Train-line
 
If you currently have an account setup with Trainline and book directly.  If I based your average rail ticket cost at £100.00 the booking fee comparison is as follows:
 
Fees based on a ticket of £100.00:
 
Train-line = £1.50 booking fee + 2% Credit card fee =£3.53
 = £3.00 flat fee for TOD or delivery and would be billed onto account =£3.00
 
We would be cheaper than the Trainline on all tickets over £75.00.
Anything under £75.00 we would be more expensive by a matter of pence.
 
What other benefits are there of booking rail through TTCE?
 
1.     We process your refunds which can be quite time consuming
2.     All tickets are prepaid including ticket on departures (using the same card to collect the tickets that paid for them is not needed with our bookings)
3.     We save you time reconciling card statements
4.     We are proactive and exchange advance tickets (subject to the T&C’s)
5.     We provide detailed reporting on rail spend (good and bad practice / booking horizons / suggested savings hints and tips)
6.     Our system detects when the lower fare has been missed at the time of booking.
7.     We offer seat only reservations
8.     Flights, rail and hotels can all be booked on one system.
 
 
HOTEL RESERVATIONS:  TTCE versus Online websites
 
I understand you can use a variety of hotel websites to book room nights.  I am unsure of your volume; budget or how you control what is spent.  I would like to say the hotel system we have is the most comprehensive available although I can never guarantee that.
 
We have a mix of hotel rates chosen from reliable sources, these are Expedia, Late Rooms and our live agent feed from the hotels directly.  We choose our rates from reliable sources so we can ensure that costs can be billed back and are priced accurately and clearly state what is included in the rate. 
 
TTCE Fees: Our fees for hotel bookings are below:
 
Pay on departure:          Nil
Bill back to company:    2.5% where the rate is commissionable or 2.5% plus a £5 booking fee where the rate is non-commissionable (95% of hotel bookings are commissionable)   
 
I am aware that no fees apply to the majority of online hotel sites, but do not offer hotel bill-back onto account.
 
What other benefits are there of booking hotels through TTCE?
 
1.     We offer a bill-back service.  This avoids the passenger paying on departure and time consuming expenses and statement reconciliation processes.  We feel 2.5% offers excellent value for this.
2.     If you wish to pay on departure we charge no fee (same as on other websites)
3.     We provide a VAT breakdown on hotels which you are entitled to claim back.  20% of all hotel bills are based on a rough guess on your hotel expenditure a significant amount of money.
Hotel rates booked through sites such as Opodo, Kayak, and Trigavo are classed as leisure bookings rather than business and therefore no VAT breakdown is provided.
4.     Our system can have a built-in travel policy, regional room rate caps and reporting can be very beneficial.
5.     Ease of access.  As with rail hotels are all under one system with one login.
6.     If we are aware of your travel spend we can identify patterns and use our contacts within the industry to setup negotiated rates
7.     Flights, rail and hotels can all be booked on one system.
 
 
TTCE versus Booking Independently
 
In cost terms alone, you have the hidden cost of researching, billing and reconciliation can be both cost and time expensive.
 
Research from Cornell University confirms that it can take 37.5 minutes to complete each Internet search for travel and that it can take up to 12 searches before a booking is made.
 
Factoring in back-office processing per invoice / credit card payment / expenses can cost upwards of £20 per invoice.
 
If we based a very rough guesstimate of the number of hotel bookings you make as 400 that means that your reconciliation costs are 400 x £20 = £8000.
 
If we add in the cost of searching and booking online based on 2 visits (37.5 minutes per visit) to the Internet (75 minutes) then the cost in salary is £15.38 per booking (based an average UK PA salary of £24,000 (source: Payscale). For 400 hotel bookings this costs you £6152.
 
Total hidden cost is £8000 + £6152 = £14152.
 
Rail, air and other ancillary travel will add significantly to this.
 
Once we have detailed travel data for your expenditure and number of transactions we can run a cost comparison of what our fees would total.
 
 
Additional benefits of using TTCE for all your travel requirements?
 
Management Information (Accurate travel reporting for the whole of xxx): The reporting I provide monthly will be more comprehensive.  We can identify travel patterns, areas for savings and give clear info on travel spend.
 
Duty of care – If we book all travel we can identify and locate passengers and help assist should there be any delays, cancellations or problems with their travel plans.
 
Account and Supply-chain Management: we give you an expert travel consultancy that recommends better buying procedures, cost and time analysis, supplier negotiations and long-term procurement strategies, consolidated billing and credit facilities.
 

Have a travel policy that is fit for purpose.
You might already have a travel policy, but is it the best that it can be? Is it a one-size-fits-all document that’s been in place for a long time and therefore it no longer meets your needs? Is it aligned with where your organisation is looking to be in the future? Taking the time to examine your travel policy in a critical way, whilst gathering feedback from those that it affects the most is your first step in crafting a well-constructed, universally understood and adhered to travel policy that will act as your first line of defence when it comes to controlling and reducing travel costs.
 
Improve your lead times
Increasing how far in advance travel is booked is a behaviour that is key to driving travel costs down, however last minute bookings can be a hard habit to shake due to the amount of flexibility that they afford travellers.
Although it’s not always possible to exert a lot of control over meetings with prospects or clients, internal meetings provide a great opportunity to think smart and increase lead times, so it’s worth asking travellers to be mindful when arranging these. Your travel management company (TMC) should have a wealth of experience when it comes to improving lead times and working with your account manager to develop a strategy that best fits your organisation is the best way to kick things into touch.
 
Boost travel policy compliance
The first step to improving compliance with your travel policy is to understand why travellers are resistant to booking within the defined parameters set out in the policy; is it a matter of convenience? Is your current booking system difficult to use or access? Does your travel policy seem inflexible or unrealistic to employees? Do employees feel like they have more choice using online booking sites?
 
Find a travel management approach that’s the right fit
If your organisation’s current approach to travel management isn’t quite working out, or is failing to produce the results that you want then why not find a travel management solution that fits?
Procuring the services of a TMC is no mean feat and, if done properly, it can take a fair amount of time. However, it also provides an often much needed chance to take stock - to evaluate what’s working, what isn’t and where your organisation is heading.
 
Want to find out more, contact me at mike.halliwell@ttce.com or call me on 07841 920752.
 
Alternatively contact the office at edinburgh@ttce.com or call 0131 467 7000