The Business Travel Magazine June/July 2019

TRAVEL POLICY
Simply
READ
The days of lengthy, complex travel policies are numbered
and simplification is now the order of the day, writes
Rob Gill
The days when bulky printed
travel policies lay gathering dust
in office drawers or lurked in a
rarely visited corner of a company
intranet may not quite be over, but
there are signs that travel policy is
being seen in a new light.
Technology is helping to bring elements
of travel policy to life: many online booking
tools warn travellers if they are about to
book a flight or hotel that’s out of policy
before they complete the process.
Often this is done using a “traffic light”
system to persuade travellers to book,
if not the best option, at least one that
complies with policy.
Priorities within policies are also shifting.
While improving duty of care has long
been an essential part of policies, this is
now going beyond safety and security to
tackle issues such as the health, wellbeing
and productivity of travellers on the road.
Streamlining policies
One trend, which pretty much everybody
agrees on, is that corporate travel policies
are being “streamlined” and those which
used to run to 20 or 30 pages are
disappearing. Some organisations have
even got their policies down to just one
or two pages of A4 detailing a few key
principles for employees to follow.
Jo Lloyd, a partner at consultancy Nina &
Pinta, says clients are making their policies
“easier to follow and less complicated”.
She says: “How they carry this out depends
very much on the company that they work
in and who ‘owns’ the travel policy. What is
recognised is that this is a collaborative
process and engaging the right
stakeholders is key.”
Lesley O’Bryan, Vice President and
Principal of BCD Travel’s consultancy arm
Advito, says travel policies have to use
technology to “become more dynamic”.
24 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM