for global travel safety...approach. however, according to adrian parkes, ceo, gtmc, ensuring that...
TRANSCRIPT
for globaltravel safety
WHITEPAPER – DECEMBER 2017
INTRODUCTION
GLOBAL BUSINESS TRAVEL IS ON THE INCREASE - COMPANIES SPENT OVER US $1.3 TRILLION ON GLOBAL BUSINESS TRAVEL IN 2016 1 - AND IS FORECAST TO INCREASE BY 6 PERCENT IN 2017 AND A FURTHER 6.1
PERCENT IN 2018 2 . ACCORDING TO A STATISTICA SURVEY OF 983 TRAVEL MANAGERS
WORLDWIDE, THIS VOLUME IS EXPECTED TO INCREASE FURTHER IN YEARS TO COME.
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71% OF TRAVEL MANAGERS IN THE US EXPECT THEIR BUSINESS TO TRAVEL MORE, WHILE MORE THAN 50% OF BUSINESSES IN INDIA, THE UK AND TURKEY EXPECT THEIR EMPLOYEES TO TRAVEL MORE 3.
This increase comes as no surprise. Today’s
employees are working with clients in a global
business environment. And yet, this rise in
travel is leading to a growth in the concerns
around it. People are becoming increasingly
aware of the challenges around travel in
some locations and want to make sure that
they - and their family, friends and colleagues
- can feel secure about their safety, especially
if something goes wrong. An increase in
incidents around the world is making it more
imperative for travellers to be traceable - and
to have the connectivity required to check in
and mark themselves as safe. According to
Caroline Strachan, Managing Partner, Festive
Road: “There is always a travel safety element
to business travel now. 10 years ago, this was
not the case.”
In this context, businesses are increasingly
being forced to reassess their responsibilities
when it comes to employees and their travel:
for example, the European Court of Justice
ruled in 2015 that travel to work counts as
working time 4 . As more and more employees
travel to an increasingly wide range of
locations, the businesses they work for are
facing new challenges when it comes to
issues such as health and safety and duty of
care. And while none of this may come as a
surprise, it does come at a time when
terrorist attacks and natural disasters are
at the front of many travellers’ minds.
Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that few
companies have travel policies in place to
specifically address the topic of travel
safety. Clive Wratten, CEO, CTI says:
“Safety is vitally important and very
understated outside international travel.
The ground transportation angle is often
overlooked, usually because people are left
to do their own thing, and SMEs in particular
are quite lax. We work to make sure our
customers apply duty of care across all
aspects of travel.” According to research by
Addison Lee Group the majority of policies
are still very much focused on company
issues and cost control such as: “when first
class is acceptable, when booking a car is
acceptable, rate caps, preferred booking
channels, preferred providers.” A recent
survey revealed that fewer than half of
major organisations provide any travel safety
guidance to their employees 5. The result is
that many companies are left at a loss when
safety issues arise.
This whitepaper has been produced to help
businesses ensure they are fully prepared
to address global travel safety within
their organisation. Addison Lee Group has
brought together a team of global travel
and wider industry experts from Capita Travel
and Events, Festive Road, GTMC, Hillgate
Travel, Northcott Global Solutions, ARROW212,
Reed & Mackay, Inntel, BT Global Services
and CTI to examine the key themes and
drivers affecting safety in the global travel
industry and explore the kind of policies
businesses should put in place to protect
themselves and their employees.
1 https://www.statista.com/topics/962/global-tourism/ 2 https://www.statista.com/statistics/324786/global-business-travel-spending-growth-forecast/ 3
https://www.statista.com/
statistics/293608/travel-managers-expecting-an-increase-in-business-travel-by-country/ 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34210002 5 https://www.forum-expat-management.com/
PART 1
Possibly the most significant factor affecting
global travel safety is the globalisation
of business. Companies increasingly have
duty of care for a global workforce engaged
in international travel, and a responsibility to
ensure they are safe, comfortable and receive a
consistent experience wherever they are.
Michelle (Mick) Lee, Managing Partner,
ARROW212 says: “travel policy and preferred
vendor programme must be created in
partnership with HR, Legal, Risk, Finance
and Procurement teams with diverse and
global representatives from your travellers
in every culture within your organisation.
This collaboration will result in a robust and
inclusive data set for your policy. We help our
clients to understand that it is not intended to
get consensus, which can be paralysing to the
process. Instead it is intended to ensure that
feedback is collected on the impact of every
critical guideline - customised by country - to
protect travellers and the company. It is critical to
remember that this has to be a living document
that is reviewed, benchmarked and updated
on an ongoing basis with active marketing to
illustrate the value to every individual.”
The global travel safety landscape
PART 1
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Ted Jones, CEO, Northcott Global Solutions
says: “Over the last 40 years, travel patterns
have changed - both in terms of the number
of people travelling and the locations they
are travelling too. Traditional Emergency
Assistance models have not kept pace with
these changing patterns.”
Travel policies exist to help guide employees
when travelling and ensure a consistent
approach. However, according to Adrian Parkes,
CEO, GTMC, ensuring that travellers are up
to speed with company policy often poses a
challenge: “Having a policy there isn’t enough.
Travellers need to understand and adhere to
the policy and be aware of things like whether
they can take a taxi home after attending an
event outside normal working hours.”
One of the most challenging aspects of
employee non-adherence is rogue booking
- bookings made by individuals that fall
outside of the policy - which limit the ability
of employers and the travel management
companies (TMCs) who support them to help
when things go wrong. Adrian Parkes, CEO,
GTMC says: “Travellers don’t always provide
information about the bookings they have
made themselves, which means that often the
TMC is operating without the complete picture.
And that’s where risk can easily creep in.”
The vulnerability of the global citizenUnsurprisingly, people can feel vulnerable once
they travel outside of their comfort zone. This
fear of being in an unfamiliar location is not
unfounded. Between 2003 and 2014, 30% of the
causes of US non-natural deaths abroad were
vehicle related. As a result, travellers demand
transport that is not just reliable, but which
provides a sense of familiar security. Research
by Addison Lee Group reveals that travellers feel
safer when they can rely on a known and trusted
brand in an unfamiliar place, knowing the service
they will receive includes: “Well-trained and vetted
drivers” and “easy to locate lost belongings when
they leave items behind.” Responses in the same
survey indicated that passengers want to feel
that the car is “an extension of home. When
you’re in an unfamiliar location or tired after a
long day you need a driver you can trust and who
knows your preferences.”
Trevor Elswood, CCO, Capita Travel and Events
says: “Very infrequent travellers may feel more
vulnerable and are less likely to be familiar with
the company policy. To deal with that you need
to develop personas that will help you identify
the stress points of travel, the travel savviness
levels of your travellers and what they need
from you to relieve that stress.”
As a result of the increase in global travel - and
the concerns around it - businesses are taking
travel safety increasingly seriously. Recent
years have seen a sharp increase in paperwork
such as the amount of consent being sought
for each trip. Data capture around such
consent has been digitised, ensuring there
is a clear audit trail around travel. Many of
the biggest challenges around global travel
fall outside this remit, however. According
to Antoine Boatwright, Chief Information
Officer, Hillgate Travel, the one vital area
many businesses aren’t addressing is that of
sensitising people to cultural expectations:
“One of the most difficult areas for business
travellers is cultural information.
Between 2003 and 2014, 30% of the causes of US non-natural deaths
abroad were vehicle related. As a result, travellers demand transport that is not just reliable, but which
provides a sense of familiar security.
Travellers don’t necessarily see the difference between travelling to Paris and travelling to less developed places. Most people won’t know that there is no domestic emergency service in Northern Thailand, or appreciate that a system designed to help them on a trip to Spain will be severely tested if they travel to Sri Lanka. T E D J O N E S , C E O, N O R T H C O T T
G LO B A L S O L U T I O N S
You can find information online, but it
frequently offers a very biased representation.
You may need to check what you find against
other sources and it can be hard to know
which ones to trust. Identifying reliable
sources of information takes time, and in many
cases it is not offered in a digestible format.
That’s a disadvantage for business travellers
who need to familiarise themselves with a new
travel location quickly.”
Meeting the global travel challengeSo how can employers meet these needs?
Information is key, however, much of the most
relevant information for business travellers
isn’t necessarily publicly available. For example,
while it might be easy to find out whether
vaccinations are required prior to travel to
a particular location, it might not be explicit
how far in advance travellers need to be
vaccinated, not to mention the fact that often
the decision to travel in a business context
doesn’t offer enough time. And when it comes
to finding less administrative information
around local habits and cultural sensitisation,
employees may struggle to find information
sources they can trust.
Victoria Berwick, Global Marketing Director,
Reed & McKay says: “It’s sometimes very difficult
to sift through the noise, especially on media
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channels, to decipher exactly what a current
situation is. It’s very easy for the experienced
traveller to become less diligent about their
plans when travelling and that’s where the
corporate and the suppliers must work
together to make sure all avenues are covered,
keeping safety and security top of mind, while
still delivering value.” Employers then, need to
do their research and arm both themselves
and their employees with accurate, relevant
and trustworthy information. This includes
establishing what good service looks like in
each location as well as how best to choose
local travel partners. Ground transportation is
an area where travellers can feel particularly
vulnerable, and should be a key focus.
Typically one of the major issues is not being
able to book with a single supplier globally.
Travel managers frequently find themselves
dealing with small suppliers in region and
may not always have language skills to do this
effectively from afar. For many companies,
this means relying on affiliations who may
not be able to provide consistency of service
- especially when it comes to guaranteeing
safety. Rob McGinn, Chief Commercial Officer,
Addison Lee Group says: “Gaining in-depth
information about local services is always going
to be a challenge. In a ground transportation
context for example, working out what good
looks like in terms of executive cars is more
straightforward because there is a level of
investment there, but when it comes to a basic
service to get people from A to B, that becomes
a challenge. If you don’t have presence on the
ground it can be hard to find someone reliable.”
Choosing the right partners can also help
mitigate some gaps in local knowledge. For
example, pre-paid ground transportation
eliminates the need for cash payments and helps
travellers minimise the amount of currency they
need to carry. In some locations, such as India,
where it is a criminal offence to leave the country
with currency, this can serve as a protection.
The travel industry is undergoing an unprecedented period of change. Digital technology has driven market disruption, leading to an increase in industry players.
While this has helped increase the accessibility of travel, not all new providers
represent quality, increasing concerns around safety and making it imperative for
businesses to choose a partner they can trust. When operating in a global context, this
anxiety is multiplied.
Adding to this instability is the disappearance of many more traditional providers. Rising
fuel costs, concerns around sustainability and ‘race to the bottom’ price wars have led even
some of the more stable travel providers - such as the UK’s Monarch Airlines - to cease trading suddenly. For businesses and their employees, this trend creates a sense of
uncertainty around international travel, not to mention a growing need for reassurance from providers that there is a backup plan.
World events are also playing a part, with terror attacks and natural disasters
meaning that many more locations are now deemed high risk than two years ago. Even
previously “safe” cities such as Paris, London or Barcelona represent a higher risk due to recent terror attacks - not to mention the
growing number of protests and strikes that cause disruption rather than danger. Many of these have been specific to travel situations,
with incidents focusing on airports, train stations or cars driving off the road. This has
had a direct impact on the travel market, making people less confident about travelling
than they might have otherwise been.
DISRUPTION IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY
PART 1
Using an approved provider also means that
travellers always know what they are stepping
into, reducing their uncertainty and unease
in unfamiliar locations and removing worries
about being ripped off and being left with an
expense they later can’t claim. Even smaller
cultural considerations such as tipping can be
smoothed out using pre-booked travel options,
giving travellers extra peace of mind, and
businesses ultimate control of costs.
A key thing companies often overlook is the
importance of having a traveller policy - one
that addresses individual and situational
needs. As well as establishing robust policies
and partnerships, employers should also
work to develop resources their employees
can turn to when travelling. Creating
country profiles that are designed to help
those travelling to other parts of the world,
regardless of their level of familiarity with
the location, can be invaluable in helping
travellers access sensible and practical advice
around cultural sensitivity, gender differences
and political events.
The impact of technologyThere is no question that technology has raised
the game when it comes to travel. In fact, it has
transformed the way the entire industry thinks
about travel. Much of this change is welcome:
people now have instant access to transport in
the palm of their hand, last-minute bookings
are possible in more locations, and journeys can
be tracked and traced.
However, digital is driving more commoditised
behaviours and causing a huge shift in how
business travel is organised. For example,
smartphone apps are one of the most popular
ways for passengers to book their own ground
transportation. The benefits are clear: instant
access through a familiar interface that
offers a seamless, information-rich booking
experience. Nicola Millard, Futurologist, BT
Global Services, says: “One of the reasons the
way we approach business travel is changing
is that experience is much more important
now. Business travellers want the ease,
convenience and flexibility of frictionless
travel - and travel managers have to deliver
that. Travellers are goal-directed, which means
they don’t care about the details of travel if
they can get where they need to go. They just
need everything to fit together so they reach
that final goal of getting to their meeting or
conference on time.”
But while this technology is empowering - it
can come with challenges and risks. The ease
of access offered by apps makes them one of
the key driving forces behind rogue booking,
because in many cases the app being used
might not be part of the company travel
policy. For travel managers, this means a
reduction in visibility and control. According
to research by Addison Lee Group: “Car
services are an after-thought across the
organisation. As a result, car service choice is
driven by passenger ‘pull’, not organisational
‘push’. This is especially so now. Whereas
Traveller policies are about understanding that what might be appropriate for one person might be inappropriate for another. Your travel policy might say that people can’t just book a taxi home, but someone who is more vulnerable might need to do that. Your policy needs to address those scenarios.
T R EVO R E L S WO O D, C C O, C A P I TA T R AV E L A N D E V E N T S
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before the travel manager and their policies
were at the heart of business travel, these
days, the traveller is in control - and their
needs and behaviours may not always be
aligned with those of the travel manager.
Additionally, while the ease, comfort
and familiarity of the technology may be
consistent across all territories, some of the
underlying services are not. Users booking
through an app can be lulled into a false sense
of security that they might not have when
queuing for an airport taxi. In situations of
this kind, questions around the identity and
qualifications of the driver, whether you can
expect to get lost property back, and how
journeys are tracked and traced become more
difficult to answer. To reconcile this conflict,
businesses need to accept that the consumer
style experience is going to continue to evolve
- and get on board with it, incorporating
apps into their booking processes and travel
policies in a way that provides employees with
maximum ease and experience without leaving
travel managers in the dark.
Shifts in how data is used are also having an
impact on user experience. Nicola Millard,
Futurologist, BT Global Services identifies the
shift from personalisation to proactivity as
key: “We’re all familiar with the personalised
model - it’s what Netflix uses to track your
Car services are an after-thought across the organisation.
As a result, car service choice is driven by passenger
‘pull’, not organisational ‘push’.
Technology might enable rogue booking, but it also allows people to make bookings through preferred operators much more easily and can be used to mitigate that maverick behaviour. It allows you to direct behaviours in a way that doesn’t seem controlling, because it also provides a positive user experience and instant access. Apps are contemporary and they can be fun - and employers should take advantage of that.C L I V E W R AT T E N , C E O, C T I
viewing habits and suggest what to watch
next. Now things are becoming more proactive
- in a travel context that could mean knowing
that a traveller’s plane is late and letting them
know their driver is still waiting for them. The
next leap will be to predictive data, which is
about predicting what people will need and
want to do before they know it themselves.”
Data has many more opportunities to offer.
For example, many companies struggle to gain
visibility over untracked spend - something
that app-based technology can help them
overcome, making it easier to identify cost
saving opportunities. This is especially true for
SMEs who account for the highest proportion
of travel spend, but frequently miss out on
access to business travel technology. Caroline
Strachan, Managing Partner, Festive Road says:
“More tech has been emerging to make travel
management easier and what’s interesting now
is that the focus is no longer just on traveller
tracking, but on making things easier for the
traveller and improving their experience.”
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Travel managers need to start thinking about
how to establish a distinction between journey
tracking that is a comfort and that which is an
intrusion. When we think about predictive data
in this context, it raises issues around trust.
There’s a fine line between the service that
anticipates a person’s needs and something
more sinister. Nicola Millard says: “The trend
in this area is that people are more worried
not less. There is great awareness of hack
attacks and worries about what will be done
with personal data, even among children. The
key is that you need to build trust to make it
successful - and that means being transparent.
By specifying the data you need to use,
why you need it, how it will be used - and
importantly getting user consent.”
One option is to consider a flexible option
that varies between low and high risk
locations. For Ted Jones, CEO, Northcott
Global Solutions, it’s about teaching travellers
to think differently when they are travelling
on company time: “Companies are in a
position to tell employees they must comply
with traveller tracking because duty of care
is a legal obligation. If an incident escalates
and becomes a corporate manslaughter
case, the employer can’t just tell the judge
they offered them the option and they didn’t
take it. It’s up to the employer to choose
the apps they put on company phones.”
There are other challenges ahead, too. The
advent of a broader range of connected
devices brings with it questions around
travel safety that go beyond the physical and
bringing cybersecurity into the conversation,
too. Autonomous vehicles are becoming
increasingly viable, but they, also raise some
issues with regard to safety. The way we, as
individuals and as businesses, think of safety
as it relates to transport has to change,
and as technologies of this kind continue to
emerge, businesses will need to absorb them
into their travel policies as quickly as possible
to meet employee demand.
AVOIDING THE BIG BROTHER
CONUNDRUM
At the same time, the type of visibility on
offer raises questions around privacy.
Digital technology opens up possibilities
for in-depth traveller tracking. Travel
managers can see when employees have
reached different points of their journey
and whether they are currently on
their plane, in their car or at their hotel.
But is this taking things too far?
While tracking options offer maximum
visibility they may feel less like a security
measure and more like surveillance. In
some industries and locations, sharing an
employee’s precise location may breach
client confidentiality, or even put them in
additional danger. And yet, when disaster
strikes, people want answers.
Duty of care is increasingly expanding
beyond the individual employee to include
their family, too. Employers need to be able
to provide answers about people’s
whereabouts when things go wrong, which
means they need to track travellers and
be aware of where their employees are,
and who is in transit. According to
Adrian Parkes, CEO, GTMC: “One of the big
concerns that’s emerging is that while a
TMC can easily tell an employer who is flying
and who has arrived at their hotel, there’s
little way of tracing them if they leave the
hotel to attend a meeting or grab a coffee.”
PART 1
Dealing with disaster and emergencyThe past few years have seen an increase in
terrorist attacks and natural disasters around
the world - with many of these hitting popular
business travel destinations such as London,
Brussels, Spain and the US. As Ted Jones, CEO,
Northcott Global Solutions, says: “Pretty much
every week an event occurs that concentrates
ordinary people’s minds on disaster situations. A
few years ago, these things only occurred in areas
people didn’t often travel to. Now it’s getting
closer to home and though it’s highly unlikely that
any individual traveller will be involved in such an
incident, people are worried.” Whether natural or
man-made, many businesses are becoming aware
that they need a robust plan for ensuring - and
communicating - the safety of their employees in
disaster and emergency situations.
In spite of this heightened awareness
however, few companies have sufficiently
robust emergency procedures in place - and
many don’t appreciate what the measures
they do have really offer. For example,
employers and travellers often rely on
insurance policies without realising that these
are focused on financial indemnification
rather than physical response. And few
companies have explored scenarios such
as what happens to a traveller faced by an
emergency situation in a location where they
don’t speak the language. Or what to do in
the event of a terrorist attack, and what help
will be available to them in the event of a
serious incident such as hijack or kidnap.
In high-risk locations where such dangers
are more common, everyday situations can
quickly escalate - and companies will often
have to rely on their partners to have a plan
in place. Mike Fogarty, President, Tristar
Worldwide (part of the Addison Lee Group),
says: “You need to think about things the
traveller won’t know to worry about. From
our perspective, we have particular ways
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of working in high risk areas such as never
displaying the traveller’s full name on our
pickup cards and always keeping the doors
locked once the traveller is in the car. We
even ensure that the cars we use are of a
quality that won’t attract too much attention
on the road, because we don’t want people
travelling with us to be a target. In some
instances the driver and passenger may have
a password they can identify each other
with.” In areas that lack public emergency
infrastructure, employers have extra liability
covering a wide range of situations. One of
the weaknesses Ted Jones, CEO, Northcott
Global Solutions, sees is the narrow range of
scenarios many companies are prepared for:
“In many cases, when people think in terms
of emergency assistance they are thinking
very specifically about medical assistance
and repatriation by air.” This approach leaves
gaps. For example, if local airspace is closed,
then employers have no plan for getting their
employees out safely. Thinking more widely
about the scenarios that might occur - and in
particular identifying the local and regional
assets that can be drawn upon - is key. Ted
Jones continues: “You need the full spectrum.
We’re at the specialist service end, and we
look beyond medical assistance and air travel
to include security, transport, diplomatic
assistance and even things such as moving
people to a safe local location rather than
helping them leave the country.”
The key here is to take a proactive approach.
The fear factor when it comes to emergency
situations comes, in part, from an inability to
predict them. But businesses can be prepared.
From a corporate perspective, essential
advantages such as on the ground presence
and knowledge can be achieved through
transport partners who have local experience.
Such partners can advise on when to stop
travelling to a high risk location, when to
consider curfews, and when to repatriate
Local knowledge is key. As a travel provider, when an incident occurs or we know it is coming, our service becomes about helping clients plan alternative routes out of the country. And if a market is too unsafe to operate in we remove service.D O U G C L A R I N G B O L D,
G LO B A L S E RV I C E S D I R E C T O R ,
A D D I S O N L E E G RO U P
PART 1
staff. As Doug Claringbold, Global Services
Director, Addison Lee Group, explains: “As part
of our process we assess different markets
from on the ground. We work with local
operators to really understand the market and
ensure customers have a safe, reliable service.
It’s about choosing a car that won’t make
customers a target and ensuring drivers are
properly trained.”
Increased public scrutiny means that
companies need to know they have acted
appropriately and responsibly in disaster
situations. Those who are not already thinking
and planning for such eventualities may find
themselves caught out when disaster strikes.
Access to information is key. In a disaster
situation, employees - as well as their friends,
families and potentially the press - will look
to employers for information. As a result,
businesses need a plan for staying up to
date, and this requires strong partnerships.
Travel managers need to be able to trust that
when notified of an incident, a partner will
check to see if there are passengers in the
affected location, identify where they are and
ascertain whether they have been dropped
off or mid journey or not yet collected. Local
partners can also be invaluable when it comes
to helping business travellers book travel
through alternative airports to get them out
of a high risk territory - especially since check-
in services may not be available. Antoine
Boatwright, CIO, Hillgate Travel, says: “Check-
in” systems are popular and well-known,
but they are possibly not as widespread as
one might expect. Facebook and Google
both have a system and invoke them in
crisis situations, but these are problematic
because they tend only to be used by a limited
demographic. So companies need to explore
other avenues for a centrally accessible way
of marking employees safe when travelling.
And it needs to be private - because it might
not always be safe to let the world know
where you are - and non-intrusive so that it
doesn’t feel like surveillance.”
A N T O I N E B OAT W R I G H T, C I O
H I L LG AT E T R AV E L
Compliance has a large role as long as it is designed to minimise unnecessary risk whilst still allowing business to take place. The key is to have policies in place that can be amended or expanded as compliance requirements change. For most companies, this responsibility is embodied in a duty of care policy, which sets out the responsibilities the company has to its employees. For example, many companies already have travel policies that relate to late night working, as many people feel less safe when travelling during these hours. Recent research by Addison Lee Group backs this up, revealing that travellers place greater emphasis on safety and comfort when a journey is: “urgent, late at night, in an unfamiliar location or after long day of travel.”
14 WHITEPAPER
Caroline Strachan advises: “As an employer,
you need a multi-level and pragmatic approach.
Don’t overdo the low risk locations, but
equally ensure you have a robust programme
in place for high risk areas. Make sure you’re
aware if there are specific needs such as
armoured vehicles, local guides, assistance
with border crossing. And once you have
that support network in place, you need to
maintain it, agreeing regular checks and
getting traveller feedback to ensure things
are still working.”
Managing complianceAs the definition of working hours and
workspace continues to evolve, companies
are discovering that their duty of care extends
further and further beyond the office.
Regulations around safety are becoming
ever more stringent and businesses need to
be prepared, especially as the number of
incidents occurring continues to increase.
As in many areas of travel safety, ensuring
that employees do their part can prove
challenging. Many road fatalities occur in
locations where seatbelts do not have to be
worn by law. Although companies mandate
that employees must wear seatbelts, they
cannot ensure that employees will follow this
advice or that their ground transportation
partner has signs in vehicles advising people
to wear them. In such cases, it’s important to
make clear that the employer has a liability
if anything goes wrong and travellers must
adhere to the established policy.
And there are other considerations on the
horizon. Caroline Strachan, says: “One of the
emerging topics now is the mental and physical
effects of travelling. We’re still assessing where
responsibility for that falls in terms of traveller
safety. If you have frequent travellers, are they
heading to burnout or worse, and should there
be parameters about this? It’s definitely an area
employers need to consider.”
Response rates are also an issue. Many corporate travel policies focus on air repatriation in the
event of an emergency, without fully understanding that the standard response rate for such services is
3-7 days and that many repatriation services will require travellers to
make their own way from the point of incident to the nearest
international airport. Many of these processes are not fit for purpose in locations where travellers may feel
at their most vulnerable.
PART 2
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ACCORDING TO STATISTICA, 46% OF BUSINESS TRAVELLERS WORK FOR FIRMS WITH NO CLEAR TRAVEL SAFETY OR EMERGENCY POLICIES WHILE 22% HAVE NO IDEA WHO TO ALERT IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY. IN LIGHT OF THIS, IT HAS NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT FOR BUSINESSES TO HAVE A ROBUST POLICY IN PLACE FOR GLOBAL TRAVEL SAFETY.
From both an ethical and legal standpoint,
businesses have an increasing responsibility
to make sure the employees travelling on
their behalf are safe. This not only means
ensuring they can travel to and from their
destination securely, but also that they are
comfortable, safe and not put at risk for the
duration of their trip/stay.
In the past, this was easier to achieve. Business
travel was dominated by stable airlines and
major chain hotels. Today, employees have
access to a vast array of options that are not
regulated in the same way as more traditional
services, and may wish to book their own
local accommodation or travel. To maintain
safety, businesses need access to in-depth
knowledge of the travel landscape in
different locations as well as policies and
principles that inform the way you work
with suppliers, while still allowing for the
empowerment of individual travellers.
Without such policies in place, businesses face
financial and reputational risk.
Employees, their families, and increasingly the
general public are becoming more and more
likely to hold companies to account when it
comes to safety. Travel managers need to have
a plan in place that will allow them to respond
swiftly, stay informed, provide answers and
stand up to intense scrutiny.
Adrian Parkes, CEO, GTMC says: “When building
a policy, companies need to understand what
people want to achieve. People want to use
consumer apps, they are familiar with them,
so companies need to have a policy in place
around those apps. Employees want to know:
“Can I use my choice of taxi? If not, what do I
use instead?” They need to know what fits
within the duty of care and what doesn’t.”
Relying on your partner ecosystemNo business, no matter how global, can
hope to build a travel safety policy alone.
As with any policy, various stakeholders
should be involved. Core to this process is the
development of a strong partner ecosystem
made up of expert travel providers.
Building your policyPART 2
The reliability of your partners is important. For example, ground transportation is traditionally a low cost item, which means it’s easily overlooked - but it has some of the biggest complexities around safety because people are so familiar with the idea of booking a cab that they just do their own thing. It’s tough to put a policy in place that travellers will understand and follow.C L I V E W R AT T E N , C E O, C T I
PART 2
Victoria Berwick, Global Marketing Director,
Reed & McKay says: “It’s critical to have a
travel partner you can trust to have the
capability to support your duty of care
requirements, with a Travel Policy in place
that is clearly communicated to your
employees. It’s important that employees
book through the travel partner to ensure
their safety, for example, as all booking data
is recorded on our systems, we can analyse all
traveller details and locations in a matter of
moments, enabling us to prioritise assistance
when needed. We also have technology to allow
a traveller to ‘Send My Location’ and pinpoint
their exact GPS coordinates.”
Companies need to demand more of their
travel suppliers, looking to them for
advice on issues such as how to approach
buying travel services in high risk areas.
Partners can be instrumental in making
travellers aware of the dangers and what
they should be looking for. Even knowing that
a partner has done background checks and
can trace drivers can help make employees’
more aware of the standards of service
they should be looking for.
Victoria Berwick says: “In an ideal world,
the travel management company should
be a trusted partner and adviser, not just
a booking agent. So, someone who the
corporate and travellers know will do their
utmost to ensure their safety and provide
a successful travel experience. We are
in essence, an extension of each of our
clients, providing them with extensive travel
experience and knowledge, which they can
call on 24/7/365. From initial inception, we
work with our clients to define a bespoke
policy, which fits with their internal processes
and requirements, providing them with
advice and communications to engage their
employees with their travel programme.”
Policies fit for purpose One of the biggest challenges travel
managers face is embedding and enforcing
their policies. Often, this is because travel
policies focus on budgetary or financial
concerns - with little thought for the
employee experience and therefore little
incentive for them to comply. When building
a policy, companies need to understand what
people want to achieve. People want to use
consumer apps because they are familiar,
so companies need to have a policy in place
around those apps. If travellers can’t use their
preferred option, they need to know what
they can use instead, which means providing
total visibility of what fits within the duty of
care and what doesn’t.
Adrian Parkes says: “The secret to a well
managed policy is ensuring it is well
communicated, and that means sharing the
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reasons that underlie different aspects of
the policy, whether that is cost, productivity
or duty of care. The important thing is to
communicate what you are doing and why
and how it benefits travellers at multiple
levels.” The most strategically minded travel
managers will tackle this this by ensuring that
even the process of building their policies is
designed to help employees embrace them.
For example, actively engaging employees
who travel regularly, not only helps to develop
policies based on clearly defined value and an
in-depth understanding of employee needs,
but also makes it easier to demonstrate how
such policies work from the employee’s own
perspective. One way of ensuring that people
adhere to policies and understand them is
creating a strong link between travel booking
and expenses management. If employees
know their travel will be reimbursed if it is
booked in line with the policy, then they’re
less likely to go rogue. Once again, you need
robust comms around this to avoid problems.
Partners can also be of value here.
You need to go to the assistance company and ask them to talk to heads of department so they have a thorough understanding.It’s important to recognise that travel safety isn’t part of their day job, but it’s vital to get their buy-in so they need to be informed.T E D J O N E S , C E O, N O R T H C O T T
G LO B A L S O L U T I O N S
It’s rumoured that there are 44,000 years being served in US prisons for corporate manslaughter as a
result of getting duty of care wrong.
safety policy look like?WHAT SHOULD A T R AVEL
Unlike the overarching travel policy, an effective travel safety policy should focus first and foremost
on the needs of the traveller. There are a number of points travel managers may want to consider.
These considerations will vary slightly depending on the needs of the organisation, but the
underlying principle - ensuring your policies are easy to locate, understand and use, applies to all.
DATA DRIVEN
Existing travel data can be invaluable in helping identify which locations and situations
are most relevant to your employees. For example, if ground transportation in
India accounts for the highest volume of journeys, content and advice can be
tailored accordingly.
COMMUNICATIONS
Increasingly, companies may wish to include draft plans for different types of external
communication relating to travel safety, including emergency and disaster situations.
COMPLETENESS OF INFORMATION When building a travel - or traveller - policy, Antoine Boatwright says the age-old adage “forewarned is forearmed” is critical. Information covering key areas such as vaccinations, visas and permits, cultural information, a regularly updated database of trusted local contacts and suppliers as well as the local emergency services, information around when to avoid a certain location or region should not only be included, but also made as digestible as possible.
RELEVANCE
Engaging employees to identify common problem scenarios or challenges will help
ensure the policy content addresses real needs and requirements.
INFORMATION RICH
The policy should be a quick reference guide to all aspects of travel, including the
company’s travel partners as the most useful resources to help employees while
planning business travel or during a trip. Important elements include key contacts,
country profiles that include do’s and don’t’s by location, the basics of where to eat
and shop as well as information about local threats such as car jacking or kidnap.
✚
EASE OF ACCESS
Make the policy easy to access at all times - especially through smartphone devices,
for example - so that employees can check it during their journey, or if an unfamiliar
or emergency situation arises.
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Where does responsibility lie?As the global travel safety landscape
continues to change, the question of
responsibility and accountability looms
large. In particular, the matter of who
takes responsibility for such a policy.
While travel managers will take charge of
building and embedding such policies, the
policies themselves cover issues that impact
finance, human resources and even senior
management teams. In fact, according to
independent research by Addison Lee
Group, there are six distinct personas
that touch business travel: travel bookers,
travel administrators, travel policy makers,
HR/Ops, passengers and budget holders.
A complex stakeholder ecosystem that
makes it difficult to identify where the overall
responsibility lies.
While the number of roles that touch travel
may well increase, the trail of responsibility
and accountability leads in one clear direction.
According to Ted Jones: “It’s rumoured that
there are 44,000 years being served in US
prisons for corporate manslaughter as a
result of getting duty of care wrong. Travel
safety tends to be dumped on HR because
security is often a function of HR and a
cost function - but that means it sometimes
gets pushed to one side. The way I see it, in
practical terms these issues lie with HR and
the travel manager but in the eyes of the
law, accountability lies with the board.”
Ultimately, the success of the travel
safety policy depends on ensuring that
all stakeholders take responsibility for
it. For employees, this means thinking
beyond the need for cheap A to B travel
and understanding and supporting the
consequences of getting it wrong. For
management it means providing real active
input into such policies and developing an
awareness of how travel safety contributes
to mitigating risk.
As the global travel landscape continues
to change, travel safety policies will need
not only to evolve to keep up with changing
requirements and expectations, but even
to start anticipating those needs and start
changing to meet them before they arise.
For policy makers, this means developing
a familiarity with the emerging trends
that may influence travel safety in future
and thinking about the ways in which they
might evolve existing guidelines to account
for higher volumes of travel, instantaneous
and last-minute booking and the realities
of an increasingly disrupted travel industry
that can no longer offer the stability
enjoyed in the past.
UPDATING YOUR POLICY
CONTRIBUTORS
ADDISON LEE GROUP
Addison Lee Group has been
spearheading global travel
safety using the same award-
winning, industry-leading standards for
over 40 years. We’ve been pushing for driver
accreditation and tighter industry standards
since the 1990s and remain at the forefront
of campaigning for safety in our industry.
We combine exceptional reliability, a high
level of safety and sophisticated in-car
technology and work with approximately
270 service partners around the world,
covering 280 airports in 350+ major business
destinations in 83 countries. All of our drivers
drive in a safe, eco-friendly manner, and
our 24/7 support teams ensure our clients
receive a safe, secure, first-class service. We
are proud to be a transparent and reputable
company complying with all Government
legislation. We have our own in-house
Enterprise grade technology which is robust,
reliable and secure.
Our flagship UK service has been licensed
by TFL for 20+ years (since 1998) and have
been a British Safety Council Winner every
year since 2016. We helped bring about the
licensing of driver standards and liveried
fleet, promoting safety and professionalism
in the sector, and were awarded Information
Security Management (ISO 27001), and are
the only UK Private Hire company to be Cyber
contributorsABOU T THE
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Essentials Plus certified. We invest in training
the drivers that work for us to high standards
and qualification levels and are now training
to NVQ Certificate level in Road Passenger
Vehicle Driver standards. This training was
created by us and has now become the
industry standard.
As we expand globally, we’re committed to
taking those principles with us. Our approach
is simple: wherever we operate, we work to
give our clients peace of mind that when it
comes to duty of care, they’ll receive a high
standard of service from us in every location.
We acquire an in-depth understanding
of local requirements so we can define a
solution that addresses the unique and
specific challenges each region brings and
always operate in line with local standards
for driver, vehicle and customer safety. This
commitment extends beyond our own fleet
to include working with partners who share
similar values around standards and actively
work towards improving travel for everyone.
TED JONES CEO, NGS
(NORTHCOTT GLOBAL
SOLUTIONS)
After a professional rowing
career Ted joined the British Army. Following
a military career that included Kosovo,
the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq and South Armagh,
he worked for a Kidnap & Ransom Consultant
specialising in Colombia, Venezuela and
Haiti before moving to London as a Lloyd’s
broker. On leaving the insurance industry he
ran a medical evacuation operation based
in the Middle East concentrating on super
high threat environments before founding
NGS as a New Generation of assistance
company. He also holds a BA (Hons) in African
and Colonial Studies and has extensive
experience in refugee placement. He has
extensive commercial and operational
experience in Central & South America,
Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
CAROLINE STRACHAN
MANAGING PARTNER,
FESTIVE ROAD
Caroline has worked in the
travel and meetings industry for 20+ years.
She has held roles as both buyer and
supplier, so brings a unique perspective
across the whole travel supply chain. Her
work experience can be summarised as 10
years the meetings and events supplier, 10
years the Travel Buyer (at Cisco, Yahoo and
AstraZeneca) and more recently as the VP
Global Consulting at Amex. Caroline has
also held a number of industry leadership
positions including ITM Chairman, GBTA
Europe President and has received a
number of awards in recognition of her
services to the industry. Caroline is often
called “the most credible Business Travel
expert” in the industry, further supported
by being published as one of three “industry
influencers” in the Buying Business Travel
2016 Hotlist.
CLIVE WRATTEN CEO, CTI
Clive Wratten was appointed
to the position of CEO for CTI
on December 21, 2015, bringing
more than 20 years of travel industry expertise
to the role. Since joining CTI, Clive has evolved
CTI’s positioning to be a Travel Partnership
Company. Before joining CTI, Clive was General
Manager, UK at Etihad Airways where he was
responsible for building the airline’s UK profile.
Before joining Etihad, Clive was the UK General
Manager for Gulf Air. Clive has also held
senior sales roles with HRG, Qantas and was
Multinational Business Development Manager
for British Airways. Clive is a member of the
GTMC Executive committee, and chair of the
Air Strategy Group. He has been a Director
of the Board of Airline Representatives UK,
a Council Member of IATA’s Airline Joint
Passenger Committee as an agent and as an
airline member, and an advisor to the Board at
the BCNH UK College of Nutrition.
CONTRIBUTORS
ANTOINE BOATWRIGHT
CIO, HILLGATE TRAVEL
Antoine Boatwright joined
Hillgate Travel in early 2014
and is responsible for the broader IT
& Change Management function. This
includes IT infrastructure, internal and
external application development, and the
new project management and business
process improvement practice. Antoine
has 20+ years of global experience with
Logica, Dell and Oracle world-wide in such
diverse industries as space, energy, utilities,
telecoms and manufacturing. His roles have
spanned technology, sales, marketing and
operations. As such, he brings more than
just technology thought leadership to his
current role. He brings a knowledge of what
it takes to win and keep business globally.
Antoine Boatwright holds degrees from the
London School of Economics (BSc, MSc) and
the University of Reading (MBA) and is fluent
in four European languages (English, French,
German and Spanish).
ADRIAN PARKES
CEO, GTMC
Adrian joined the GTMC as
chief executive in September
2017 and has over 20 years’ experience in
the travel industry. Adrian was most recently
Director of Product and Marketing for
Clarity following the merger with Portman
in 2016. Adrian’s experience also spans many
years in the airline sector, including three
years with Etihad and eleven years with
bmi (British Midland) prior to working in
the travel industry, Adrian held senior sales
and distribution roles in the crisp and snack
industry. Adrian divides his time between
London and his family in Derbyshire. Adrian is
married with two sons and two grandsons.
MICHELLE (MICK) LEE,
MANAGING PARTNER,
ARROW212
Mick has over 20 years of
progressive international management
experience in diverse industries with a primary
focus on Chief of Staff, communications,
expense management roles in travel, meetings
& events and corporate services. She is a results
oriented and passionate leader with a proven
track record of building and transforming global
businesses in diverse and unrelated fields and
driving profitable results. This is complemented
by the critical ability to influence peers and
balance spend reduction with required service
levels, risk mitigation and talent optimisation.
In January 2014, she founded WINiT; a nonprofit
organisation for women in the travel, meetings,
events and exhibitions industries and ARROW212,
a project execution practice focused on talent
and operational optimisation. Previously, Mick
was the Managing Director and Global Head
of General Services at Citigroup for five years.
This included travel, presentation technologies,
reprographics, distribution services, archiving
services and the Corporate Vehicle Program with
over 5,000 staff in 100+ countries.
VICTORIA BERWICK,
GLOBAL MARKETING DIRECTOR
REED & MACKAY
Victoria has over 25 years of
strategic marketing experience, aligned to
supporting business objectives, gained in
financial and professional services as well
as travel. In her role, she is responsible for
brand positioning and market perception
across the globe, defining value propositions
and go to market strategies for each
country, product, service and sector, as well
as client communications. Driving business
development through integrated programmes,
lead generation and client engagement is a
key area of focus.
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DOUGLAS O’NEILL,
CEO & OWNER,
INNTEL
Douglas O’Neill started his
professional career as a Solicitor, specialising
in offshore tax and trust advice, spending 3
years in Jersey and 7 years in London working
for global Solicitor’s firms. Douglas made a
dramatic career change in 2001 moving to
Inntel, a leading UK provider of meetings,
accommodation, event management and
business travel services.
Douglas is now the CEO and owner of
Inntel, which employs over 125 staff at its
headquarters in the South of England. Since
he took over the business in 2001, annual
turnover has grown organically by over 400%
and is now over £65 million. Inntel’s clients are
some of the UK’s largest organisations and
include FTSE100. The company completes over
300,000 transactions annually and develops
market leading technology specifically for
their clients.
Douglas takes on many voluntary industry
positions. He is currently on the advisory panel
for the UK’s largest Meetings conference and
the UK’s largest Business Travel conference. In
2016 he was elected Chair of the GBTA Europe
Meetings Committee. His role is to ensure
GBTA Europe maintain a focus on Meetings
& Events content throughout its education,
training and whitepaper activity.
NICOLA MILLARD,
FUTUROLOGIST,
BT GLOBAL SERVICES
Nicola Millard heads up
Customer Insight & Futures in BT’s Global
Services Innovation Team. Despite working for a
technology company, Nicola isn’t a technologist
and combines psychology with futurology to try
and anticipate what might be lying around the
corner for both customers and organisations
(sadly, her crystal ball is broken). Nicola has been
at BT for 27 years. She has done a number of jobs
around the BT business, including user interface
design, customer service and business consulting.
She was involved with a number of BT “firsts”,
including the first application of intelligent
systems into BT’s call centres and BT’s initial
experimentation with home working.
Nicola got her PhD from Lancaster University
in 2005 and now spends most of her time
doing research, writing blogs, articles and
whitepapers. When she’s not doing all that,
Nicola travels around the world presenting
at conferences and running workshops with
an assortment of BT’s large multinational
corporate clients including banks, government,
airlines and retailers, to name but a few.
TREVOR ELSWOOD,
CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER,
CAPITA TRAVEL AND EVENTS
Driven by the ‘why should
customers choose us?’ principle, Trevor works
alongside Capita Travel and Events’ leadership
team to ensure the company remains unique,
compelling and innovative.
Following Capita plc’s acquisition of NYS
Corporate in April 2017, Trevor took on the
additional role of managing director of the
specialist events, meetings and business
travel company.
Trevor has over 25 years of experience in the
sector. In 2000, he joined hotel and meetings
specialist, BSI, managing customer and
supplier relationships before being appointed
managing director. When Capita acquired BSI,
Trevor helped integrate the industry’s leading
specialists into a single, expert travel and
events brand, Capita Travel and Events.
Joining the GTMC Executive Board in 2017,
and the ITM (Institute of Travel and Meetings)
board in 2011, his aim is to bring my passion for
the industry, broad experience, knowledge and
pragmatism, to fellow association members.
