INSIGHTS
Trains, planes or automobiles?
For the business traveller, watching David Niven’s Phileas Fogg doing any and everything in Around the World in 80 Days to get back to the Reform Club on time, it doesn’t look strange. Struggling to get to a meeting in time is a very stark reality.
When travel managers choose whether to put their company’s people on a train or plane, they have to weigh up considerations from company budget to traveller welfare. In practice, the choice of plane versus train applies only for trips too long to be automatically ground and too short for air to be the only option.
Think of those city pairs that are so familiar to business travellers: London-Edinburgh, Brussels-Frankfurt, New York-Washington, Tokyo-Kyoto. These are just some of the popular business routes, generally 3-4 hours’ duration, where the traveller might prefer sitting on the train to grappling with airports.
Rail travel offers some distinct advantages for companies:
1. Productivity
The main benefit is productivity. When a traveller has to go from London to Manchester or Edinburgh, the airport is not in the city centre. You have to faff about getting to and through an airport - and you can’t work in the air, because there’s no wi-fi and by the time you’re up, you’re down again. Trains go from city centre to city centre - and when you’re actually on the train, it’s a working environment, especially in First Class.
The productivity gains can be especially marked for professional services companies where working on the train can translate into chargeable/billable hours.
2. Traveller welfare and duty of care
There’s a huge focus on traveller well-being at present; putting people on the train rather than a plane can be a quick win, which a lot more relaxed way of travelling than to and from an airport. And if corporate travellers make use of the TMC’s booking tool, traveller tracking data will be collected, too.
There are also clear benefits in opting for rail travel if the company reports CO2 emissions.
3. Travel Policy
Travel policy compliance is essential for savings, but also to capture the data which informs corporate negotiations. FCM works with UK rail content aggregators Evolvi and Trainline. Content is accessed through an agent-facing online portal or, alternatively, its customers can do so through their online booking portals. However, using the approved tool enables data capture and improves efficiency which keeps fees down.
“Through Evolvi, we can work with corporate clients to identify what data they need and what they expect from their rail bookings. We can then incorporate policy options such as not allowing anyone to book First Class or, if a more sophisticated option is desired, that a First Class ticket can be booked if it is cheaper than the standard class option.
Buying rail - an expert's tips
Corporates might just compare fares but this is where good account management, a real strength of FCM, comes in. A good account manager will review the rail spend with a customer and assess where rail spend is going - or could be going.
Because the UK’s train operating companies are essentially monopolies, negotiations are not around rates as they might be with other suppliers. Negotiations for corporates with significant rail volumes will focus instead on soft benefits such as complimentary parking, upgrades or free lounge access for all travellers including those travelling in standard class.
What next?
The more user-friendly the corporate rail programme, the more likely it is that the manager will achieve compliance. To book rail on FCM’s online booking system the traveller merely has to sign into FCM Platform and then click the rail button which goes through to a rail booking site.
The next phase of updating the industry to be even more user-friendly is for that booking to be more suitable for travellers’ mobile devices. At present, travellers frequently have to use the code a booking generates to then collect a ticket - but the next phase of innovation will send a bar code or QR code, similar to that produced after airline check-in, which means that the traveller can just flash their phone to pass through the turnstiles.
This is already widely available on some train operating companies including Great Western Railway and LNER services. Some rail operators are now acknowledging business reality, too. Virgin Trains, for example, has responded to the fact that meetings often overrun by offering TMCs corporate rates which include the option of a standard outbound ticket coupled with a flexible return ticket.
With modern corporate rail programme management, Phileas Fogg may have had an easier time meeting his 80 days’ deadline.