The lockdown and phase two taught us many things. For instance, we have learned that beyond any travel management strategy, you can still be productive by eliminating business trips or limiting them. This certainly does not mean that the temporary suspension of mobility in business has been well received by companies, which in many cases have suffered a considerable trauma precisely because of their inability to organize necessary business travel. Undoubtedly, however, these trips can be analyzed today by looking at them differently”. It certainly is not only the reduction in travel that is changing the way we look at business trips: the new requirements in terms of protecting workers and the new costs added to the usual ones are also crucial aspects of the new world of business travel.
New business travel costs
Now that with caution it is possible to go back to organizing business trips, the objective of companies is to maximize the profit from each trip while minimizing costs and ensuring maximum safety for their employees. The problem, however, is that on the contrary, a sharp rise in travel costs is expected. Think, for example, of the not so unlikely possibility of train and airline companies starting to apply a surcharge to secure an empty seat next to an employee traveling by train or plane. Faced with the need to cut travel costs, the company’s mobility manager would have to find new strategies to reduce costs. It is no coincidence that one of the most heartfelt requirements of travel managers is to have more truthful estimates of actual travel costs, and not having to use classic static models, which tend to break up surcharges and the actual cost of the ticket.
Reviewing the company’s travel policy
Calculating, estimating and modeling not only direct but also indirect costs. As companies are responsible for the health of workers, it is necessary to ensure the health of employees even in the face of any risk of contagion while on a business trip. The new requirements force companies to review their travel policy, as well as to rely on the support of digital tools capable of carefully controlling costs. In this scenario, technology becomes crucial to ensure the continuous exchange of information between employees on a business trip and the company where they work, in order to automate accounting and administrative processes.
This is why today all those technological tools aimed at simplifying both the management of expense notes and the company fleet become valuable; the idea is to optimize and digitize every aspect of business travel management so that we can start talking about business trips and travel in an agile, innovative and above all safe way.
