The Hidden Value of Corporate Travel Management In The Oil & Gas Industry
The Hidden Value of Corporate Travel Management In The Oil & Gas Industry
Today’s travellers are affected by the current political instability that could lead to their flights being cancelled, usual journey’s becoming incredibly expensive, and no sign of when this may change.
“Apps” that either need constantly updated or don’t function when you need them too. Personal locator forms that can’t be updated with a simple flight arrival time change, but have to be re-entered, with all personal details, when there is no internet connection. These systems are especially difficult in countries which need a local SIM card, only obtainable once you are in that country: quite the Catch 22.
ACCESS DENIED
When we were still in the world of covid restrictions, I was denied access to one of my flights home from a job, departing at 5.30 am. The rules say I needed proof of a negative covid test within 48 hours of departure. I checked and questioned the vaccination and test rules repeatedly before departure overseas to avoid any issues…
Daily, sequential, Lateral Flow tests delivered sustained and documented proof. But unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind of “proof” that the check-in staff expected.
Regrettably, common sense, pragmatism and “doing the right thing” was long abandoned. So I was asked to come back after completing a different covid test, so missing my flight at the final hurdle.
Personally, I can live with the indifferent customer experience, but this should not be obligatory. By then, I was through initial security: the usual transport to the airport and in-country support network is now distant. Mobile phone coverage was “iffy”. The airline didn’t have the capability to lend me a landline phone to make that one magic call to our travel management company’s helpline. It is 4am anyway - everyone you know is asleep.
THE SOLUTION TO ENSURING MY ‘SAFE’ TRAVEL
I got a licenced taxi to get the “proper” test. On the way back to the airport, the taxi picked up a second passenger, against my will (it happens…). This additional passenger was so determined to make her original flight that the driver drove mindlessly and recklessly, weaving in and out of other vehicular and animal traffic with inches to spare.
Insisting that the driver stopped and let me out would have been equally risky. So, I re-tightened my safety belt, braced my body and prayed. I returned to the airport with yet another, recent, negative certificate.
Reluctantly, I spent the rest of the day on the “non-airside”, where about 95% of people were wearing face masks incorrectly and unconcerned about what they expired. Unsurprisingly, most masks were on people’s chins. But I found that quiet corner with a mobile signal and made that call to the Travel Management Company.
DID THIS TRULY PROVIDE A RISK-FREE TRAVEL SOLUTION?
Risking my life in the taxi, and perhaps breathing in other people’s fumes, far exceeds the risk to either me or others if I had been allowed on the flight earlier that morning with correct, but different, paperwork.
I said to the driver that we could either be late in this world or early in the next, and I had voted for the former only. He understood me. But the white-knuckled ride and the dangerously entrepreneurial mindset of this driver were relentless, and I feared the latter would unfortunately become true.
THE RESCUE TEAM
Things occasionally go wrong while travelling. None of us can eliminate that. Fortunately, our company uses a corporate travel management company.
We’re specialists, but we can only deliver well to our customers with the support of other experts. With unwavering commitment and innovation, our travel management company re-booked my flight, an overnight hotel stay at the day’s arrival point and updated my spouse.
I had no internet access, so, magically, they found a way to update and re-enter the details on my cloud-based passenger locator form so I could arrive at my destination without breaking the rules by arriving at the wrong flight time and number.
In doing so, they phoned border officials and airline executives and negotiated on my behalf. There is no way that a single passenger, in many companies, has that level of influence or “black book” of telephone numbers to call.
So thanks to my travel agent for delivering an outstanding service, with competence and empathy. They have supported ThinJack Ltd through the last decade, travelling between four continents, and continue to do so even after we’ve come out of the covid travel restriction necessities.
WHAT IS THE MESSAGE TO YOU?
Travelling for work is not about the cheapest possible airfare, but about the backup when things don’t work as intended.
So next time you book corporate travel for yourself and colleagues, use a travel management company. No travel management company can guarantee a seamless and problem-free experience. They are not “God”.
But they know how to deliver solutions to unexpected hitches, better than you can alone, and so make life easier for a pressed traveller. Also, their knowledge of multi-leg routes invariably delivers some unexpected savings. Stuff that would take you far longer on the internet yourself.