Is Your Travel Policy Due for a Refresher?

Looking for new savings opportunities? Update your travel policy.

Want to make business travel more efficient for employees? Update your travel policy.

Need to review supplier contracts? Update your travel policy.

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, it’s a good time to review and refresh your organization’s travel policy. Keeping a travel policy up-to-date isn’t always at the top of the list, but in reality, you should be revising it a few times a year to keep on top of changing trends and to ensure it’s as cost-efficient as possible. One way to manage this is to work with a travel management company like Carrousel Travel.

Things to Consider As You Update Your Company Travel Policy

The first step is to treat your policy as a living document. Nothing stays the same forever, whether it’s technology, staffing or organizational needs. Your travel policy should reflect all of these.

• Costs
  Cost containment is the biggest reason to keep your travel policy up-to-date. Outlining current preferred vendors, updated booking processes and more means everyone involved can be more efficient and cost-effective.
• Time
  Time is money, and even more so when employees are on the clock making travel arrangements. Outline booking tools and any other relevant information in the travel policy. Carrousel Travel can ease this burden by taking care of the heavy lifting of booking travel.
• Risk
  Your travel policy needs to have risk management strategies and plans in place. From health events to natural disasters and beyond, make sure it’s clear what process to follow in any event. Make sure that any and all key contacts are updated and current.
• Expenses
  A clear process for expense reporting takes the headache out of bookkeeping for travelers with a suitcase full of receipts and reimbursements. Carrousel works with systems that utilize smartphone apps for expense reporting, requiring just a quick pic of a receipt for submission. It doesn’t get easier. And on that note, make sure that your travel policy is easy to understand and contains any necessary procedures in layman’s terms. Your business travelers will thank you.
• Standardization
  It’s easy to become siloed in large organizations, where individual departments might have their own travel trends that they follow. Standardizing travel across all business units will only help costs come down and efficiency go up.

Call the Carrousel Experts

Refreshing your travel policy can be done in house, but when you want to plan for upcoming trends or want insight on whether ride sharing should be a part of your policy, Carrousel can help. Our business is, quite literally, travel. We know what things you might want to consider and what modifications to make. Plus, we can save you a lot time and energy when it comes to actually booking and making travel arrangements. Call us today!