ASK THE TRAVEL MANAGER

Putting your questions to corporate arrangers. This month: traveller tracking

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I get asked this occasionally, and it baffles me. Why are travellers willing to tell the world via Facebook and Twitter where on Earth they are, but then seem reluctant to share their location with the company that sent them there?

Instead of questioning our motives, I’m tempted to question theirs for wanting anonymity. What are you really doing on the road that you want to keep hidden?

Yes, traveller tracking can sound worrying, particularly with concerns over data privacy and eavesdropping by governments. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t be necessary – we would simply book the flights and hotel and send them off. But as we all know, it’s not an ideal world, so controls have been brought in.

When an employee is in the workplace, there is a raft of regulations that require the employer to ensure their safety. When the employee is sent out on the road, although the requirements change, that responsibility remains and, in many ways, grows stronger. For that reason, all hotels in a travel programme will have been

checked, and airlines and any providing assistance on the ground. Also bear in mind that if their loved ones can’t get hold of them, the request will come to the company.

There is an element of control in the process. Employees are supposed to book travel according to certain rules. As explained in a previous column, you wouldn’t expect to be able to buy your own employee benefits based on a few web searches, and it’s the same for travel. Arrangements are in place so that if you book through the company programme, the costs can be accounted for and assigned. It gives budgetary control to each department, helps in predicting future travel costs, and means the firm is fulfilling its legal obligations.

There is a balance between respecting privacy and ensuring staff book within the policy and provide the necessary details for the travel manager. Something I’m not an advocate of is software that detects when employees visit sites that are not “approved” and flash up a warning if they try to book – although if it stops them booking out of policy, you can see the attraction for some managers.

Travellers should see tracking as underpinning the duty of care

approved ground transport need to satisfy requirements. Tracking travellers is part of that, because there isn’t much point in putting those measures in place if they are ignored.

What tracking does is try to add a level of security to the trip, which has been proved important by recent events – both terrorist attacks and natural disasters. It’s when things go wrong that travellers start clamouring for help, and it’s easier to assist if you know where they are. It might not be so simple for them to pick up a phone to tell you, especially if there are hundreds from the company in a similar predicament – as with the Iceland volcano – or if calling isn’t practical, which might be the case if stuck in a country with a deteriorating situation.

It’s a huge head start if the travel manager knows where all of those employees are and has arrangements in place for helping them, whether in terms of evacuating or simply finding them and

Instead, we should communicate with travellers better. They should see tracking as underpinning the duty of care. Bear in mind that many travel management companies work with emergency service organisations such as International SOS and Control Risks, the first requirement of which would be that the company knows where the employee is.

Lastly, I should add that the next wave of traveller tracking will be invisible, as it will all happen through your smartphone (especially those provided by the company) and corporate credit card. If you don’t like it, you can always quit and go backpacking, and doubtless then log on to Facebook and share with all your friends and excolleagues where you are.

With thanks to ACTE, a professional association representing corporate travel managers and travel service providers in 29 countries.