Travelling for business can be complicated and having to make arrangements for your trip can distract you from the main reason for your business trip.
Putting your trust in a travel management company is the ideal way to ensure your time and energy is focused on the business purposes behind your trip.
A quality travel management partner will not only make your corporate travel planning more efficient and effective but will also ensure that you reduce costs and benefit from the best value options.
What is a TMC?
A TMC or travel management company is an agency which provides a range of services to support and manage the corporate or business travel needs of companies and organisations.
Unlike a high street or on line travel agency which typically supports a customer’s leisure or holiday travel requirements on an occasional basis, a TMC will, in most cases, work with clients on an ongoing basis, providing assistance before, during and after business travel and building familiarity with the client’s needs and travel policy.
In most cases, the travel management company will deliver these services on behalf of their clients to deliver cost savings, improved efficiencies and a reduction in time-consuming admin as well as also helping to ensure the safety of employees travelling on business.
What services does a travel management company provide?
The corporate travel market is a multi-million pound industry which helps to support and makes a significant contribution to the global marketplace.
But for companies of all sizes and sectors, organising business trips and travelling for business is a significant expense, can often occupy valuable staff time and resources and also involve concerns about employee safety and security.
That’s why so many organisations turn to a travel management company for support with their corporate travel.
The value which a full service TMC can deliver for its clients' corporate travel management is highlighted when you assess the wide range of factors which have to be taken into consideration for the business traveller.
On a typical trip, there could be a huge variety of issues which impact on the business traveller and for which they might require support and risk management such as:
· Access to airport lounges
· Business travel expenses
· Ground transportation/Car Hire and Rail tickets
· Car parking
· Data analysis
· Employee safety
· Meeting bookings
· Flight and hotel reservations
· Invoicing
· Payment solutions including credit accounts
· Policy advice
· Procurement services
· Quarantine rules
· Seat preferences
· Security advice
· Visa and entry requirements
Why do businesses need a travel management company?
A travel management company offers expertise, understanding and an enhanced ability to combat any issues that arise for your employees while they are on business trips.
There are a number of benefits to using a travel management company instead of keeping your efforts in-house. They can help your business streamline the business travel process in the following ways:
Cutting costs, growing efficiency
Introducing a cost-effective approach to your business travel is a clear priority. A TMC will provide advice and guidance on managing your budget and policy, give you access to negotiated rates for hotel reservations, flight bookings and ground transportation, manage reward programmes and securely store personnel profiles and preferences, all of which will have a positive impact on your human resources and bottom line.
Safety
For any business which has employees travelling regularly for work, it’s essential to have an effective and robust travel policy outlining company standards to be adhered to. A quality TMC will assist with the formulation of your policy, integrating into your travel management planning and ensuring that business travellers are automatically complying with company policy.
Access to technology
Technology and particularly the use of online tools by a TMC is a key benefit for the business traveller. By deploying the best tech systems, a TMC will ensure travellers can access the information they need 24/7 while on the move, can react to any schedule changes or potential disruption and easily amend their itinerary without being distracted from the reason for their business trip.
The Clyde Travel difference
So what makes Clyde Travel Management different from other travel management companies?
Firstly, our track record. More than 30 years’ experience of providing business travel solutions means we know how to deliver cost effective and time efficient travel management for our customers.
Our team of travel managers and experts has the knowledge and expertise to support all aspects of your requirements, from your travel policy to technology solutions that suit both your company objectives and the type of business trip and support you require.
24/7 support
Whether your travel programme is local, national or global you need your travel management company to be on hand to support your business travellers 24/7.
Clyde's team of expert business travel agents are some of the best in the global travel industry, supporting our customers with international business travel bookings around the clock.
Whatever the time of day or location, our 24/7 team of travel managers are on hand to deliver service to our clients around the world.
If you need to make a booking, change a ticket or deal with last minute changes to your schedule, you’ll be secure in the knowledge that all your business travel needs are covered.
Customer care
At Clyde, the safety and security of your people is our top priority, and we help our customers mitigate risks for their employees whilst they travel for work.
Our technology, procedures and risk management ensure compliance to business travel policy, guaranteeing that our travel managers fulfil their care obligations to travelling employees.
All travellers are tracked through our systems, so we know where they are when we need to contact them. We can also provide trip data on individuals, so organisations can keep track of their employees' wellbeing.
The best policy
The safety of you and your employees when travelling is paramount. That’s why it's vital to have a robust travel policy in place which outlines what is expected in all the key areas affecting business trips , covering everything from expenses to acceptable behaviour.
Our track record means we’re ideally placed to assist in creating a travel policy that works for you and your team. Our customer relations managers can offer advice on the best practice for your business, to ensure your company’s business travel is not only safe and cost effective, but also meets your business travel management objectives.
Technology that works for you
As well as online booking tools, we also have software solutions throughout our business which enable us to manage your business travel effectively and efficiently.
Our quality control is automated to ensure data is accurately captured and processed for invoicing and data insights.
Travel alerts also update automatically when there is a risk or disruption to your business travel arrangements.
Our duty of care solution is integrated with our booking tools and reservations systems to identify where travellers are, which ensures we can always offer assistance 24/7 if necessary.
Forward planning
Arranging corporate travel abroad can be complicated and knowing which travel documents are required for international travel can be time consuming.
Whether it's checking visa requirements, the validity of your current passport or any remaining COVID regulations, it's important to fully understand any pre-departure requirements at the planning stage.
That’s why we've further enhanced and digitalised our management of travel documents.
At Clyde we believe travel agencies should never sell you a ticket you cannot travel on.
The itinerary for your trip includes a link to Clyde's travel document management tool, Traveldoc.
Based on your nationality and destination, Traveldoc details all the visa and entry requirements, testing and quarantine (where applicable) as well as exemptions for key workers.
Traveldoc is used by some of the world's leading global airlines to determine whether passengers are cleared to board aircraft.
By partnering with Traveldoc, we minimise avoidable disruption to your travel plans and provide a reliable source of information with every itinerary. We will never sell your travelers a ticket they cannot fly on as a result.
During the peak of the pandemic, a survey of our customers revealed more than half felt our advice on restrictions and visas was a key contributor to the value of our travel management services.
A world of difference
Our continually expanding international travel footprint helps us deliver the best global travel management service to our clients.
Our Glasgow HQ is the hub for our network of international offices in Aberdeen, Gothenburg, Houston, Mumbai, Helsinki, Oslo and Copenhagen. And our reach expanded further in 2022 with the opening of our new entities in Rotterdam and Singapore.
Sustainable travel management
The travel industry has an important role to play in the global drive to cut carbon emissions. At Clyde, we pride ourselves on our sustainable approach to business travel management.
Our aim is to mirror our customers’ individual business objectives on sustainability. Our team use data to help quantify customers’ carbon footprint and to make informed sustainable buying choices with support from our green list of suppliers.
We have helped customers participate in sustainable aviation fuel non-cash investments and recommended bio fares where available.
Analysis of products and potential supplier partners is conducted via our ‘green health check’ to ensure we can offer you a genuinely sustainable travel programme.
