Road, Rail or Air? Making the Right Business Choices with Automated Spend Management

Automated spend management helps organisations manage business travel spend, whether it’s by road, rail or air. This is particularly important as travel ramps up and employee demands soar. 

According to recent research, Travel and Expense (T&E) spending rose by 178% between Q1 and Q4 2022, partly based on the return of in-person business meetings, conferences, trade shows and general travel. 

How Do You Manage Business Travel?

It’s time to get serious about your travel booking solutions and in this blog we’ll explore how an automated spend management platform:

• Streamlines the booking process
• Enforces travel policies for employee trips
• Improves automated travel expense reporting
• Makes it easy to make changes to business travel plans 

With the cost-of-living crisis and rising inflation, your budget might not be able to keep employees satisfied with first class seats and generous meal allowances. With the right travel booking solutions you can give them the two things employees want more of – autonomy and control.

 

10 Benefits of Concur Travel

From improving cost control and employee productivity, to enhancing duty of care - there are a number of benefits to be realised by taking control of your travel booking process. See why your business should consider Concur Travel. 

See more

Why is Business Travel Spend Becoming More Complex?

Compared to a few years ago, today’s employees have a set of new demands for employers when travelling for work. These include:

• Sustainability: Can employees track and monitor their carbon emission footprint?
• Safety: Do you provide Duty of Care to ensure employees are protected from harm?
• Management: Can you view changing itineraries in one easy-to-access place?
• Visibility: Can you see all business travel-related spend, no matter where and when it’s booked?
• Control: Are employees empowered to make the best decision based on what they prefer and what’s best for the business?

How Do You Automate Travel Expenses?

The best mode of business travel for an employee trip depends on factors such as distance, time constraints, convenience, cost and personal preferences. Let’s look at each mode and the travel booking solutions that can help.

The Pros and Cons of Travelling by Road

Many employees prefer to drive for business travel, especially for shorter trips. Road travel, whether in a personal or company car, or a car rental, allows you to set your own schedule and pace. You can combine more than one destination and take more luggage. Taxis provide a flexible, ad-hoc way of getting from A to B without too much forward planning.

The downside of road travel is it can be time-consuming across long distances or if there are hold ups. There are also additional costs including:

• Fuel
• Tolls
• Parking fees
• Vehicle maintenance

For personal/company car mileage

Concur Drive provides an effortless way to manage mileage reimbursement for employees within the SAP Concur mobile app. It automatically captures the actual distance travelled to control mileage spend, ensuring accuracy when submitting a mileage claim.

For car rentals

The SAP Concur platform integrates with various business travel suppliers, including car rental businesses, which allows you to search, compare and book car rentals based on criteria such as travel dates and location.

For taxi travel

Use the SAP Concur mobile app to take photos of taxi receipts, which are then automatically uploaded and stored in the system. The system defines and enforces taxi policies, while integrating with popular taxi services, such as Uber and Lyft, allowing travellers to book rides directly through the platform. 

The Pros and Cons of Travelling by Rail

Rail is a fast, convenient way of travelling, although it can involve some add-on car rental or taxi rides at either end. It tends to work best for medium distances, with amenities like Wi-Fi, power outlets and workspaces making life easier for business travellers.

On the negative side, rail travel might be slower than air travel, especially for longer distances. Some other drawbacks include:

• Availability and frequency of train connections can vary across regions
• Ticket prices may increase during peak hours 
• High speed trains can be far more expensive 
• Refund policies and ticket flexibility can vary

You can search for available rail options, compare prices and make bookings directly through the SAP Concur platform. This can be configured to validate expenses against predefined rules, such as business travel class restrictions or maximum allowable ticket prices. You can also easily capture rail ticket receipts using the SAP Concur Mobile App and attach them to the expense report.  

The Pros and Cons of Travelling by Air

Air travel is typically the fastest mode for long distances and business trips that require speedy arrivals and quick turnarounds. Airports are usually well-connected and provide amenities for business travellers, such as lounges and Wi-Fi.

It’s important to consider the downsides of air travel too, including:

• Very expensive when booking last minute or during peak travel times 
• Delays, security procedures and potential layovers can impact your schedule 
• Difficulty of accessing smaller towns or remote areas 

With Concur Travel, you can search for flights, compare prices and select the most suitable options based on your travel preferences and company policies. The platform includes features to assess your environmental impact, like carbon emissions data for flights, and provides information about public transportation options.

Forward Travel with SAP Concur Solutions

Automated spend management empowers employees to make the decision that is right for them in the moment. Whether traveling by road, rail or air, each of these modes of travel comes with its own challenges and benefits. 

With business travel automation you can equip employees with everything they need to make the best business travel choices in terms of their own efficiency, safety and sustainability goals. You can do this safe in the knowledge that whatever spending decisions they are making are also the best ones for your business.

The result is safer and more empowered travellers who are less likely to fly the nest to another employer.

What are the Benefits of Automated Expense Management?

• The SAP Concur mobile app allows you to manage business travel quickly, easily and on-the-go.
• Concur Travel ensures you can search for flights, compare prices and select the most suitable options based on travel preferences and policies. 
• Concur Drive empowers you to automatically manage mileage reimbursement.
• The App Centre is where you’ll find our business travel suppliers.
• Intelligent, built-in compliance tools ensure employees stay within policy.
• Concur TripLink and TripItPro helps support your Duty of Care obligations with visibility and control of travel itineraries.
• Concur Request allows you to simplify pre-trip approvals.
• Intelligence enables you to run comprehensive reports on business travel expenses.

To experience the full benefits of automated business travel management, visit our Travel page. You can also see Concur Travel in action on our demo page.