It is extremely important that a company’s travel policy analyses the reason and purpose for travelling. This analysis must consider the option of eliminating this trip.
Whether or not a trip is really necessary is brought into question. In some companies, there is too much flexibility when it comes to employees deciding to travel. It would be advisable to analyse whether or not it is crucial to make this trip, as it involves the generation of expenses in terms of allowances and mileage. Therefore, we have to determine whether or not the cost that the trip involves is really justified, in relation to the benefits that it may generate for the company.
Trips may be taken for various reasons: to see a customer, to get some training, etc. As a result, we have to weigh up the opportunity cost. In other words, in the case of selling, for each euro invested in a corporate trip, a return on investment (ROI) of up to ten euros is generated, according to research conducted by GEBTA in Spain. If we visit a potential customer and manage to close a deal, this trip converts into an economic yield for the company, which offsets the investment made for the trip.
Once we decide that travelling is justified, we have to evaluate the best way of doing it. However, we also have to take the alternatives available into consideration for each situation.
A TRIP MAY BE REPLACED BY A VIDEO CONFERENCE, A WEBINAR OR A TELEPRESENCE SESSION.
Many companies consider the trip to be justified for a meeting with a customer but, in the case of an internal meeting between departments or a training session, a video conference or webinar would be sufficient.
In conclusion, we can state that a good way to make savings on unnecessary corporate travel expenses is to plan trips only for those situations in which a physical meeting between the company representative and the potential customer is really important.
