With the cost of business travel expected to rise at least 6% in 2008, managing your travel spend becomes even more critical.

By Tracy Newton - Manager, Business Travel Services for Carlson Wagonlit Travel

January 10, 2008 - It’s the start of another new year, and you may have noticed talks of travel in the news. In fact, if you have traveled lately, you've also noticed planes flying at capacity, frequent delays, fewer flights & more cancellations, not to mention new surcharges for fuel and everything imaginable including seats and luggage.  

What does this mean to you?  Rising prices, aging navigation technology at airports and a variety of other situations related to travel are becoming a growing concern for business travelers.  With the surge in demand and increasing fuel costs, prices are on the rise -- and are expected to continue rising in the coming months in the upwards of 6-8%, maybe more. Air carriers and hoteliers see this as the long-awaited swing to the seller's market.

With the sellers rejoicing, how can you, as a company control spending in 2008?

Measure All Business Travel Spend 

You can only change that which you can measure.

By measuring and closely monitoring your business travel spend, you can quickly identify opportunities to save while also creating balance between cost containment and employee comfort based on your business goals and objectives.

Many businesses are surprised to see this information – often unaware of how much is really being spent in T&E. By drilling down in the data, you can plan accordingly and make minor adjustments if necessary. When you see areas that need improvement, simply make small changes to your travel policy to achieve the desired results.

Revise Your Travel Policy

Chances are your travel policy has not been reviewed in some time; in fact, some companies do not even have a written policy for business travelers to follow. With the state of our economy and travel trends for 2008, this is going to become increasingly important to monitor.  

Your policy should be reviewed by a professional on a regular basis & redistributed to employees as economic and industry changes transpire.  An actively managed travel policy is the best way to ensure travelers are traveling safely & comfortably while also complying with the company’s goals and objectives.

Make Time For Change  

There's no better time that the present - in fact, now is a great time to initiate changes in your travel program.

With an already full workload, we often find that travel is not ‘that’ important. Making the initial change may seem like too much work, but it takes no more than a few business days to get everything on track. In no time you will be thankful you invested your time in this short process.

You can rely on your travel partner to navigate the upcoming industry changes work with suppliers and look out for your best interest, resulting in cost containment and savings that will have an effect on your bottom line.

 As travel prices begin to rise, now is a critical time to keep a close eye on your travel spending and make your short-term and long-term strategic adjustments.  Many of these changes necessitate travel policy or behavioral changes, which require efforts beyond daily responsibilities.  Don’t wait until it is too late