Management of rail fare expenses

[adb968008]

There is another option, if the meeting is between two employees in the same company, who's schedules can be coordinated, they could be encouraged to meet each other part way.. less travel time for both employees, so both could travel later, possibly off peak, whom could both use advance tickets and thus ensure the meeting times wont slip either.

 

I often make a point of visiting my guys, as although my time is more expensive by the hour, the revenue earned by my reports is greater for the company so their time is more valuable, fortunately I am able to book my own travel.

[Dunsignalling]

This is a cultural thing I think as people shouldn't need managing to use the best value fares. I'm guessing that most people are capable of sourcing fares for their own private travel and wouldn't just take the highest fare without considering alternatives. Advance purchase fares can save a packet, my experience is that even with the risk of a meeting over running it is still cheaper to accept the occasional walk on fare for the return journey as most journeys do work out fine using fixed tickets. One psychological trick a former employer used is to tell people that if they can find a cheap first class fare you'll be agreeable to approving, it is amazing what great first class deals people can find if they know their management will sign off on the upgrade, generally cheaper than flexible second class fares in my experience. We use a corporate travel provider and we're expected to take the cheapest ticket for the journey that the travel agent can offer unless there is a good enough reason not to, it is a self policing system as I've never been challenged or been asked to have another look but then everybody in the office is pretty good at keeping their travel costs down. And if you do have a regular journey then it can indeed be cheaper to just buy tickets and assume somebody will use them. I used to have to travel to Nottingham from London every two weeks and to Coventry every week, I just got my office to book cheapo first class advance tickets for weeks and weeks worth of travel, the tickets cost peanuts and even though I missed a few journeys and nobody else wanted to use the tickets it was still much cheaper than me buying tickets every week.

That does assume that the individual in question actually uses rail for their personal transport. Plenty never do - I regularly notice people with briefcases and/or overnight bags who evidently haven't been near a train in a decade or more - those few moments in which they exhibit an air of mild panic before ascertaining the purpose of the "Open Door" button are a dead giveaway.

 

Another question for personal booking is whether it can be done at work, where people might get pointers from others who do it more often, or they are expected to do so from home. If the latter, some will (not unreasonably) prioritise their own time over the company's money and, among the more conscientious, results will vary quite widely according to individual expertise and experience.

 

Using an external provider or having a designated person in-house who understands the system (not that anyone does, fully) will at least ensure some level of consistency.  

 

John

[roundhouse]

In our office allll but one person uses the trains either national rail of London Transport to commute. However when I comes to any other journey they drive. They are all intelligent people but they don't have a clue about train travel anywhere else. If I offer my help they don't want it because I am weird using public transport outside of commuting a far as they are concerned ( all except one person who doesn't drive).

However, One of our directors has a property in Rock in Cornwall. He has recently used the train first class when his wife had already driven down there and I did advise him a few things but he normally drives to Cornwall and back.

 

So you can't expect even very intelligent people to understand something they have little need for except once in a blue moon. Of course very different if someone used the trains a lot but how do you necessarily know who does and doesn't unles ey regularly take business trips by train.

[Bernard Lamb]

We had a system of using a company car with petrol paid for or your own car plus a set mileage allowance.

You could claim for a train fare up to the standard allowance. If it was cheaper you pocketed the difference.

If, like one poor soul, you had been banned from driving you could keep your job if you paid any excess out of your own pocket.

Bernard

[rockershovel]

Re #25, I always look at any proposed itineraries, I've seen some shockers... LHR-Frankfurt-Almaty-Atyrau involving 20 hours economy travel within 24 hours (not including taxi transfer to LHR) comes to mind, or LHR-Istanbul-Baku overnight including 3 hrs at Istanbul. I do have the option to decline any such trip, though.

 

I routinely fly to meetings and have never found any particular issue with working to fixed schedules, although there IS a general expectation that this s likely to be the case and so people come prepared.

[caradoc]

Regarding driving to meetings, rather than taking the train; In recent years Network Rail has prioritised improving employee safety, and a major part of this focussed on driving, which is stated to be the most dangerous activity its staff carry out. This being the case, and given the utterly unpredictable risks that driving present (highlighted sadly yesterday by the jailing of the lorry driver who killed four people on the A34 while using his phone), I would expect any responsible organisation nowadays to minimise, as far as possible, the amount its employees have to drive on duty.  There are of course times when driving will be the only reasonable option, and I agree with what Roundhouse has said about the lack of familiarity with the rail network of many (most ?) people, however I find the National Rail Enquiries website an easy-to-use means of finding train times and routings, and sometimes fares.

[The Stationmaster]

Regarding driving to meetings, rather than taking the train; In recent years Network Rail has prioritised improving employee safety, and a major part of this focussed on driving, which is stated to be the most dangerous activity its staff carry out. This being the case, and given the utterly unpredictable risks that driving present (highlighted sadly yesterday by the jailing of the lorry driver who killed four people on the A34 while using his phone), I would expect any responsible organisation nowadays to minimise, as far as possible, the amount its employees have to drive on duty.  There are of course times when driving will be the only reasonable option, and I agree with what Roundhouse has said about the lack of familiarity with the rail network of many (most ?) people, however I find the National Rail Enquiries website an easy-to-use means of finding train times and routings, and sometimes fares.

 

Actually safe use of motor vehicles and avoiding fatigue through employees etc driving them is part of H&S law and has been for some time and that would include a suitable statement in their H&S policy about minimising time spent driving road vehicles in order to minimise risk.

 

It is an area where I never ceased to be amazed at the amount of road vehicle driving carried out by some freight operator train Drivers.  I believe (but am not certain) that time driving road vehicles as part of the working requirement counts as part of total time worked  - ah, here it is -

 

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg382.pdf

[Phil Bullock]

On top of which there are also the green credentials to be aware of these days - rail travel favours reduction of carbon footprint of course...

 

Phil

[rockershovel]

One of my employers in particular, now prioritises rail travel over taxi transfer or hire cars.

 

One important aspect of rail travel is that services only really function about 18 hours a day. I routinely book taxi transfers to LHR because I have no useful rail connection for flights before about 11am. There is also no useful rail connection for flights arriving after about 8pm (Schiphol has a main line terminal on site, a serious deficiency at LHR from its inception)

[Phil Bullock]

Agreed! The days of getting the 02.30 mail from Worcester Shrub Hill when heading for a 6 am arrival at York for a serious days gricing are long gone....

 

Phil

[Edwin_m]

A potential benefit of rail travel is being able to do useful work on the journey (at least for people who work on laptops and can get a seat with enough room to do so!).  When I go to Glasgow I usually take the train the previous afternoon and book a hotel, returning in the afternoon/evening after the meeting.  This avoids peak time both ways and with Advance tickets is about the same total cost as the airfare.  On the train, although I book several hours more time, I get more than that number of hours of useful work done. 

[Phil Bullock]

Thanks Edwin

 

I find that very difficult....too many distractions! Thinking time is not to be undervalued however... 

 

Phil

[Jub45565]

Regarding driving to meetings, rather than taking the train; In recent years Network Rail has prioritised improving employee safety, and a major part of this focussed on driving, which is stated to be the most dangerous activity its staff carry out.

 

I'm not aware of places which specifically go out of their way to suggest the train, but one large company I worked for refused to let people use motorbikes for company business (though they were allowed to commute on them, as thats their own time) which did make it awkward for a couple of people who lived in the sticks and only had a bike licence.

[rockershovel]

I'm not aware of places which specifically go out of their way to suggest the train, but one large company I worked for refused to let people use motorbikes for company business (though they were allowed to commute on them, as thats their own time) which did make it awkward for a couple of people who lived in the sticks and only had a bike licence.

At least one of my regular employers (Saipem, as it happens) now has a policy of booking rail tickets instead of taxi transfers or hire cars, and my usual agent now provides itineraries based on rail schedules. Rail schedules also have the advantage of being generally available so they provide a defined time for a given journey.

 

When I was in Tunisia with British Gas, we used the train from Tunis to Sfax (about 250km, 3 hours) as a matter of policy, and working off the Dutch coast usually means train travel from Schiphol to Groningen, Den Helder or somewhere like that.

 

I've never heard anything about travelling by motorcycle but I wouldn't do that anyway, it isn't the practice.

[rockershovel]

Thanks Edwin

 

I find that very difficult....too many distractions! Thinking time is not to be undervalued however... 

 

Phil

Working on a train is like working on a plane - there are things you CAN do and things which aren't really worth the attempt. I usually use it as time for first reading of documents I haven't seen before, planning work schedules or just reviewing things I've looked at already.

[Phil Bullock]

Agreed - but can be tricky with public gazing at sensitive documents over your shoulder....

 

Phil

[jjb1970]

The reason my employer gives me 1st class travel provided the price doesn't get silly is exactly because it facilitates working during the journey. I suspect if I was claiming open 1st class returns they'd have words but providing I make an effort to avoid spending £100s and £100s on a train ticket they are happy enough to continue this perk.