Case Study

Workforce Travel Cost-Savings (Summary)

Jan 13, 2020

Learn how one energy services company increased their efficiency, saving time and money

The Business Travel Industry Is a Big Market

The value of global travel reached $5.29 trillion in 2017*, with the global business travel segment expected to reach $1.6 trillion by 2020**, making it one of the largest and fastest‐growing segments in the world.

Work crew travel makes up roughly 20% of the $1.6 trillion global business travel market, equating to $320 billion annually***. They are defined by their size (typically groups of 5 to 50), duration of stay, travel destinations, and type of work. They often work in secondary or tertiary markets, work on projects where commuting to and from home isn’t feasible, and maintain unconventional schedules.

The Challenge

The difficulty of crew travel is the many components that are involved, combining commercial bookings with lodges and dorm management, remote non‐commercial travel, and other highly variable factors. Another significant difference relates to how their costs are managed and analyzed. Usually, these crews are working on specific capital projects that require detailed analysis of schedule, budget, and cost tracking, whereas the average corporate traveller is coding their expenses to a general travel cost center.

With most systems and service providers of business travel geared toward the corporate traveller, many companies are trying to fit square pegs into round holes when it comes to their crew travel. One such energy services company began considering their options, crunching numbers to find the solution that would best suit their crew travel needs.

The Approach

ABC Energy Services is based in Calgary, Alberta. They have over 200 employees working on multiple projects across North America year-round and managed their travel in various ways. John Smith, the supply chain manager for ABC Energy Services realized there was likely room for improvement in their current process. He wanted to consolidate their workforce travel expenses and create efficiency in their work. He knew that by looking at the bigger picture he could find ways to streamline and save time and money.

When it comes to business travel, John knew there are generally three options for most companies:

Travel Management Companies (TMC's)

TMC’s provide concierge-type service and allow for easy compliance with corporate travel policies and cater to both business/briefcase travellers and leisure travellers. However, TMCs lack access to remote camps, alternative accommodation arrangements (I.e. apartment-style rentals) and are generally call center type operations, creating a highly manual engagement process.

LodgeLink

LodgeLink provides the only self-serve platform dedicated to crew travellers that aggregates pre-negotiated rates at hundreds of lodges, camps and hotels on one online marketplace. Cost tracking code functionality makes it easy to control and track accommodation spend by AFE, PO, or project and the reporting platform gives increased visibility to track crew accommodation budget, reduces administrative hours compiling data, and helps manage, analyze and inform future workforce travel strategy.

The Result

John realized that if their team could reduce the number of hours spent on the billing and administrative process related to crew accommodations, ABC Energy Services would benefit from hours of efficiency, saving time and internal labour.

By using LodgeLink, ABC Energy Services would receive consolidated invoices coded to the appropriate cost tracking code for all of their crew members' stays, eliminating tens of thousands of dollars in administrative hours.

After reviewing their options with internal stakeholders, it was clear which solution would best suit ABC Energy Services' operations, benefit their employees, and, ultimately, save them time and money. LodgeLink become their crew travel solution in 2018.

Since partnering with LodgeLink, ABC Energy Services has seen significant shifts in their team's efficiency and their bottom line. Crews and dispatchers can easily find accommodations in both remote and urban centres. Accounts payable receives one consolidated invoice, streamlining their payment process.

The previous spend for their crew-based accommodations totaled in at $775,000 in one year. By utilizing LodgeLink, they’ve reduced their spend to $620,360. That represents 20% in cost savings and countless hours given back in administrative effort. To date, ABC Energy Services has saved $220,000 or 20-30% of their accommodations cost.

LodgeLink's powerful tools help companies, find, book, and manage crew accommodations, serving the diverse needs of workers and the organizations that employ them. No more trying to fit square pegs into round holes.

About LodgeLink

In 2016, we recognized a gap in the current accommodation marketplace. A large volume of companies and work crews, unaware of lodging options near their remote jobsites, were travelling inconvenient distances before their workdays even started. Closer accommodations often included camps and lodges developed for specific companies and were generally unused after a project was completed. No travel agent or online booking site had access to them.

That’s when we developed LodgeLink to create a better way using innovative, technology-enabled, workforce travel services.