postheadericon Car Hire ft Lauderdale and Spending Less

Are you looking for a good service of transportation in Lauderdale? Lucky for you because you’re just in the right website to start necessary reservations to reach your place of destination at the quickest time and at the lowest price possible. We, car hire ft lauderdalecan give our clients a good quality of service for transportation that our client wants. Our professional team of drivers can give the client comfort of travelling as if the client is travelling using their own vehicle. As to performance and level of proficiency, we can say that all drivers of transportation companies in Lauderdale are good enough. But the difference lies in the hospitality, warmness and the safety brought to you by our professional team of drivers. Instead of simply bringing the client to is place of destination, our drivers go the extra mile of starting good conversations with the client. They know the right places to visit in Lauderdale and they know some brief historical background of the place. Unlike other transportation companies they see their clients as objects to be delivered from one place to another location, they see the contract ends as soon as the person steps out of the vehicle. We, car hire ft lauderdale, see things differently. Thus if you have some questions or any queries about our services, please feel free to visit our website. All the needed pieces of information are posted there. Click any of the two links found in this article.

postheadericon Travel – The New Incentive To Get More Business

How do you get prospects to become clients? What extra can you add to your presentation to make the sale? Why not try an incentive? The three top incentives to get people to do anything is cash, products and travel. Cash incentives cost the most and believe it or not are the least effective. The reason being is that you pay dollar for dollar and what little cash you offer is used to pay bills and is quickly forgotten. Products work quite well, and it is true you can by them at a discount off retail but the problem is, most of your clients already have everything. It is almost impossible to guess what they want. Printed mugs, shirts, pens are very old fashioned. What is left to offer, a CD player?

Vacation and travel incentives are one of the most powerful methods of attracting business, retaining profitable clients, increasing profits, enhancing product awareness, and improving employee productivity. Businesses who have used vacation incentives in their marketing and promotions have seen at least 30% increase in their sales!

Why not recreation travel? First of all it is the cheapest. The most successful travel promotion in the country today (I will be mentioning it later in this article) cost 1.5% of its market value! More important recreation travel appeals to everyone. And travel is a long lasting gift. For example, think of all the preparation that goes into effect for a long vacation. Then think of all the pictures that you take during your vacation and remember for a lifetime. That’s right. Memories of a vacation can last forever! How is that for a great incentive! To show you how powerful recreational travel is just look at the most popular screen savers on everyone’s computer. You won’t find pictures of money. You won’t find pictures of products. What you will find is everyone’s dream vacation resort with palm trees in the background. Get the picture! The first words from most lottery winners are – “The first thing I am going to do is go on a long vacation”. I assume you get the point that recreation travel is one hell of an incentive.

According to the results of an email survey conducted by the Incentive Travel Fact Book, 58% say travel is more effective than cash or merchandise. Survey respondents consider travel to be the most effective reward. “Cash bonuses are necessary but travel is a higher reward”, says Verizon’s Porterfield. Porterfield added, “When people spend their money, its gone. But the recognition that comes from travel incentives lives on”. Additionally, in a recent survey of American workers, 85% said they were motivated by vacation travel incentives.

Incentive magazine in their September2003 issue said travel is remembered two to one over cash or merchandise and a USA Today survey said “93% preferred travel over other incentives”. Incentive Magazine said business respondents to a recent survey said travel incentives meet 99% of their objectives.

Travel incentives make great sales incentives. In a special report in Promo Magazine, it was noted that LifeUSA attracted new agents and sent sales soaring by abandoning its annual cash incentive program for an inclusive campaign that gave out merchandise and travel. By the program’s conclusion enrollments exceeded LifeUSA’s initial goal by 700%!

Travel incentives make great employee incentives. Target Appliances President Daryl Gamerman in Maryland said, “We introduced our first travel incentive for sales employees five years ago and since then we’ve only lost staff due to retirement. I don’t ever have a problem with our sales people not working hard or volunteering for extra work, because they know it will help them qualify for a great trip”.

Travel incentives builds customer loyalty. The Frequent Builders Program at Garco Building systems offered travel awards to individuals. Since launching the program, Garco has experienced a 15% to 25% growth rate, compared to the industry standard of 2% to 3%.

COST OF TRAVEL INCENTIVES

Now lets get to the best part. You can buy recreation travel wholesale, and I mean really wholesale. Look at these figures.

VACATION INCENTIVE COST MARKET VALUE

Two night stay for two
at major resort $16 $400.00

Three day cruise for two
to Mexico or Bahamas $50 $1,500.00

Round-trip airline tickets for two
To major resorts throughout
North America $30 $2,000.00

Seven night eight day vacation
At major resort including round trip
airfare $1,000 $3,500.00

O.K. take your pick. All these vacation incentives are marketed through
my company, We are the premier travel incentive company in North America and provide companies with an inexpensive way of leveraging the most exciting and effective promotional premium available today. Travel! For the past 16 years, we have been helping business owners attract new customers, generate leads, referrals and appointments and helping retain good employees using an extraordinary inexpensive travel promotion. We are a certified full-service travel agency and a member of the leading travel agency associations.

Let me describe our signature travel incentive, called Fly Free America.

 

postheadericon Taking the Stress Out of Travel

The trick to successful and stress-free travel is planning ahead. Challenging, though it might seem, your goal is to think of every possible contingency that might come up, and take action before it happens. What will you do if your luggage is lost? If you get sick? If you forget your blue pumps? Being PROACTIVE will reduce the possibility of a serious crisis occurring during your trip.

BUDGETING FOR YOUR TRIP

Travel doesn’t have to break the bank — not if you are willing to plan ahead for your vacation spending. Decide first how much you can AFFORD, then make your travel plans. Start searching early for travel deals — talk to your travel agent, look for internet specials, and check with travel clubs for discounts. You can find some great bargains in package deals that combine hotel and airfare at a discounted rate.

If vacations tend to get you in trouble on your credit cards, consider starting a savings account just for travel — where you put away a small amount each month toward your next trip. You should also plan to use traveler’s checks instead of credit cards to stay within your budget. It’s amazing how easy it is to go overboard when start handing out the plastic! And be sure to keep track of how much you actually spend — as compared to your budget — throughout the trip. You might keep a small pad of paper with you for recording expenses and tallying up your total for each day.

If you can’t seem to make it happen on your budget, consider COMPROMISING on lower priority expenses in exchange for the higher priority ones. When my husband and I travel, we are always willing to stay in a budget hotel so we can afford to eat out and attend cultural events. We decided that expensive hotels are wasted on us because we spend very little time in our room, and we would rather spend our money elsewhere. Where are you willing to trade off?

PACKING MADE EASY

Have you ever been away from home and suddenly realized that you forgot your toothbrush, your shoes, or your bathing suit? Having to rush around replacing items that you left behind not only wastes time and money, it also reduces your enjoyment of the trip. And sometimes, you might forget an item that isn’t so easily replaced — like your checkbook or the report you were supposed to present at tomorrow’s meeting. But you can save yourself a lot of heartache by taking the guesswork out of packing.

Start by developing PACKING LISTS for both short-term travel (from one to three days) and longer trips. You can even create different lists for different kinds of travel — camping, business, foreign travel, trips to the beach, cold-weather travel, etc. Try to include any and all generic items that you might need — clothes, toiletries, alarm clock, night light, whatever you like to take with you. Then use these lists as memory-joggers as you are packing for each trip. You can also cut down on the time you spend preparing for travel by keeping a “pre-packed” toiletry bag with duplicates of the items you use in your home. Fill your kit with samples of shampoo, soap, lotion, cosmetics, toothpaste, and shaving cream — even miniature toothbrushes and razors. These travel-sized items take up less room in your suitcase, and you will be less likely to leave something important behind.

And don’t forget your important documents – especially if you are travelling overseas. You should plan to bring proof of citizenship, an official government photo identification (driver’s license or military ID is fine), a state-issued birth certificate with a raised seal, and a passport. Remember that children and infants are also required to have a state-issued birth certificate for travel.

LESS IS MORE

If you can get away with it, try not to check your luggage. I purchased a very roomy pullman carry on that will accommodate up to a week’s worth of clothes — that way, I never have to be concerned about losing my bags. If you pack “mix-and-match” outfits and plan to do some washing along the way, you don’t need 15 different outfits for a one-week trip. And if you have to check a piece, be sure to keep those items you couldn’t live without in your carry on — toiletries, a change of clothes, clean underwear, medications, maps, travel confirmations, and any materials you might need for an upcoming business meeting. But try to take no more than one medium-sized and one carry on bag per person. Remember, you can always remedy underpacking, but not OVERPACKING! However heavy your suitcase is when you start out, it will be twice as heavy when you come home.

If you plan to do any shopping while on your trip, you may decide to bring along an extra bag for carrying your purchases home. Put your filled suitcase inside a slightly larger empty one — or, get a collapsible tote that will take up very little space in your bag. But the easiest option (although perhaps not the cheapest) is to have each store ship your treasures directly to your home. This is an especially good policy if you are bringing home anything large or bulky on a plane, as the airlines often charge extra for oversized parcels. And each bag you have to lug around limits your transportation options. Heavy suitcases mean cabs and porters and inconvenience and fatigue — while a light suitcase equals travel freedom.

PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR BELONGINGS

While no one wants to be paranoid about their safety when travelling, it’s a good idea to err on the side of caution when planning your trip. So let’s start with your “stuff” — list the contents of each piece of luggage and keep your list close at hand anytime your bags are out of your sight. This will save you a great deal of frustration if your bags are lost and you have to file a claim or replace your belongings. And don’t forget to mark your luggage for easy retrieval — all those black pullmans are starting to look alike, and it’s easy for someone else to pick up your bag.

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postheadericon Base Tendriling Travel Expenses

As business travel expenses nose upward, companies are realizing that better cost-management techniques can make a difference

US. corporate travel expenses rocketed to more than $143 billion in 1994, according to American Express’ most recent survey on business travel management. Private-sector employers spend an estimated $2,484 per employee on travel and entertainment, a 17 percent increase over the past four years.

Corporate T&E costs, now the third-largest controllable expense behind sales and data-processing costs, are under new scrutiny. Corporations are realizing that even a savings of 1 percent or 2 percent can translate into millions of dollars added to their bottom line.

Savings of that order are sure to get management’s attention, which is a requirement for this type of project. Involvement begins with understanding and evaluating the components of T&E management in order to control and monitor it more effectively.

Hands-on management includes assigning responsibility for travel management, implementing a quality-measurement system for travel services used, and writing and distributing a formal travel policy. Only 64 percent of U.S. corporations have travel policies.

Even with senior management’s support, the road to savings is rocky-only one in three companies has successfully instituted an internal program that will help cut travel expenses, and the myriad aspects of travel are so overwhelming, most companies don’t know where to start. “The industry of travel is based on information,” says Steven R. Schoen, founder and CEO of The Global Group Inc. “Until such time as a passenger actually sets foot on the plane, they’ve [only] been purchasing information.”

If that’s the case, information technology seems a viable place to hammer out those elusive, but highly sought-after, savings. “Technological innovations in the business travel industry are allowing firms to realize the potential of automation to control and reduce indirect [travel] costs,” says Roger H. Ballou, president of the Travel Services Group USA of American Express. “In addition, many companies are embarking on quality programs that include sophisticated process improvement and reengineering efforts designed to substantially improve T&E management processes and reduce indirect costs.”

As companies look to technology to make potential savings a reality, they can get very creative about the methods they employ.

The Great Leveler

Centralized reservation systems were long the exclusive domain of travel agents and other industry professionals. But all that changed in November 1992 when a Department of Transportation ruling allowed the general public access to systems such as Apollo and SABRE. Travel-management software, such as TripPower and TravelNet, immediately sprang up, providing corporations insight into where their T&E dollars are being spent.

The software tracks spending trends by interfacing with the corporation’s database and providing access to centralized reservation systems that provide immediate reservation information to airlines, hotels and car rental agencies. These programs also allow users to generate computerized travel reports on cost savings with details on where discounts were obtained, hotel and car usage and patterns of travel between cities. Actual data gives corporations added leverage when negotiating discounts with travel suppliers.

“When you own the information, you don’t have to go back to square one every time you decide to change agencies,” says Mary Savovie Stephens, travel manager for biotech giant Chiron Corp.

Sybase Inc., a client/server software leader with an annual T&E budget of more than $15 million, agrees. “Software gives us unprecedented visibility into how employees are spending their travel dollars and better leverage to negotiate with travel service suppliers,” says Robert Lerner, director of credit and corporate travel services for Sybase Inc. “We have better access to data, faster, in a real-time environment, which is expected to bring us big savings in T&E. Now we have control over our travel information and no longer have to depend exclusively on the agencies and airlines.”

The cost for this privilege depends on the volume of business. One-time purchases of travel-management software can run from under $100 to more than $125,000. Some software providers will accommodate smaller users by selling software piecemeal for $5 to $12 per booked trip, still a significant savings from the $50 industry norm per transaction.

No More Tickets

Paperless travel is catching on faster than the paperless office ever did as both service providers and consumers work together to reduce ticket prices for business travelers. Perhaps the most cutting-edge of the advances is “ticketless” travel, which almost all major airlines are testing.

In the meantime, travel providers and agencies are experimenting with new technologies to enable travelers to book travel services via the Internet, e-mail and unattended ticketing kiosks. Best Western International, Hyatt Hotels and several other major hotel chains market on the Internet. These services reduce the need for paper and offer better service and such peripheral benefits as increased efficiency, improved tracking of travel expenses and trends, and cost reduction.

Dennis Egolf, CFO of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Louisville, Ky., realized that the medical center’s decentralized location, a quarter-mile from the hospital, made efficiency difficult. “We were losing production time and things got lost,” he says. “Every memo had to be hand-carried for approval, and we required seven different copies of each travel order.” As a result, Egolf tried an off-the-shelf, paper-reduction software package designed for the federal government.

The software allows the hospital to manage travel on-line, from tracking per-diem allowances and calculating expenses to generating cash advance forms and authorizing reimbursement vouchers. The software also lets the hospital keep a running account of its travel expenses and its remaining travel budget.

“Today, for all practical purposes, the system is paperless,” says Egolf. The software has helped the hospital reduce document processing time by 93 percent. “The original goal focused on managing employee travel without paper,” he says. “We have achieved that goal, in part due to the efforts of the staff and in part due to the accuracy of the software.”

With only a $6,000 investment, the hospital saved $70 each employee trip and saved almost half of its $200,000 T&E budget through the paper-reduction program.

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postheadericon Elements of a Strong Corporate Travel Program

In order to make the most of your corporate travel budget, it is critical to plan for leveraging your program for all it is worth. Telling travelers to select the lowest logical airfare is just not enough. Here are the elements that should be considered when planning or evaluating your travel program.

1. Travel policy

A well written and disseminated travel policy is the foundation of any good travel program, and I am consistently amazed that so many corporations have such an outdated and poorly conceived travel policy, if they have one at all. It is not difficult to find a well written policy. One can be found online quite easily. All that remains is that it is edited to reflect corporate culture, and disseminated within the company so that everyone understands and agrees to follow it. For this reason, it is a good idea to have everyone sign a copy of the travel policy to ensure that it is read, understood and owned by all company staff. I suggest that everyone in the company signs a copy of the travel policy, whether they travel or not. They may change positions in the company later and be required to travel. A travel policy need not be long or complex. Some of the best travel policies I have ever seen were only a few pages long.

2. Centralized travel internally and externally

Many companies do not centralize their travel program, and they pay a price in terms of a loss of expense reduction opportunities and internal efficiencies. Many companies that do not centralize travel have a fear of requiring travelers to do something they may not want to do, along with the idea that centralizing travel will require hiring a Travel Manager. Both of these may be legitimate concerns but they do not have to be in most cases. By requiring travelers to book centrally, you are not necessarily causing them to lose flexibility. You can centralize travel while still allowing travelers to book on their own, either with a travel agency of your choice, or online through a provider that you have partnered with and have confidence in. By assigning someone with the responsibility of overseeing travel, you are getting a single point of contact both internally and externally for travel issues. If your company spends less than $1 million in air travel, you probably do not need a full time travel manager. In these cases, travel oversight can be given to the finance department, human resources, or even an executive level assistant. Here is a look at the advantages to be gained by centralizing travel.

When you centralize travel with a single agency, you gain in a number of important ways. You will have a single point of contact for problems while travelers are on the road, and you will have one entity to go to for all your travel needs. This eliminates the problem of consolidating a travel report from among several sources. By bringing travel together, you will gain significantly from economies of scale. If you can measure total travel among various divisions or locations, you can get more for your money from travel suppliers. This will allow you to gain more from airline soft dollar programs, which means more free tickets and upgrades, get a higher percentage discount from our preferred airline, and get better negotiated rates from your hotel and car contracts. Your fulfillment costs will decrease as well, as your travel agency will often discount their fees for a higher overall volume of travel.

3. Mix of online booking and personal service

This is an addendum to the previous element, which calls for centralizing travel with one travel agency. This is important, but in doing so, you need not require travelers to use an online booking system, and you need not require travelers to call the agency directly. By offering travelers the option of doing either, you are accomplishing several goals. You will reduce your fulfillment costs, as online booking is cheaper in terms of a service fee. By giving travelers the option, you are giving them a sense of control, thereby increasing morale and standing a better chance of a high adoption rate. Thirdly, you leave open a best practice of using your online booking engine for less complex itineraries, and allowing senior executives, frequent travelers, and complex itineraries to be booked directly with a travel agent that can offer a higher level of service and a better overall travel experience where it is most warranted.

4. Look under every stone

While the bulk of most travel programs revolve around the air budget, there are several other areas one can investigate to find savings opportunities. There are a couple of more obvious areas to look, such as negotiated hotel rates at your favorite hotels, or car rental discounts with a favored supplier. Often your travel agency will already have discounted rates through consortia affiliations and agency car contracts. There are also some less common areas that should be investigated. For example, if ground transportation is a concern, most suppliers will offer discounted rates and a direct billing option. Direct billing arrangements with hotels and car rental agencies are also a great way to increase efficiencies and make the job of the accounting department easier.

5. Leverage hard dollar and soft dollar contracts

Most major airlines today offer hard dollar discounts as well as soft dollar incentives in exchange for company loyalty to their product. If your travel program is over $1 million in air spend, you can secure a discount off of the lowest fares of your carrier of choice in return for a market share commitment. For your secondary carriers, or if your volume is less than the minimum required by the airline, you can enter in to soft dollar programs for free tickets and free upgrades, as well as traveler status enhancements or airport club passes. These programs require little in the way of volume, but they are not well publicized so you may need to hunt for them or ask Baker Travel or your current agency to point you in the right direction.

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