Decision details

A confidential report (due to commercial detail) has been provided to the Director to outline the costs and reasons for the change in provider. Rail travel as a means of business travel at CYC continues to be a popular option with 3351 journeys booked during 14/15 at a cost of £124,194.65. Thus far in 15/16, to the end of December, 2260 rail journeys have been booked through the current system at a cost of £88,093.91.
The report also summarises the following benefits to the organisation:

1. The provider is able to offer rail booking capabilities through both online and offline methods. Representatives from the provider indicate that at present 98% of their rail travel booking transactions occur over their online portal which is website based and is supported by a live chat function which is free of charge. The relative simplicity of using the portal suggests that we would be able to introduce it as a self service travel option and remove the requirement for staff to complete a form and go through the business support service when wanting to obtain train tickets resulting in indirect efficiencies as well as cost efficiencies outlined below.
2. The provider provides a streamlined booking interface which is reminiscent of most publicly accessible rail booking websites. The prices offered through the provider are identical to those achievable directly through booking sites such as trainline.co.uk.
3. The portal can be tailored so that our own internal train travel policy requirements are hardcoded to the system so that they are presented whenever a transaction is input.
4. Customisable field tabs can be added to the booking process by any system administrator to allow us to collect any extra information which may be useful from a service point of view. All such information can then be generated as required on either scheduled or real time MI.
5. Tickets purchased through the portal can be issued through several methods which replicate the service provided by the current supplier:
6. A live reporting capability is available for any users who are given Administrator access to the system.This ability to generate daily reports could be particularly beneficial when providing evidence of the authorities activity in the system and settling the expense on our corporate account.
7. Charges for all bookings made through the provider is applied to a single corporate account which can be invoiced on either a weekly or monthly basis and settled via Direct Debit or BACS payment methods.
8. The current service is also used by CYC to book hotels and air travel. At present neither of these options can be booked online however the new provider portal will allow for all of these facilities to be booked on line using a single system.
9. Again, the system works on a price comparison website style for both hotels and flight tickets resulting in options presented from a wide range of service providers. In line with train ticketing, our own policies can be built into the software so control can be placed on the types of hotel rooms and air fares which can be secured by the booker.
10. Charges for Hotel Booking through the new provider are significantly cheaper than those from the existing provider, especially given that most of the instances will be completed online which carries no charge at all.
11. Air travel booking through the new provider carries an increased booking fee when compared to existing arrangements but for the few journeys which are completed using this travel form at CYC this is fairly insignificant.

There is no other option for consideration as this is the most cost effective option which will lower both transactional and internal administrative costs. Accessing the framework reduces procurement risks.