How to establish a rail travel policy to manage ticket costs

If you book train travel alongside other travel and accommodation costs, are you happy that you already have a good overview of journeys taken and total costs? Or do you need to create a travel policy to give you a better picture?

For accommodation and flights, it?s much easier to mandate the use of certain hotels and airlines, but being in control of rail spend can be a little more tricky if your boss or colleagues decide to buy at the station or book themselves.

To make sure you?re in control of what rail journeys are being taken and when, it?s a good idea to book everything via one channel. And there are several ways to encourage your colleagues to request their travel through you so you can report on rail spend and search for past trips while keeping costs to a minimum.

Firstly, by setting up a credit facility or storing a credit card you can make the process of claiming expenses a lot more efficient. By managing all bookings on account your colleagues do not have to worry about expense management.

Secondly, you can be a lot more flexible, as changing journeys can be easily completed online by searching for the booking and making a quick update or selecting to refund the ticket.

Finally, by setting a timeframe to submit travel requests and booking online in advance you can give your colleagues a better choice of ticket and find the best available fares for their planned journey.

For more information on creating a travel policy and how a business account can work for you visit thetrainline.com.