Ridiculous things your company has done to reduce travel expenses
#91
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Per Diem
Any company which is paying its people, both the traveler and an accounts payable type, to total up coffee receipts is crazy.
With the exception of people who have client entertainment responsibilities, per diem based on location makes sense. Who cares whether you choose a $50 room service breakfast and crackers for lunch and dinner or eat nothing until dinner?
Most large businesses have moved to the per diem approach or at least an approach where they look at overall reasonableness vs. productivity. In other words, the person who comes in way over time & again is a problem child, but maybe not if they are generating to dollar business.
The benefit of per diem is that it's a simple line on a form. Day x Rate = Reimbursement.
With the exception of people who have client entertainment responsibilities, per diem based on location makes sense. Who cares whether you choose a $50 room service breakfast and crackers for lunch and dinner or eat nothing until dinner?
Most large businesses have moved to the per diem approach or at least an approach where they look at overall reasonableness vs. productivity. In other words, the person who comes in way over time & again is a problem child, but maybe not if they are generating to dollar business.
The benefit of per diem is that it's a simple line on a form. Day x Rate = Reimbursement.
#92
Join Date: Oct 2009
Programs: DL-Silver, Marriott-Life Plat, IHG-Plat, Hilton-Gold
Posts: 119
Government Rates
The 'Craziest" thing the US government has ever done to reduce cost is to set per diem rates for all travel locations, and to quit collecting receipts for meals and incidental expenses (M&IE)! It is the only intuitive move they ever made. The savings in paper-work and man-hours is literally incalculable. And they have stuck with it for many years. How crazy is that?
My wife recently worked for a small company that required the full restaurant receipt for every meal, not just the credit card total, even from senior management. If you don't trust your employees with M&IE, how can you trust them to help run your company?
My wife recently worked for a small company that required the full restaurant receipt for every meal, not just the credit card total, even from senior management. If you don't trust your employees with M&IE, how can you trust them to help run your company?
#93
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#94
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Seattle, WA
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This is standard.. b/c a lot of people will bring their S.O with them and eat under 1 bill.. thus the itemized receipt requirement.
One can say "if you don't trust you employees".. sure..if everyone just behaved according to rules.. but honestly.. i've seen 25%+ abusing T&E when no itemized receipt is required.
#95
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(If the intent is that you're never to eat lunch without a client, and thus always expensing those meals in under a specific client meal policy, that's obviously a different story...)
#97
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: London, England.
Programs: BA
Posts: 8,476
the U.S. State Department is probably the organization in the world whose size, geographic breadth, and resources make it best-positioned to calculate such rates. There is no need to grind your axe at an "Americocentric" approach. It's logical. It would be silly for a company to waste money compiling such a list when they can get it for free (courtesy of the American taxpayer) on the internet. .
Even Liverpool reimburses more. Liverpool !
#98
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These rates have been discussed here on FT before, but to give one example of why you would NOT use a US organisation (with a US organisation's sense of geography), stand at the front door of London Heathrow Terminal 5. The Sheraton to your half-right is in the London Borough of Hillingdon, and thus gets the London rate of USD 499 a day, whereas the comparable Marriott (with similar rates) to your left, equally served by the Heathrow Hoppa hotel bus shuttle, a bit further west along the A4 road, falls into "Other" (because it is over the boundary in Berkshire, with a Slough postal address and postcode on the receipt) and only allows half this amount, USD 255 a day.
Even Liverpool reimburses more. Liverpool !
Even Liverpool reimburses more. Liverpool !
They aren't perfect, and I'm sure they're somewhat better for domestic U.S. cities than the rest of the world, but they serve the main purpose that a private company needs them to serve.
It then falls upon us, the travelers, to book that Sheraton instead of the Marriott.
#99
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My last company started buying employee's old cars and using them as company cars. I ended up with a 9 year old Land Rover Discovery with over 100,000 miles. They also didn't replace the windshield wipers because "it rarely rains in Las Vegas". Sure enough, a big rain storm happened and I could see out the windshield better with the wipers off
Mike
#100
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This is standard.. b/c a lot of people will bring their S.O with them and eat under 1 bill.. thus the itemized receipt requirement.
One can say "if you don't trust you employees".. sure..if everyone just behaved according to rules.. but honestly.. i've seen 25%+ abusing T&E when no itemized receipt is required.
One can say "if you don't trust you employees".. sure..if everyone just behaved according to rules.. but honestly.. i've seen 25%+ abusing T&E when no itemized receipt is required.
#102
Join Date: May 2009
Location: SIN (with a bit of ZRH sprinkled in)
Posts: 9,442
...so I offered her one of my protein bars, and she was aghast that I had paid $3.99 for it. I think they thought I was being pompous with my healthy food, but I know my body, what it can handle, and what it cannot, and what I need to do to be productive. Health doesn't come cheaply!
I would never ever think about buying one of those "health bars"..
Oh, and pork skin is delicious, of course I wouldn't eat it all day, but as a snack, together with an apple or so, it's definitely better than some overpriced "non-candy" bar..
#103
Join Date: May 2009
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In my office many of us bring our own lunch from home - make a sandwich or have leftovers etc. This has minimal cost to us but cannot be done when traveling. I think it's sensible and fair for a company to pay for lunches when employees are traveling.
#104
Join Date: Nov 2011
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#105
Join Date: May 2009
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http://www.aktionis.ch/fruechte+gemuese
I'm really surprised to see fresh fruits being more expensive in the US - why is it like this? I would have thought your government should be interested in having healthy food being sold at affordable costs to fight obesity? If I can get two apples for the same price as a Big Mac, I can imagine most people will choose the Burger over the apples..