Duty of Care - SMARTtrack Brochure

SMART track an introduction to duty of care

Assess Locate Communicate

SMARTtrack – an introduction to duty of care

2

The definition of ‘duty of care’ is “a moral or legal obligation to ensure the safety or well-being of

others”. This is of particular importance in the arena of travel management, as the travelling

employee is the responsibility of his or her organisation. Responsible travel management far

precedes an ethical or moral obligation to procure sustainable suppliers, or provide medical

vaccinations, and is now considered a legal formality under the Corporate Manslaughter and

Homicide Act 2007.

The Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act 2007 marked a pivotal moment in law, coming

into force 6 April 2008. The Act clarifies the criminal liabilities of companies, regardless of size,

where serious failures in the management of risk, health and safety result in a fatality or a gross

breach of duty of care. Any organisation who has failed to implement the necessary processes to

protect their travelling employees could lose up to 10% of their overall annual income, if found guilty

in a court of law. There are no sentences of imprisonment for a breach of duty of care, however a

damaged reputation and financial cost attached to having such a conviction secured against a

company is significantly larger and arguably more damaging than a prison sentence.

It is critical that every travel policy includes a health and safety section to ensure that employees

are protected and supported whilst travelling. These processes will not only protect the security of

the employee, but it will allow the business to legally prove that the necessary steps have been

taken to fulfil their duty of care. To achieve a robust risk programme, an organisation has to ensure

that full training, risk assessment, traveller tracking and support have been introduced where

possible, and consequently be administered and maintained in a manner that could potentially

produce an auditable log of events for each and every trip undertaken by the traveller.

What is duty of care?

Responsibility Risk Management Teamwork


3

Business travel inevitably involves a certain element of risk for travellers as they encounter a wide

range of factors out of their control. These factors can range from severe weather, political or civil

unrest, natural disasters, exposure to disease, and technology failings; and whilst many of these

are unpredictable to a degree; there are certainly steps that can be taken to ensure an

organisation delivers their duty of care, ensuring travellers know what landscape they are entering,

and what steps can be taken should an emergency arise.

The three main areas of any robust risk programme are:

These elements can be summarised by ensuring that designated security personnel or travel

managers are educated on how to locate travelling employees, are aware of the risks to personal

safety before a trip is undertaken, and able to communicate with employees at all times,

particularly in times of emergency.

What is a risk programme?

Research and risk assessment

Detailed, location-specific security, social, political and civil sensitivity

issues made known to each traveller

A strong communication procedure, promoting travel security, risk

awareness; and health and wellbeing


4

SMARTtrack is Business Travel Direct’s traveller tracking and communications platform, allowing

our clients to fulfil their duty of care towards travellers and communicate key messages aligned to

their company culture.

Powered by industry leaders, Concur©, SMARTtrack provides far more than a standard map-view

of where your travellers are. Many tracking systems within the corporate travel industry simply

deliver a single location of each booking made through their system, and do not provide thorough

risk assessment, a robust communications platform, or location-specific information to each

traveller; all of which are critical for a strong risk management programme. Simply knowing where

your travellers are in the world is not enough, and that’s why our SMARTtrack system is becoming

industry-leading technology for duty of care fulfilment.

SMARTtrack provides a global view of our travellers’ locations, even if the booking hasn’t been

made through us.

The map-view provides a detailed, informative account of each country, summarised by cultural,

political and social information, and a risk/threat level as defined by international newsfeeds. The

functionality of the world map is designed to be efficient and user-friendly, operated by colour code,

and by hovering the cursor over the location to view the location summary.

The information available in SMARTtrack is provided by international newsfeed, Riskline™,

overseeing over 160,000 news sources, in 220 countries worldwide, 24/7. This means that

SMARTtrack receives the most relevant world information, day or night, automatically feeding into

the system. Every traveller in SMARTtrack is subsequently risk assessed against Riskline’s

newsfeed, providing a thorough impact-assessment and destination intelligence 24/7.

Introducing SMARTtrack

Tracking & Risk Assessment


5

To minimise our response time to an incident that has the potential to impact our travellers, we can

use SMARTtrack’s sophisticated, granular search method. Data from our offline consultants and

online booking tools automatically syncs every 20 minutes, ensuring that the information stored in

the system is up to date; this includes travellers’ most current contact details and locations.

There are two streamlined ways in which we can determine how many, if any, travellers we may

have in any given area at any particular time:

Flight number

Hotel supplier

Town/City/Country

Kilometre radius of an incident

Geographical risk level

Political unrest

Severe weather

By drawing a geographic fence around the location of an incident, SMARTtrack can immediately

identify anyone within a designated km radius who may be affected. This process takes a matter of

seconds, significantly reducing our reaction time in the case of an emergency. SMARTtrack will then

provide us with a full, detailed impact assessment of travellers within the affected area, allowing us

to send an alert to their phone via SMS or email within seconds.

Filtering

Geo-fencing


6

Unlike many duty of care or tracking systems, SMARTtrack has a unique capability to collect booking

data from a variety of channels, regardless of whether the booking was originally made through us.

Business Travel Direct fully supports clients who are moving into an ‘open booking’ platform,

whereby bookings can be made through a variety of media and often outside of the traditional travel

management arena; namely, online, in an app via a smartphone, or even directly with the supplier.

This data is particularly valuable from a duty of care perspective as traditionally, many travel

management companies simply do not have the tools or capability to track this data financially, or

for risk management purposes, and open booking data is often lost or listed as ‘leakage’.

Our system is different. It captures data for risk management from a number of sources; our own

online booking tools, our offline consultants, the Global Distribution System, outside travel bookings,

HR Data Feeds, smartphone apps, and TripLink© to name just a few. All we’d need is your email

confirmation or reference number, and SMARTtrack will automatically sync the data, providing you

with complete duty of care fulfilment and real data in real time.

SMARTtrack has two channels of communication that can be used to alert a traveller to a potential

nearby risk. If an incident occurs that has the capacity to impact the health and safety of a traveller,

SMARTtrack will automatically send out a notification via SMS or email, alerting the traveller to the

issue. The message information, produced by Riskline, will be a detailed account of the nearby

event, ensuring the traveller is aware of the potential problem if they are not yet already.

For customers that choose a higher level of duty of care fulfilment, SMARTtrack has the capability

for Business Travel Direct to send a tailored travel alert to the individual(s) potentially affected,

including a number to call or a process to follow. The traveller will receive this message via SMS or

email, and can respond accordingly.

Communication

Open Bookings


7

SMARTtrack is designed to ensure travellers receive communication and advice instantly to their

phone and consequently are completely aware of the potential issues they are facing.

The SMARTtrack communication platform is highly advanced and can

accommodate a two-way messaging system, for travellers to text or email

back with confirmation that they are safe, and have read and understood

the potential nearby risk, ensuring our clients can account for each of their

travelling employees in the case of an emergency.

Business Travel Direct can access a message-tracking functionality from

the system within seconds, ensuring that the relevant communications

have been sent, delivered and replied to by using a search system, or by

tracking the messages with a single, colour-coded map.

SMARTtrack provides our clients with a key word

functionality, allowing travellers instant access to important

information straight from their mobile phone. These key

words can be pre-defined by each client during the

implementation process, and offer a streamlined approach

for the user to gain necessary contact details or assistance

within seconds.

HELP

If you require our assistance, please call the BUSINESS

TRAVEL DIRECT team on 01895 450701 or email your travel team

on [email protected]

TAXI

The number of your preferred taxi

supplier is 01273 204060

OFFICE

The nearest office to your location

is Head Office, located on 38 Market Square, Uxbridge,

Middlesex, UB8 1NG, 07895 450701

Key Word Messaging

Two-Way Communication

mailto:[email protected]


8

Tailored messages can be designed by each client that drive business and travel objectives via

SMS or email. Whether it’s cost-saving initiatives or Best Practise, SMARTtrack can store and

automatically send communications to encourage compliancy to travel policy in a streamlined,

efficient manner; sending the right messages, at the right time, to the right people. These messages

can be discussed and input into the system during the implementation process, and are designed

to be sent at the precise moment a traveller would need to read them, dynamically bringing your

policy to life and positively influencing travelling behaviour.

For example, a traveller landing in Oslo Airport, Norway, at 12.15pm could receive a text to their

mobile phone within 15 minutes of landing, gently reminding them that whilst a taxi from the airport

to the city centre will cost approximately €40, the tram takes just 20 minutes and costs only €7.

Time efficiency is a key priority for many travel policies, and some organisations may choose to

send out alerts for delayed or cancelled transport arrangements. A cancelled flight may cost your

employee(s) 3-6 hours of the working day; time that would be better spent elsewhere. A simple,

triggered SMS message or email alerting the traveller(s) to the cancellation alongside a contact

number to call for alternative travel arrangements, is both cost and time efficient; encouraging

productivity and relieving the burden of travel delays or cancellations for the traveller.

Compliance & Best Practise Messaging


9

Business Travel Direct believes that one of the most important functions we can offer our clients is

robust duty of care fulfilment. We also understand that organisations have many different

requirements and may prefer to handle their risk management programme internally, using a team

of committed advisors. That’s why SMARTtrack can be implemented onto your own system,

enabling you to use the multitude of risk and communication functions specific to your needs.

Your SMARTtrack provides all of the functions above, plus some highly specialised tools that are

designed to ensure you have full capability to manage your own risk management programme and

provide added security to your global travelling workforce.

We’ll provide a full training programme to allow you to understand SMARTtrack and use it to its

fullest potential, alongside providing you with support from over 600 developers worldwide.

Your SMARTtrack


10

Gold, Silver and Bronze Tiers

Gold – Price on Application

Traveller Tracking Pre Travel Advisories Alerts Two Way Messaging Full Access to Your SMARTtrack Destination Services Best Practise/Policy Messaging and Rules Full Training and Support

Silver – Price on Application

Traveller Tracking Pre Travel Advisories Alerts Full Access to Your SMARTtrack Full Training and Support

Bronze - Free

Traveller Tracking Pre Travel Advisories Alerts

For more information on how SMARTtrack can provide you with exceptional duty of

care fulfilment and risk management, please contact Business Travel Direct or ask for

an online demonstration:

Business Travel Direct, 6th Floor Armstrong House, 38 Market Square, Uxbridge, Middx, UB8 1NG

01895 450701 [email protected]

Documents

Duty of Care - SMARTtrack Brochure