Carlson
Wagonlit Travel's Solutions Group on Wednesday said it made good on plans to
create an "industry-first" algorithm that assesses traveler stress on
a company-by-company basis. Resulting from its ongoing research into the topic, CWT found that travelers can experience stress for as much as "6.9
hours per trip" as measured in "lost time, or time unavailable to
travelers to work or rest." That translates to a financial loss of as much
as $662 per trip, according to CWT's calculations. "Best-in-class"
clients, the TMC noted, can mitigate as much as "32 percent of the lost
time."
CWT
claimed the methodology framing its research "sheds light into the hidden
economics of business travel, and we believe it will contribute to expanding
industry norms."
The
new study from CWT examined "15.3 million CWT air trips booked within a
one-year period from October 2011 to October 2012," covering all of the
TMC's points of sale. Each trip was broken down into "22 potentially
stressful activities covering pre-trip, during trip (transportation and
destination-related elements), and post-trip." Those 22 stressors were
measured on "the duration and the perceived stress intensity for each
activity."
Data
used to examine each trip include internal CWT sources (transactional data,
traveler demographics derived from their profiles and Travel Stress Index
survey data) and external sources (flight delay statistics, information on high-risk
destinations, lost baggage data and employee compensation benchmarks).
CWT
also developed key performance indicators to calculate stress levels: "the
maximum possible lost time per trip; the actual lost time per trip (and its
financial equivalent); and the Travel Stress Index, defined as the ratio of the
above quantities."
By
using that formula, CWT determined that the largest drags on business
travelers' time are flying in economy class on medium- and long-haul flights
(2.1 "lost" hours) and getting to the airport or train station (1.1
hours).
CWT
found that the longest possible actual time lost from an average trip is 17.9
hours, of which 11 are "stress-free" hours during which travelers can
work or rest. That leaves 6.9 hours of truly lost time. That can range from 5.2
hours for domestic trips to 15.6 hours for intercontinental trips.
To
cut that 6.9-hour figure to what CWT deemed as a best-in-class 4.7 hours per
trip, the TMC said companies should work to "find the optimal point
combining the actual costs of travel and the hidden ones." To do so, CWT
suggested travel policy decisionmaking may warrant "a broader stakeholder
umbrella" including human resources departments in addition to procurement
and travel departments.