<I>Charlotte, N.C.</I> - Perigon, a small engineering and architectural firm, realized a dramatic reduction in travel expenditures last year after it named a permanent travel manager, consolidated travel with a single agency and established a formal corporate travel policy.
Lorraine Lepkowski, formerly an administrative assistant to a vice president, forged the travel program, became the corporate travel coordinator and selected a AAA club to serve as the travel management company to handle Perigon's annual air expenditures.
"We had no corporate travel policy whatsoever," recalled Lepkowski, who in her previous job made air, car and hotel reservations for some of the company's 160 travelers. Many of the employees were making their own arrangements through a variety of agencies and many were not booking their flights in advance.
With no internal control over travel services and expenses, and no tracking of billings and refunds, it was exceedingly difficult to tie travel expenses to client contracts, which is pivotal in her company's operations, Lepkowski said.
Two years ago, Lepkowski recommended to Perigon's board of directors that all travel requests for the company's three offices in Richmond, Va.; Wilmington, N.C.; and Charlotte come through her, so billings could be handled in one location. At the same time, she reevaluated the services Perigon's travel agency was providing.
"I wasn't pleased with the agency we were dealing with at the time," Lepkowski said. After reviewing several agencies, Lepkowski immediately was hooked by AAA Carolinas' presentation of its monthly management reports. "The reports broke down credit card billings, and compared regular fares with what we would get," she said. "They also said they would give me information on how much travel we were doing in specific regions of the country."
Lepkowski particularly likes AAA's Quality Agent computer program. "It lets us send in requests for flight or flash fares, and it will tell me all the flights going on a particular day in a market, with prices," she said.
With savings on travel spending of 45 percent last year, the company's board also is pleased, Lepkowski said.