Telecommunications company TDS's travel program has a lot of control over air, hotel and car spend but little over parking. "We thought parking was just something you have to pay, just like you have to pay for mileage," said TDS enterprise travel manager Bonnie Brabb. "You have to pay it to conduct business."
TDS sales, engineers and marketers drive quite a bit into Chicago, where Brabb is based and where the company's U.S. Cellular business is headquartered. Parking spaces are tough to come by. "You'd spend a lot of time circling around for parking," Brabb said. "I think a lot of people can't get street parking as a rule, so they would just go to these parking garages," she said. Even then, "you would go to one building and it was full by 9 a.m."
Brabb was familiar with parking reservation apps, having used Parking Panda personally. In May 2017, she heard SpotHero for Business head Becca Rabinowitz speak at a GBTA function and was excited to see the concept applied to business travel. She learned that the service, like consumer parking apps, helps travelers shop for, reserve and find parking spots but also gives travel managers visibility into their programs' parking spend.
Brabb ran a report from Concur Expense and was surprised at how big parking spend was. "We knew it was there but definitely not as big as it was."
In September 2017, Brabb signed on with SpotHero for Business and e-mailed the entire company encouraging them to use the service, and employees started using the app in December. And in February 2018, a SpotHero account manager visited TDS's Chicago office and got more than 100 additional employees onto the app. Brabb continues to look for opportunities to encourage travelers to sign up. She emails anyone who expensed parking in a city where the service is available: "We know you parked in Downtown Chicago. We have partnered with SpotHero. Here is the link. Here is how you can sign up for the company."
Additional Savings
Savings also have come in employee time. It takes no more than 30 seconds, Brabb said, to book on SpotHero but could take as long as 30 minutes to find a parking spot, not to mention the mileage incurred in circling around. In the SpotHero for Business app, a user enters the destination, date and how long he or she needs parking. The app then maps nearby available parking spots and prices. The user hits reserve, and the app gives directions to the parking garage, a picture of the entrance and directions to follow upon arrival, such as scanning a barcode to enter the parking lot, Brabb said. She also loves that travelers use their phones to book, which fits with TDS's image as a cellphone provider and technology company.
She also said travelers don't have to spend time uploading their parking receipts into Concur. SpotHero expenses populate into Concur automatically, minimizing human input errors.
And now, all travel-related spend—air, hotel, car rental and parking—appear together in Concur, getting Brabb's data reporting closer to displaying the full cost of travel.