Travel partnership helps Education NFP save

The Travel Partnership

EREA’s core group of travellers are based in the group’s Melbourne office. While many employees travel from across the organisation, it is the EREA National Executive, EREA Leadership team and the Mission Service teams that make up for the bulk of the domestic corporate travel. The organisation also has a team of five travel bookers to help internally with staff travel bookings.

Air travel
A key benefit of being part of the Procurement Australia network is the discount members receive on airfares.
For the 2018/19 financial year Edmund Rice Education Australia saved $250,000* on airfares as a result of using Procurement Australia’s negotiated fares.
Most of EREA’s travellers also have Virgin Australia and Qantas Club lounge memberships, which Procurement Australia has negotiated competitive rates for its members.

Hotel accommodation
EREA’s travel policy includes a $200 rate cap on hotels. While this is not always possible to meet, the organisation draws on the hotel rates that have been negotiated by Procurement Australia and FCM to curb rising hotel prices in Australia’s city hubs. Additionally, through FCM, EREA has access to over 1 million hotels including Expedia rates.

Car hire
As part of the Procurement Australia network, EREA taps into the negotiated rates available for car hire. Negotiated rates are available through Avis and Hertz.

Program management
Part of the partnership is to ensure EREA continuously benefits from FCM’s strategic travel management advice and that the organisation has easy access to the negotiated rates and fares that are available to them. FCM has customised EREA’s online booking tool so their negotiated airfares, hotel and car hire rates are easy to identify and book.
FCM provides quarterly program management reviews to EREA to demonstrate where they are achieving savings on their travel expenditure and where there are further improvements that can be made.