Natural disasters. Civil unrest. Global threats and pandemics. The world can be an unpredictable place to do business. That’s why Egencia advocates for travel risk management programs and policies. Robust plans put corporate travel managers and their organization in a position to take action whether it’s a relatively small hiccup like a thunderstorm that delays a flight or an emergency.

Traveler Tracker is an Egencia tool that drives action.

Traveler Tracker is part of the Egencia solution. It’s accessible in the booking portal and the mobile app. It’s a fast way to know where your business travelers are and contact them quickly if they are potentially affected by an event in or outside of the U.S.

Crises can happen anywhere — and everywhere

Some emergencies are localized. One example might be a passionate labor strike in a large city that spills over into civil unrest. Traveler Tracker can quickly tell you, based on booking data, how many people you have in that area and where they’re staying. The travel manager can contact them directly via email or send push notifications with risk alerts to their mobile app to help their travelers navigate the situation – including cutting a trip short and arranging travel home.

Some emergencies might begin at a single location, but cascading effects spread. Natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions or hurricanes can scramble air traffic across entire continents. Traveler Tracker empowers the travel manager to search based on airlines, booking codes and individual travelers to find those potentially affected by airline disruption and get them routed homeward as quickly as possible.

While rare, global emergencies can happen as the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated. These situations are systemic and dynamic with many moving parts. Acting quickly to protect traveler wellbeing is crucial. Traveler Tracker can give travel managers the view they need of the situation and location, whether it’s at the global level, regional, or down to the individual city. All of the Egencia booking tools can be brought to bear to help your people thread their way through the chaos.

Traveler Tracker’s search functionality operates in near real-time. It can also be used to review travel 30 days past or trips that are booked for the next 30 days, but not yet taken. This prospective functionality enables the travel manager to take a reactive or proactive approach to travel risk management. With disruption management at your fingertips you can reduce or even eliminate some risk as global events develop. Travel managers have the same capability, whether they’re at their desk checking the Egencia portal or dining at a restaurant and using the mobile app.

Empowering travelers in real-time

Traveler Tracker also goes with your travelers via our mobile app. Travel managers can send a message at the first sign of an issue and travelers can use AssistMe in their app to contact a travel consultant after receiving an alert and get a call back, usually within minutes. 

Between June 2018 and July 2019, Egencia teams responded to 9.5 million contacts from travelers around the world. Egencia personnel constantly monitor global travel and are ready to mobilize when emergencies happen, extending the resources available to our customers’ organizations as they seek to keep travelers safe on their return home.

Educating employees about Traveler Tracker and other travel risk management services that are available is a way to build traveler trust. It’s one component of the overall duty of care obligations travel managers and organizations have. Part of this education effort should involve consolidating bookings on the Egencia solution. Only travel booked via Egencia shows up in Traveler Tracker. Itineraries booked via other means won’t be visible. Travel managers won’t be able to find travelers or send emergency messaging to them. Traveler Tracker becomes another way for travel managers to evangelize compliant booking practices.

Business travel is a key strategic lever in moving the global economy forward. Traveler Tracker is a key tool for mitigating risk and complements a travel risk management program inclusive of robust travel policies, travel insurance and more.