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Supplier's View

By OGCbuying.solutions

Travel supplier Redfern Travel couldn't have been happier with their investment in a stand at the recent PS07 conference and exhibition held at Earls Court.

“We have had a huge amount of interest and a large number of organisations have come to talk to us about working with them. We are an SME - although we are growing fast – without a sales force and so this event is incredibly important to us.

“It delivers a phenomenal conversion rate for us – we've already booked for next year's show!” said Managing Director Neil Hopwood.

Redfern Travel is growing fast, thanks to RedfernOnlineRail, the online booking engine for UK national rail journeys, now being used by increasing numbers of public sector organisations - such as the The Environment Agency.

The Agency spends more than £3.5 million each year on rail travel with more than 4,000 employees booking rail travel on a regular basis. It wanted a rail travel booking system that was easy to access and simple to use, which saved money and provided valuable management information on the costs and environmental impact of travel.

The OGCbuying.solutions Travel Managed Service provided precisely what the Agency was looking for. Using these arrangements they invited tenders from three approved suppliers and, after a thorough evaluation process, Redfern Travel's online service – RedfernOnlineRail - was selected to provide the solution.

RedfernOnlineRail is available to Environment Agency staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It shows timetables, the best routes and fares and enables users to make bookings. It also stores information including the costs and can generate a variety of management reports including a calculation of the CO2 emissions generated per journey.

The Agency decided to roll out the new system out across the entire organisation and, over a six week period early in 2007, a series of roadshows were held at nine regional offices throughout the UK. By mid February more than 4,000 users had been registered on the system with their own profiles with on site ticket printers installed at 17 offices where usage is highest.

As a result, in the first month alone, the Environment Agency saved 19.8% on rail travel when compared with standard open return journeys.

“The implementation of RedfernOnlineRail has been an outstanding success. The rapid roll out and adoption by staff has been impressive,” said Nick Hodkinson, the Agency's National Property Strategy Manager.

“As the Environment Agency, we were very keen to promote the use of train travel for business use as it produces far less CO2 emissions than the car or plane. Working with Redfern Travel has allowed us to promote train travel and cut down on our carbon footprint.”

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© OGCbuying.solutions 2007

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