Your firm is invited to submit a Proposal for the following: To provide comprehensive travel management services, including but not limited to, air travel, rail travel, lodging, and rental car reservations available through on online booking service and travel agents for the WCB's executive, employees, and clients, on an "as-needed" basis.
Description of Services
The Contractor shall make reservations, issue and deliver tickets or itineraries or both as applicable for international and domestic air travel and occasional rail travel. For domestic air travel, electronic ticketing shall be used whenever possible. When using electronic ticketing, the Contractor shall provide all End Users with a receipt/itinerary which includes all necessary travel information. The services provided by the Contractor shall be at no additional cost to the End User.
The Contractor shall obtain each WCB employee's cost centre number prior to booking any air travel. The Contractor will research alternate itineraries in order to provide the lowest available fare of flights leaving or arriving within three (3) hours of the travellers' requested departure or arrival times, including discount airlines. The Contractor will offer the traveller the lowest available fare.
If a lower fare becomes available before a ticketed trip, the Contractor will advise the traveller and secure a ticket for the new fare to the extent that it is practical. If an airline ticket has been reserved in advance, but not yet paid for and an impending fare increase becomes known, the Contractor will notify the traveller so the traveller can exercise the option to pay for the ticket and avoid the increase to the extent it is practical.
The Contractor shall make a timely effort to notify travellers via the traveller's preferred contact method of disruptive actions including but not limited to airport closings, potential carrier stoppages and cancelled or delayed flights and trains.
The Contractor shall provide to all End Users reservation and ticketing services. These services must include a 24-hour, toll-free number available to travellers for last minute itinerary changes and travel services outside the WCB's Business Hours.
The Contractor shall establish internal systems and procedures to ensure accurate compliance with the WCB's guidelines for Travel/Lodging/Meal cost, as they are amended from time to time, and the terms of the Agreement.
The Contractor shall assist the WCB in managing unused non-refundable tickets to ensure that they are used to the maximum extent for future travel. The Contractor shall provide reports to the WCB's Finance department on a quarterly basis on the status of unused tickets.
Reservations - Agent Booking
The Contractor will:
a) Receive travel requests from the WCB, respond with quotations (confirmations) and availability within four (4) hours;
b) Advise the WCB of alternative plans that are more cost effective and more convenient, when applicable;
c) Obtain a minimum of three (3) price comparison options for all travel requests where the routing or destination permits;
d) Always endeavour to make the most cost effective travel arrangements based on the request from the WCB;
e) Apprise the WCB of any respective travel requirements required for the specific travel request;
f) Upon the receipt of WCB approval to proceed, issue the required e-tickets, travel documents, itineraries and/or vouchers immediately and send back to the WCB and/ or End User, as applicable;
g) In a timely manner, advise the WCB of carrier schedule changes, alterations and new conditions affecting travel and make appropriate adjustments for any changes in flight schedules prior to or during the traveller's official trip. When necessary, e-tickets and billing shall be modified and reissued to reflect these changes; and
h) Notify travellers of airport closings, cancelled or delayed flights, and/or any changes affecting travel reservations in a timely manner.
Reservations- Online Booking
The Contractor shall provide an online booking service, in addition to offering services available through travel agents. The Contractor shall ensure that all bookings are for the lowest available fare, including discount airlines. The Contractor shall modify or reissue billings or tickets, or both as applicable, in order to make adjustments for any change(s) in flight or train schedules.
The Contractor must review online bookings and identify any errors within twenty-four (24) hours of the booking. The Contract must notify the traveller and the WCB of any errors found and take appropriate action to correct errors.
The Contractor shall work with the WCB to ensure its authorized staff have access to the online booking system.
The Contractor will provide an online travel booking tool for air travel, accommodations, and vehicle rentals which will:
a) Allow automatic application of any WCB negotiated discounts to bookings;
b) Issue e-mail correspondence such as required e-tickets, travel documents, itineraries and/or vouchers;
c) Offer travellers ability to print invoice records; and
d) Allow travel arrangers to make bookings for other employees.
Access and offer all available web options for air travel, accommodations, and vehicle rentals during the booking process. Pricing must be identical to rates available by booking directly with the service providers or better. The Contractor must provide the WCB with access to the Contractor's own further discount arrangements with service providers in order to reduce the WCB's costs.
Lodging
If requested by the End User, the Contractor shall make lodging reservations on behalf of the End User. The services provided by the Contractor for lodging reservations shall be at no additional cost to the End User.
The Contractor shall take advantage of any applicable corporate, government, and vendor discounts where applicable for such reservations, including the GST exemption status of the WCB.
The Contractor shall provide written confirmation of all reservations made on behalf of End Users to the employee requesting the reservation. When reservations are made, the Contractor shall inform an End User on an itinerary or receipt of the cancellation requirements.
To the extent possible the Contractor shall ensure that the accommodations are comfortable and safe and conveniently located to the geographic location(s) to be visited by the traveller or there is convenient access to public transportation (e.g. buses, subways).
Rental Cars
For rental car reservations, the Contractor shall make reservations for automobile rentals at national automobile rental agencies. This service shall include booking and confirming reservations, verifying rental rates, and booking corporate travel rates from the car rental company when available. The services provided by the Contractor for vehicle rental reservations shall be at no additional cost to the End User.
International Travel
The Contractor shall provide travellers with advice on necessary health requirements, including types of inoculations and vaccinations either required or suggested for foreign travel.
The Contractor shall provide technical advice on such matters as foreign currency exchange rates and transactions, securing automobile insurance, excess baggage limits and fees, etc.
The Contractor shall provide assistance in obtaining passports, visas, international driver licenses, and other travel documents upon request.
Contractor Reports and Contract Management
The Contractor shall maintain two separate accounts; one for WCB employees and one for WCB clients.
The Contractor shall provide management cost reports or access to online reporting to include spend analysis for WCB various cost centres (projects) incurred against individual or multiple credit cards, activity management, reconciliation analysis, etc. The reports should have the capability of detailing specific expenditures related to each credit card (i.e. airfare, vehicle rental, hotel, and designated travel locations, as well as individual travel expenditure).
The Contractor shall submit to the WCB, not later than the 15th of each month that the Agreement is active, reports including but not limited to:
a) Total domestic air travel during the preceding month;
b) Total international air travel during the preceding month;
c) Cost and discounts by traveller;
d) Destination by traveller;
e) Lodging reservations;
f) Car rental reservations;
g) Rail reservations;
h) Air travel by WCB cost centre with cost details;
i) Air travel by airline; and
j) Unused tickets by WCB cost centre.
The Contractor shall submit reports electronically in a downloadable spreadsheet compatible with the WCB's systems (e.g. Excel).
The Contractor shall provide electronically, at the WCB's request, a listing of the previous day's airline reservations including employee name, business unit, destination, airfare, and standard/online charge per ticket.
The WCB shall name an individual within its organization who shall be responsible for all contractual matters, differences of opinion, disputes, and complaints.
The Contractor shall respond in writing to all inquiries by the WCB within fifteen (15) days of receipt of such inquiries.
The Contractor shall provide advice and information to the WCB to assist in rate negotiations with airlines, lodging companies, or car rental agencies.
The Contractor shall ensure that its activities including airline, lodging, and car rental reservations are in accordance with the procedures outlined in WCB guidelines, as they are amended from time to time.
The Contractor shall provide the WCB with an accurate customized transaction data extract file of both tickets and service fees to assist in the reconciliation of travel agency transactions with centrally billed account charges. Delivery timeframes and method must be agreed to by the WCB.
Payment Method & Transaction Fee Procedures
All travel services including transaction fees are paid upfront via WCB dedicated credit cards. However, bi-weekly or monthly documentation detailing tickets issued, or other travel reservations made, are required to be provided to the WCB.
Payment procedures apply only to official WCB travel, not personal employee travel. Any transaction fee charged to an individual on personal travel shall be between the traveller and the Contractor.
As directed by the WCB, when the Contractor is required to arrange for air travel of one or more individuals, the Contractor may charge only one transaction fee per itinerary per individual when the ticket is issued. The individual's itinerary could involve multiple tickets, but only one transaction fee is charged for this itinerary regardless of the number of ticket(s) issued (the transaction fee is not based on the number of tickets needed to complete the individual's itinerary). Until such time as WCB requests the Contractor to issue and the Contractor actually issues a ticket for transportation, no transaction fee shall be charged for services associated with that transportation, including but not limited to:
-the original transportation reservation;
-changes to the original transportation reservation;
-accommodations, and
-vehicle rental reservations.
Upon issuance of the transportation ticket, the Contractor shall debit the WCB's credit card assigned for the relevant project the applicable transaction fee for one transaction, that transaction being the ticket issuance.
If the Contractor is to charge a transaction fee for any other service beside air travel such as the services listed above or any other ones, the transaction fee for each service should be explicitly listed in the proposal submitted to the WCB.
Once the official ticket is issued, if the traveller requests a personal change in that ticket that requires ticket reissuance, the Contractor shall charge the traveller directly any additional transaction fee associated with the ticket change. However, if the change is requested by the WCB for official purpose, the WCB will cover the additional transaction fee. No additional transaction fee shall be charged for any other services.
After ticket issuance, if the Contractor must change and/or change and reissue the ticket because the Contractor or the WCB discovers a Contractor-caused error in the routing, carrier or other problem, there shall be no additional transaction fee charge.
Customer Service, Ticketing
The Contractor's hours of operation will encompass the WCB's Business Hours. Customer service representatives will be available to End Users through a 1-800 phone line. The Contractor shall provide a toll-free telephone service 24 hours a day, 365 days per year by which the traveller can make immediate changes or access information during trips.
The Contractor's automated accounting system must have direct interface with the reservation, ticketing, and accounting elements so that all passenger reports and summary data are automatically generated from point-of-sale information.
The Contractor shall provide a 'lead' or supervisory customer service representative who has the ability to resolve issues in a timely basis. All customer service reservation representatives shall make every effort to return messages by close of business.
Dedicated Account Manager
The Contractor will dedicate an account manager to the WCB to ensure:
-Proper training is provided, if required;
-Provide personal assistance to WCB personnel when required;
-Assist in resolving any discrepancies in bookings or billings; and
-If required, implement a complaint handling procedure to manage and record the compliments and complaints.
Quality Control
The Contractor shall have procedures and systems to monitor the quality of travel services. These procedures shall include a self-inspection program covering all of the services to be performed under the Contract and shall include a method for monitoring, identifying, and correcting deficiencies in the quality of service furnished to the WCB. The WCB shall be notified of all corrective actions as they are taken. The WCB reserves the right to monitor or review the Contractor's quality control processes and procedures.
Training
At the request of the WCB, the Contractor shall provide training for selected authorized WCB staff to ensure they are fully familiar with the services offered by the Contractor. Training shall be scheduled at a time and location agreed to by both the authorized WCB staff and the Contractor.
Contract Transition Services
The Contractor shall provide an orderly and efficient transition of services to any future successor service provider. Special care shall be used to transition unused tickets to the future successor service provider.
Miscellaneous
It is expected the Contractor will have experience providing corporate travel services to organizations of similar size and requirements.
The Proposal should include an overview of the proposed resource(s) being offered, including profiles of work which highlight their experience performing similar services.
The Contractor will not be required to have and maintain workers compensation coverage for its workers who will be providing the Services, unless required pursuant to The Workers Compensation Act.
The Services shall be provided from the Contractor's facilities located in Canada, as applicable, unless otherwise agreed in writing.
It is expected the Services will be required for an initial period of three (3) years with a preferred start date of January 1, 2023. The WCB shall have an irrevocable option to further extend the Services on the same terms and conditions and fees for one (1) additional period of up to two (2) years.
