Five tips to improve business travel across Germany and beyond

According to VDR’s Business Travel Report 2023, German business travel increased by 82% to 75.1 million in 2022. Overall expenditure doubled from 2021 to 2022, reaching €26.9 billion.  

Those figures are lower than the record high in 2019—but they’re still a positive testament to an industry that’s continuing to drive real value for employees, organisations, and ultimately customers.

However, the business travel sector faces challenges that make it difficult for organisations to keep their business moving, across Germany and beyond.

Here’s everything you need to know about building a business mobility programme that works better for everyone.   

Travelling for work can be a major perk that helps attract, engage, and retain employees. Business trips are opportunities for in-person connection at a time when they are becoming increasingly rare. Plus, face-to-face meetings can offer an edge that contributes to positive performance outcomes.

But if business travel makes work harder and not better, trips can become a burden more than a benefit.

Here are five tips to build a business travel programme that keeps your team moving with confidence—and aligns with your company’s values, goals, and budget. 

All 100% of VDR’s respondents said they’re feeling the impact of Germany’s current inflation crisis on business travel planning. Cost increases are dramatic—the total costs for business travel rose by 101% between 2021 and 2022—and budgets are often falling too. 

When costs are increasing, it might seem sensible to make travel decisions guided predominantly by cost. But the benefits of business travel hinge on your people having a positive experience.

When planning travel, think about employees’ experiences on the move. How can you help them have a smooth, confident experience from point A to point B?

In cooperation with the VDR Business Travel Analysis 2023, we asked travel managers what they care about when selecting providers as part of their travel policies. The results were encouraging, showing that most business travel managers are focused predominantly on security and quality—two factors that can have a huge impact on your employees’ travelling experiences:

When planning your business travel programme, these factors should be a top priority—for you, and for the providers you choose.

Traveller experience might top the priority list for corporate travel planning, but robust controls are a close second. That’s why control options for travel managers are very important for 48% of companies, as the image above shows.

This becomes even more vital in a landscape of increasing costs. In particular, ground transportation is often more costly than organisations assume, especially if you have large numbers of frequent travellers. VDR found that 32% of overall business travel costs went to overland transport in 2022. 

With this in mind, it’s unsurprising that managers told us it’s crucial to have a complete, transparent breakdown of overland transport costs, to help with cost control and budgeting:

Your business travel programme should be easy and seamless for employees while providing comprehensive back-end data to help with business strategy and planning. 

Labor shortages have been a long-running issue across Germany but the pandemic exacerbated the problem, forcing the travel industry to a halt and driving many talented people out of the sector.    

The VDR Business Travel Analysis 2023 confirms that 68% of large organisations and 64% of SMEs have noticed the impact of these travel-sector shortages when organising business travel. 

With cancellations, delays, and disruption, travel managers are battling more admin and bureaucracy than ever. Are you arming them with simple tools to make travel planning as smooth as possible, to ease some of this burden?

Many travel and hospitality businesses offer loyalty programmes, volume discounts, or perks which can help reduce your overall travel costs and contribute to a great travel experience for your teams. 

Plus, developing relationships with travel brands can simplify the admin work associated with researching, booking and expensing. Happier travel managers; happier travellers. 

Both executive teams and employees are increasingly concerned about sustainability, which has an impact on business travel planning. For example, Fortune’s 2022 CEO survey reports that 58% of chief executives have a plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 or before. 

Reducing business travel is an obvious first resort to improve sustainability—and 90% of companies are already doing or are planning to do this.

But what about when business travel is needed? 

One critical factor is comprehensive sustainability reporting—especially since the January 2023 introduction of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This new directive means a broad spectrum of companies will be mandated to conduct sustainability reporting, starting from fiscal 2024. 

The research shows that organisations of all types do more reporting in 2022 than in 2021—although there’s still a way to go: 

Moreover, 73% of smaller and 83% of larger companies include overland modes of transport in those reports. 

Ensuring your travel programmes track relevant, comprehensive metrics for each business trip means you can better measure progress against sustainability goals. 

Also, you could consider giving preference to airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and rideshare companies that offer green options such as electric vehicles.

In Germany and beyond, business travel can be challenging but it’s still valuable—for employees, organisations, and customers. 

Available in over 10,000 cities including 21 across Germany, Uber is reimagining the way the world moves. 

Choose Uber for Business to streamline business travel for your travellers and travel managers, giving you confidence and control. Let business trips stay what they should be: an asset, not a hassle. 

More than 170,000 organisations globally trust Uber for Business to keep their business moving—seamlessly and with safety as a top priority. Learn more about Uber for Business.