Save Award 2010 Ideas

I suggest you create an incentive program for traveling government employees to lodge at cheaper hotels in order to decrease travel expenses. I envision the incentive program being based on the amount that the lodging expense is under the maximum lodging rate. For example, The maximum lodging per diem rate in Pittsburgh is $119. At this time, a federal employee could stay at a Red Roof Inn for $62.99 per night. If the ...more »

I suggest we remove the practice of using a contract air carrier. In many cases, multiple non-refundable tickets could be bought at a cheaper price than one fully refundable ticket.

I suggest the President host webchats/video conferences in town halls instead of actually going to the town on occasion. The security cost would be much less. Secret Service could remain in Washington with the President. The travel expenses of the President via Air Force One would be eliminated. The President would have more time to work, as he is not traveling.

Currently, government employees can pay up to four times the average citizen for airline travel. I suggest that GSA implement a "meet or beat" government contract fares option in GovTrip. Employees will be able to search discount fare options and input those flights and the corresponding rate into GovTrip. If contract carriers match the rate, then they get the business, if not, the employee can purchase the ticket with ...more »

I think that the most money could be saved by rethinking travel. As it is now, we use contact travel agencies. Most of these "travel agencies" are are online and automated. Yet, we are being charged a minimum of $13.50 just for the travel agency to issue each authorization and voucher that could be handled internally. We also pay the fee to book flights, as well as having to deal with greatly inflated flight prices. I ...more »

Allow federal workers on travel to stay with friends and family at 40% of the per diem instead of taking a hotel room at full government per diem rate. Workers on authorized travel have to chose somewhere to sleep and there is no economic incentive for them to stay with friends and family. If they received a portion of the per diem, they could decrease travel costs to the government substantially. Hotel costs often exceed ...more »

It is my understanding there are some government agencies that do not pay hotel, airport, and car rental taxes because they are tax exempt and have a special code on the government credit card that enables that exemption. How efficient. This should extend to all Federal Travelers. Other Federal travelers need to print appropriate Tax Exempt forms and are sometimes not granted the exemption. This should result in an ...more »

I suggest the Department allow employees to book non-refundable airline tickets for travel. Currently, employees are prohibited from buying non-refundable airline tickets. Refundable airline tickets are typically 2 to 3 times more expensive than non-refundable, and in some cases even more. There would be a significant savings, even if an employee had to cancel their official travel plans. For example, a non-refundable ...more »

Telecon/VidCon. Reduce travel costs by hosting more Telecons and VideoCons. For most meetings/conferences, this system will work. The amount of travel money that could be save could be substantial.

For Agencies that reimburse actual lodging expenses: An immediate way to save on travel expenses is to incentivize employees to utilize lodging below the GSA per diem rates. Under this plan, if individuals choose to stay in a less expensive hotel than the local per diem rate, they will retain a percentage (~50%) of the difference between the actual rate and the local per diem rate. This plan empowers individuals to ...more »

It is already paid and may be vacant at times of travel needs; i.e. military base lodging or quarters (HUD apartments aren't furnished per comment). It could be mandated in policy to be made available and searched via web by every agency. It would come save millions in travel costs to every agency while utilizing available space.

Limit the number of employees from each agency allowed to attend the same training or conference. Require those who attended to report on what they learned, and make any electronic resources available to their co-workers to maximize the impact of the expenditure. Rotate the attendees so that the same employees are not the employees always attending training. This would save travel money, maximize the expenditure and create ...more »

Current airfare costs for Government employees is overly expensive. Part of that is due to the flexibility in being able to cancel or change flights at a moments notice without paying any additional cost. However, we're paying hundreds of dollars more per ticket just to have that flexibility when a majority of travelers don't change flights. Meanwhile, if Government had the flexibility to choose regular airfare prices, ...more »

Implement more cost-effective training requirements that are to met by each agency. For example, require agencies to utilize web-based training programs in lieu of in-person training seminars. The costs for in-person training are exponentially larger compared to the costs of conducting trainng over CENTRA or an equivalent, web-based program. Not only are the costs of travel quite large (to include airfare, hotel, ...more »

I suggest you re-evaluate the Federal Travel system. Under the current system, Feds are unable to take advantage of sales/deals offered by airlines and hotels. Often times, the federal rate is much higher than the sale/deal rate. Savings stemming from changes to the travel system would impact not only the budget for the Department of Commerce but all federal departments. As a specific example, I recently registered ...more »