Corporate travel and employee transport glossary.

Employee transport

• Employee transport management system (ETS)

  ETS · employee transportation management system · employee commute platform

  An employee transport management system is software that plans, allocates, tracks and bills an organisation’s employee commute. It takes shift rosters as input, generates vehicle routes, assigns them across transport vendors, tracks trips live, enforces safety rules and reconciles vendor invoices against the agreed rate card.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• Nodal pickup

  nodal point · node pickup · common pickup point

  Nodal pickup is where employees walk to a designated common point — a landmark, junction or apartment gate — instead of being collected from their doorstep. One stop serves several employees, shortening the pickup chain and reducing the distance and time a vehicle spends collecting a full load.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• No-first-no-last-drop

  NFNL · no first pickup no last drop

  No-first-no-last-drop is the rule that a woman employee should not be the first person picked up or the last person dropped on a night-shift route — the two points at which she would otherwise be alone in the vehicle with the driver. Where it cannot be avoided, a security escort travels with her.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• Night-shift escort

  marshal · security escort · guard

  A night-shift escort is a trained security person who travels in the vehicle on night-shift routes, most often where a woman employee would otherwise be alone with the driver. The escort is separate from the driver and is present for the legs where the risk arises rather than the whole journey.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• Transport roster

  cab roster · shift roster · transport requisition

  A transport roster is the list of which employees need transport, for which shift, on which date, and in which direction. It is the input to route generation: routes cannot be planned from headcount alone, because the vehicles needed depend on who is actually travelling on that particular day.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• ETS vs shuttle management

  Shuttle management runs fixed routes to a published timetable between fixed points, like a bus service. An employee transport management system plans routes from a roster each day, so pickup points, sequence and vehicle counts change with who is travelling. Most Indian programmes run both.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• Empty running

  dead mileage · dead kilometres · deadhead

  Empty running is distance a vehicle travels with no passengers aboard — positioning from the yard to the first pickup, returning after the last drop, or moving between routes. It is paid for and carries nobody, and in most programmes it is a material share of total distance.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• Three-way match

  3-way match · invoice reconciliation

  In transport billing, a three-way match reconciles three records before an invoice is paid: the trip that actually ran, the contracted rate card, and the vendor’s invoice line. A line that disagrees with either of the other two is flagged rather than paid.

  In practice, and why it matters →

Corporate travel

• Travel management company (TMC)

  TMC · corporate travel agency · business travel agency

  A travel management company is the agency a corporate appoints to book and service its business travel. It holds or accesses the airline and hotel contracts, issues tickets, handles changes, cancellations and disruption, and reports on spend. A TMC is a service provider — the booking tool its travellers use may be its own or someone else’s.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• Online booking tool (OBT)

  OBT · self-booking tool · SBT · corporate booking platform

  An online booking tool is the software employees use to book their own business travel within policy. It searches fares and rates, applies the travel policy at the moment of booking, routes the request for approval where a rule demands it, and issues the booking through an agency or directly with the supplier.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• Pre-trip approval

  pre-trip authorisation · travel request approval

  Pre-trip approval is a control requiring a business trip to be authorised before it is booked rather than after it is taken. The request records purpose, destination, dates and estimated cost, and routes to approvers by rule — typically value, travel class, destination, or how close to departure the booking falls.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• Duty of care (business travel)

  traveller duty of care · traveller safety obligation

  Duty of care in business travel is an employer’s obligation to take reasonable steps to protect employees travelling for work. In practice it means knowing where travellers are, being able to reach them, warning them of risks before departure, and having a tested way to assist or move them when something goes wrong.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• GDS and LCC fares

  global distribution system · low-cost carrier fares · direct connect

  A GDS — global distribution system — aggregates airline inventory for agencies and booking tools. Low-cost carriers frequently sell outside it, through direct connections or aggregators. The distinction decides what a booking tool can see: one connected only to a GDS cannot show part of the market at all.

  In practice, and why it matters →

• GST input credit on business travel

  input tax credit · ITC on travel · GST on air tickets

  GST input credit on business travel is tax paid on qualifying travel purchases that a company can set against its own GST liability. Eligibility depends on what was bought and on the invoice carrying the company’s GSTIN correctly. A ticket invoiced to an employee personally generally cannot be claimed at all.

  In practice, and why it matters →