Mark Reiske noticed consultant and vendor travel expenses were skyrocketing in some of the projects he oversaw. When looking at the invoices and travel activity, vendors were not utilizing the most economical choices when traveling on KU’s projects. This meant at times there were $300 a night hotel stays in Lawrence, higher tiered rental cars, and even multiple rental cars for a vendor despite consultants arriving and departing at the same time from their engagement in Lawrence. Mark suggested creating a policy to help guide our vendors to make conservative choices to help us contain travel expenses we were reimbursing them for.
A team of Procurement, Travel, Auditing, and Policy offices have created a vendor travel policy to share with and hold vendors accountable for limiting their reimbursable travel expenses in the same way our employees do. If this policy had been implemented prior to the projects Mark saw, we could have saved at least $10,000.
To find more information about the new Third-Party Travel Policy and our Procurement compliance information, visit our compliance page for more details.
If you have questions about the new policy and what it means to you, refer to our Travel Policy Frequently Asked Questions
Fellow Change Agents:
- Mark Reiske
- Ben Lizak
- Heather Blanck
- Gina Cregg
- Abby Ropes
- Karen Schaller
- Ephrom Marks
- Lori Gutsch
- Craig Alexander
Impact of idea:
At least $10,000 reduction in annual consultant/vendor reimbursable travel expenses
