Planning ahead is key to the success of any venture however travel and plans to mitigate disruption are not always taken into consideration and safe, reliable transport can be taken for granted.
I just love it when a plan comes together! The famous words of Hannibal (the ATeam one, not the one that has a penchant for chianti and people) always springs to mind with smug satisfaction when my plan B proves to be successful in preventing circumstances beyond my control fail to prevent me from getting to where I need to be and achieving my objective. This might seem like a rather benign ‘win’ but when travelling for business time is of the essence and far more is at stake than missing a day by the side of a pool.
Coming from a country where we have fairly reliable transport networks we can be guilty of underestimating the likelihood of disruption to our travel when overseas or even at home. Typically we can expect some disruption due to weather such as the recent disruption to Gatwick due to fog, typically this is usually short lived and the delay can be restricted to only a few hours allowing for a minimal impact on the plans for the day or week. One thing that is particularly difficult to plan around is large scale natural disasters such as the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull (Pronounced Aya-Fiatla-Yurkult) in 2010. The impact of this eruption to travel was massive, it affected almost every European country causing a total of 107,000 flight cancelations, £1.1 billion in lost revenue and 5 million travellers stranded across the globe. The impact was so severe that HMS Albion was tasked with repatriating UK citizens stuck in Spain!
Whilst this is an extreme and rare event as a regular business traveller we should not underestimate the potential for disruption and the impact it could have. When planning travel it shouldn’t be unreasonable to have a primary, secondary and tertiary plan to account for disruption that could impact on business, cutting timings to a tight schedule with no thought given to ‘what if?’ can only be detrimental in the long run, the smallest deviation or delay will have a much bigger impact on the long term plan.
Taking the time to plan effectively looking at options should the primary method and route fail will pay dividends, having an appropriate consideration of the transport links between point A and B will allow us to consider how to mitigate problems such as flight cancellations. As part of this planning process assessing overland or sea alternatives combined with an enhanced awareness of local travel protocols, efficiency and availability of modes of transport and emergency accommodation will help take the stress and panic from a deteriorating situation. As a side note consideration should also be given to scams on travellers and where to seek local knowledge for assistance.
This may seem like a cynical and pessimistic approach to travel however the impact of good planning and the knowledge that the ‘I’s’ and ‘T’s’ have been crossed leaves an immeasurable feeling of confidence removing unwarranted stress and allowing the end goal to be completed in a timely fashion with the level of attention and professionalism it deserves. To put it more simplistically ‘The Devil is in the detail’ allowing us the luxury to take advantage of our foresight by relaxing by the pool in smug satisfaction.
