[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 54 (Thursday, March 20, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13710-13711]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-6662]


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GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

[GSA Bulletin FTR 2003-B1]


eTravel Initiative

AGENCY: Office of Governmentwide Policy (MTT), GSA.

ACTION: Notice of bulletin.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with GSA Bulletin FTR 26 issued July 25, 2002 
(67 FR 48654), the attached bulletin is issued to inform agencies of 
FedTrip as the online booking service available governmentwide for 
arranging temporary duty travel. Agencies will benefit from direct cost 
savings and management efficiencies by adopting self-service travel 
capabilities. Each Executive agency will be required to adopt an online 
booking engine as part of their self-service travel process. Agencies 
are requested to immediately develop a plan(s) (e.g., budget and 
personnel alignment) to achieve a high level of online booking by 
December 2003. Such plan(s) will prepare agencies for implementation of 
the eTravel service, which is expected to become available by December 
2003. Upon implementation of the eTravel service, agencies will be 
required to measure the use of self-service travel planning and 
reservations functions of the eTravel service for arranging temporary 
duty travel.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This bulletin is effective March 20, 2003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim Burke, General Services 
Administration, Office of Governmentwide Policy (MTT), Washington, DC 
20405; e-mail, [email protected]; telephone (703) 872-8611.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: All Executive agencies will be required to 
adopt an online booking service to make travel reservations for 
temporary duty travel. FedTrip, provided by the U.S. Department of 
Transportation, is an online booking service that is available for use 
by Executive agencies and should be agencies' first choice for online 
booking. Of an online booking service is not currently deployed in an 
agency, officials responsible for managing the agency's travel program 
should take steps to implement an online booking service including 
coordination with their Travel Management Center (TMC) where 
applicable. Executive agency travel managers should contact Arnie 
Linares at (202) 366-0520 or e-mail [email protected] to make 
the necessary arrangements to obtain FedTrip. Executive agency 
employees should contact their agency's travel office for information 
on how to make travel arrangements online. Please note that this 
document implements a new numbering system for FTR bulletins.

    Dated: March 14, 2003.
G. Martin Wagner,
Associate Administrator, Office of Governmentwide Policy.

Attachment

March 20, 2003.

[GSA Bulletin FTR 2003-B1]

To: Heads of Executive Agencies.
Subject: eTravel Online Booking Service Availability.

    1. Purpose. This bulletin notifies executive agencies of the 
availability of FedTrip as the online booking service available 
governmentwide, which should be agencies' first choice for making 
temporary duty travel arrangements, unless you have another online 
booking service already deployed. Each executive agency will be 
required to adopt an online booking service as part of its self-
service travel process. Agencies are requested to develop a plan(s) 
(e.g., budget and personnel alignment) to achieve a high level of 
online booking service use by December 31, 2003. Such plan(s) will 
prepare agencies for implementation of the eTravel service, which is 
part of the President's Management Agenda, and is expected to be 
available by December 2003.
    2. Background. The eTravel initiative was born out of the 
governmentside task force known as Quick Silver that was established 
to address performance gaps in existing Government systems as they 
relate to E-Government, a key component of the President's 
Management Agenda. The use of an online booking service is an 
interim stage in the progress toward an integrated self-service 
travel environment.
    3. eTravel Online Booking Service Objective. The objective of an 
eTravel online booking service is to provide agencies with a Web-
based, online booking service that implements a self-service travel 
booking capability that will eventually become part of the 
governmentwide eTravel initiative. An online booking service will 
allow employees to arrange their own air, hotel, and car rental 
reservations. Providing an online booking service is the initial 
phase of reengineering the entire travel process to realize 
significant cost savings to the government, to improve employees' 
productivity, and to provide a unified, simplified official travel 
process.
    4. Government Interest. The interim use of an outline booking 
service is in the best interest of the Federal government because:
    a. It supports the President's Management Agenda for the 
expanded use of electronic government;
    b. It will improve internal effectiveness and efficiency;
    c. It will provide employees with greater flexibility in 
arranging official travel;
    d. FedTrip works with all global distribution systems (GDS) that 
are currently in use by the government's contracted travel 
management centers (TMCs), and should be agencies' first choice for 
online booking;
    e. Best practices have shown that significant benefits are 
optimized when 60% or greater use rates per agency of an online 
booking service are achieve; and
    f. I will produce significant savings and reduce fees paid by 
the Government.
    5. Agency Planning. Under the governmentwide eTravel initiative, 
agencies will be required to use the governmentwide end-to-end, Web-
based travel management service for travel preparations, 
authorizations and reservations, and payment of vouchers. Agencies 
should adopt FedTrip as their first-choice interim online booking 
service (unless another online booking service has already been 
deployed) until the governmentwide, Web-based end-to-end travel 
management service is available. Agencies are cautioned against 
investment in new systems that will be agency-specific and non-
transferable to the eTravel service. Additionally, the following 
measures should be taken to implement an online booking service;
    a. Agencies should evaluate their current arrangements for 
obtaining travel services in order to determine how best to 
incorporate an online booking service.
    b. Each agency is requested to submit a report by December 31, 
2003 to the point of contact in paragraph 6 on actions it has taken 
as of that date to achieve high-level usage of an online booking 
service for travel. This report should also describe the agency's 
plans to expand its usage of an online booking service for all of 
the agency's travel within the subsequent 12 months.
    c. Agencies are also requested to provide monthly reports on the 
number and dollar volume of tickets issued, as well as fees paid for 
online self-service bookings versus full service transaction. 
Agencies will benefit from this data enabling them to better manage 
cost/savings benefits and determining appropriate rate of transfer 
from a high cost full-service transaction to a lower cost self-
service transaction. This information is customarily available from 
agency TMCs and online booking engine providers. Reports should be 
submitted within 10 working days after the end of each month to the 
point of contact in paragraph 6. Agencies are strongly encouraged to 
use these reports to manage internal savings and monitor their 
adoption rate of self-service bookings.
    d. Agencies should appoint and empower a manager to ensure that 
desired use rates for an online booking system are achieved.

[[Page 13711]]

    6. Point of Contact. Tim Burke, Director, Travel Management 
Policy Division (MTT), Office of Governmentwide Policy, General 
Services Administration, Washington, DC 20405; telephone 703-872-
8611; e-mail, [email protected].
    7. Expiration Date. This bulletin expires when the new eTravel 
services is fully implemented within your agency.

[FR Doc. 03-6662 Filed 3-19-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6820-24-M