Empty Seats and Heavy Feet: Stopping the logistical leaks that drain your cash

Every unnecessary kilometre driven is pure profit disappearing from your balance sheet. In this episode, Samantha Smits connects carbon footprints directly to your cash flow to prove that operating efficiently is the original form of sustainability. Drawing on practical backend realities, including insights from a tour operator logistics manager and a flight routing exception case study from a destination management company in Botswana, you will learn how to transition from reactive to proactive maintenance. Discover how to manage high-season freelance driver behaviour, implement smart minimum-stay itineraries, and track actual litres instead of unpredictable bills that change all the time to turn your fuel logs into powerful business intelligence. 

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Taking sustainability seriously and bringing sustainability for your tourism business actually helps you to better manage your business, run your business better, because being more efficient is also going to make you more successful. Hi, I'm Samantha Smits and welcome back to the Sustainability Edge, the tourism podcast. No Yargon, no fluff. We're breaking down sustainability and especially how to turn sustainability in a practical tool that gives you more profit, more time, stuff that's staying in a business you can be proud of. Let's get started. Hello, hello, and welcome back again. Today I want to dive deeper into this thing that I say all the time about sustainability is about being efficient, and being inefficient is hurting your pocket money. And I mean, I've even asked you before to consider looking in your bins as an official audit. And I've also mentioned before about the importance of tracking, which I'll mention again. But what does this all mean, this whole efficient inefficiency thing? And I'm also wanting to look at a little bit more specific about the call fuel some fuel examples in here, so empty seats and F-feat. And they are just draining your bank accounts, hear me out over here. So to get right into it, fuel. Because a lot of vehicles are often used, and I'm at the moment not talking about the kerosene and the airplanes and everything, I'm not talking about underground transport, so actually vehicles, cars. If you are not tracking fuel use, and I mean like I said before, beyond just tracking the bills, because one month you spend this much, the other month you spend that much, but the actual amount of liters that are used, you are running that part of the business with the blindfold on. Because and this is also an interesting concept. I want I think it's a little bit of a greenwashing term, but like eco-driving or driving more responsibly has a huge effect actually on yeah, basically your monthly bills. I've seen it in businesses where I mean, especially when you work with so many freelancers, which is so hard to manage, that when there is a badly planned route, or the ones that excessively speed or keep the root the engine running and so forth, they are more costly in terms of the fuel they use than the others that are doing this with more consideration. And I've actually discussed this with my partner before. My partner in life is a logistic manager for a tooperator, and he also discussed to me that for him it's very easy to see when something is indeed wrong because those costs indeed go up, they do track this, and I've indeed wondered before, because I know that for some certification schemes, and I think this is very valuable, that it is necessary to have a code of conduct with your drivers about their behavior on the road, how they drive, off-roading, and all of it. But that I was wondering myself out loud, how can you even manage this when you're not in the field all the time? Of course, I mean, you see, quite if I we take the example of safari parks, there's very often some stickers behind with how am I driving, and then there's a number that people can call. But if no one calls with a complaint, if nothing is reported, then how do you know what is happening in the field? And heck, like my partner really said, he can just know it from the sheets and from the bills, and then he can see hey, something happened there, and then knowing what freelancer was booked and what itinerary was accommodated with it, they can backtrack this pretty fast, which I found so interesting. And here again, it's also this point with maintenance that a lot do preventative. Actually, you see quite often some do reactive maintenance, which I mean you get a problem, you solve it, you continue. Basically happens often, right? Where others focus on proactive maintenance, they actually maintain vehicles to ensure that those problems do not occur, and then actually you'll have less problems, less cost, and less emissions, and just less of all the bad things by being proactive about these matters. So, how does this all again go back to the key of sustainability links to efficiency and being efficient with your business? Because basically being inefficient means that you are not able to get the result you want, the outcome you want, and at the same time you're wasting resources. So basically, you have an expensive method and not even reaching your goal. That is what it means to be inefficient. So when you are efficient, the method to reach something is not as costly as the other of alternative, but you actually reach your goal because you use less resources, less manpower, just less is involved to reach the goal that you want. That means you are being efficient, because inefficiency always comes with waste, and waste is not sustainable. That is why it's so closely interlinked. And the whole sustainability logic just becomes a professional framework to stop any logistical leaks and to be more efficient, stop wasting because all that waste that we say is not sustainable, whether it's a resource, also waste your money. So whether you care about thrashing a place or more about your pocket, any case it's bad news. So circling back to what I mentioned earlier about a rushed or poorly planned itinerary, which is what is happening very often, they are bad for the guest experience, also not so good for your return on investment, because all those extra miles, first of all, we're down in the vehicle obviously, extra hours, and sitting in the car all the time is also exhausting. There's less you can see less, you can experience less, which again, all of that is bad for the experience while it only costs you more, just making it wasteful. When there's less driving, it is also less expensive for you, but also more time for fun and memorable moments for actual the guests. So stay longer, drive less, which is the same that people are saying about flights, right? That even if you want to go to a beautiful destination that's far away, stay longer. It is just, I mean, this is a personal pet beef, which is very obvious since I'm sustainability consultant, that people just can't there are these accounts that are popular, that you fly away very far and that you like max it, that you are like 24 hours at the destination, that you don't even need an accommodation, and that you fly out again. Which is crazy. If you fly very far, first of all, the destination deserves more time, the people deserve more time. You cannot experience a beautiful destination 24 hours, absolutely impossible. Except if it is in your own country and you can reach to like an hour or something, but otherwise, no. When you have to fly somewhere, it's absolutely no. So there people are already saying stay longer, fly less. If you fly long, you have to stay longer. There are already operators out there that are, I believe, I can this would be better places, which is a Dutch operator leading in sustainable tourism, but also the Age of Devanios, they have a minimum amount of stay per specific destinations. So if you want to go, when you are, for example, flying from Europe and you want to go out of the continent, they have a minimum amount of days that you have to stay in such a specific continent to truly honor the destination and in short also fly less. So it's very underestimated and underrated, but optimizing routing is also helping you with the bills, being more efficient, the vehicle's lifespan, and so many more things. So, as with all the other elements that I've taught you before that I highly recommend to track, here too, starting to track the actual fuel used, not the fuel paid, not the amount of money you pay, but the amount of liters that are used, it is business intelligence. It is again what I keep saying, something you could tweak as if you're playing Sims or a board game, something that you could play with. If you do this routing, how will it change this? And when you reduce what you waste, I can guarantee you you see a direct increase in your profit. You can challenge me on this. Reach out to me. But reducing of waste is increase in profit. Efficiency is a said before, directional sustainability. Because being efficient means you do not have I mean, you you do not have much waste, the least amount of waste is possible. This is a task that can just be built in the job function of a logistic manager, for example, or whoever is working uh with the guides, the chauffeurs, or whatever. And even if you are an agent, this is also something interesting for you to know. Because again, it all relates to the claims you are making if you are an agent in the European Union with this upcoming directive and all the legal claim verifications. Because again, is it through what's being said? If you claim that you are sustainable, it could be all the way picked down to routing and vehicle decisions. And you even see this also in several certification schemes where they ask you what destinations do they do you select and how are they accessible. And of course, accessibility could be a whole different episode in concerns of people that are log are challenged in accessibility, for so they might have a handicap, whether mentally or physically, but also accessible in terms of sustainable means of transport. And I'm almost literally quoting something out of chapter 9 of the TREF Life for Two Operators Report. But this just makes me think of an example. One of my clients that was providing extra consultancy is a DMC in Botswana, and they were explaining that there are some destinations in Botswana because of the Delta that they're just impossible to reach by road, no matter how much they would want to. I mean, technically you could uh put your clients in the boat and go all the way there, but that unfortunately there are some destinations that can only be reached by air, which was a prime example of some of the ex exceptions that apply to such a criterion, and that they would explain everything can be done by road, and we do this as least as possible, but unfortunately in this case, so and so. So, this is again a prime example of even as an agent that you are carefully reviewing what you offer. So, all of this circles back to that taking sustainability seriously, embracing sustainability for your tourism business, actually helps you to better manage your business, run your business better, because being more efficient is also going to make you more successful. And that is what most businesses are looking forward to. And that while you embrace sustainability, you also benefit the destination, the community, and nature, and all around it, just makes a win for everyone. So the next time someone is asking you about your fuel use or the concept of hikodriving, or just in general, this whole uh the hill bigger issue in tourism, looking deeper into the behavior of your freelancers as they represent you, even though you have so many that represent you in the highest season that you barely even know, and you just need them for your capacity, it is going to make uh the night difference for your business. It is a one of the best cost reduction strategies and a very most sustainable choice as a sustainable one that you do need them, but do provide them with a policy, do look into it better. If I now just said a lot of new things to you and you're like, wow, never thought about it before, or you're looking to challenge me somewhere, or how to get how on earth get started with this, or I'm not sure if it applies to my business, how to do this. All of these thoughts and questions you have, throw them at me. Find me on LinkedIn, book a call with me. All of this is in the show notes. I would be happy to talk to you about your psychic situation, see how we can get on with it. And yeah, basically that's it. Let me know. And until next time, ready to find this hidden profit I've coined before? Go for it. Alright, see you. Thank you for listening, and congratulations on investing your time today to think strategically about your future, to make sure you never miss a step to understand sustainability better, how to grow your competitive edge. Follow the podcast right now, and if this was helpful, please leave a five star rating. It will help other people like you to find these tools. I'm Samantha Smith, and I'll see you in the next episode.