Managers Conference

The task is to research and choose travel arrangements and accommodations for a manager’s conference meeting. The date is the last Thursday and Friday of the next month, which makes it the 30th and 31st of January 2014. The address of where the conference is being held is:

ExCel LondonOne Western GatewayRoyal Victoria DockLondonE16 1XL

One of the things that are required of me to do is research the prices, times and practicalities of three transport methods for the conference. One of the methods is by using a car to get to London. I had to calculate the cost of petrol based on the miles per gallon consumed by two different types of car. The calculations that were done are based on the departure point at Swansea City centre. According to Google the distance is 190 miles.

Since petrol prices seem to vary depending on what petrol station you use, the calculations were based on the price of 130p (per litre), due to the average being 130.42 it was rounded down to 130 for simplicity. (See Image)

The calculations were done by first finding out how many litres there were per gallon. Using Google I find it to be 4.5. From there I had find out how many gallons would be consumed for the journey, so I divided the total mileage for the journey (190) by the MPG of both cars. After doing that I multiplied the total gallons consumed by the litres per gallon in order to figure out how many litres were used. From there the price was found out by multiplying the litres consumed by the price (£1.30). The resulting cost is displayed below.

Car Type Miles per

Gallon

Litres Consumed

Cost

5 door Ford Mondeo

42 20 £26

5 door 1.6 Peugeot 407 saloon

53 16 £21

All calculations were checked using a calculator. It should also be worth noting that the time it would take to drive from Swansea to London is approximately 3 hours. This timing was calculated using Google maps. All calculations were also rounded to the nearest whole number.

The other two transport methods that are needed to be researched that I have chosen are by train and by coach/bus. Both methods of transport will be put in a table below in order to compare the two of them. The prices will reflect how much it costs for a return trip. The departure time for both the coach/bus and the train will be on Wednesday, the day before the conference. This is to prevent the manager from arriving late to the conference as it starts early on the Thursday. They also depart on the Saturday so the manager does not miss his transport if the conference runs late into the day on the Friday.

Method Travel Time PriceTrain 3 hours £52Coach/Bus 4 hours 36 minutes £11

By Coach/Bus - Link to website

These are the most suitable times for travelling.

By Train - Link to website

Hotel Accommodation

Another requirement was the researching of prices for 3 alternative choices for accommodation for the conference. All 3 of the choices are as close to the address of the conference as possible. This and also the price of the stay will factor into which one is recommended to the manager.

Accommodation Distance from conference PriceHoliday Inn Express London Greenwich 4.1 Miles £224.00Crowne Plaza London Docklands 0.2 miles £406.00Radisson Blu Edwardian New Providence Wharf 1.7 Miles £711.20

Hotel 1 - Link to hotel

Hotel 2 - Link to hotel

Hotel 3 – Link to hotel

The price of a day’s travel pass in the Underground was also researched. This is to cover the two days that the conference is on for. For a pass for all of the ‘zones’ in the underground for a single day it is £20.40. So for both of the days then it will £40.80, that is of course for all of the underground.

Link to website

Expenses /Allowance

Expenses CostsCoach/Bus Ticket £11Accommodation £224Underground Day Pass (4 days) £82Allowance/ Expenses £400Total Cost £717

This table represents each of the individual costs of the trip to London, and also includes the total cost for the entire trip. It covers all four days for when the manager is in London.

2%

31%

11%

56%

Costs

Coach/Bus TicketAccommodationUnderground Day Pass (4 days)Allowance/ Expenses

The pie chart above shows what percent of the total amount each of the expenses take up. In order to work out the percentages the costs of each expense were divided by the total cost, and then multiplied by 100. They were also then rounded to a whole number to make things simpler.

Conclusion

The choices that will be given to the manager are as follows:

For the transport to London from Swansea the choice will be that the manager should go up by coach/bus. This is because while it may be the longest of all three options it is the cheapest. So in order to save on money the going to London by bus option is the best to go with. Having the bus leave the day before also negates the risk of the manager missing out on any of the conference.

The second choice to make is for the accommodation that the manager will be staying at for the conference. The choice that will be given to the manager is the Holiday Inn Express London Greenwich. The reason for this is because it is the cheapest by just under £200. While it is however the choice that is the furthest away from the venue of the conference the days pass for the underground makes travelling to the venue rather easy. The other two seem too expensive, even though one of them is within walking distance to the venue.

In order to help with making the decision on which transport method to choose a survey was done. I asked the staff and learners which method of transport they would rather use to get to London: bus, train, or car. The results of the survey are shown below. The train was chosen by the majority as the method they would use. I would also personally prefer the train, but wouldn’t mind taking a bus to London either.

I put the results into a chart in order to get a better idea of the results of the survey.

Bus Train Car0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1

7

3

1

54

2

12

7

LearnersStaffTotal