Necessity Breeds Inventive Travel Solutions for R.I. Businesses
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON – It was just too soon. Three weeks had passed since terrorists hijacked two cross-country flights out of Logan Airport in Boston and used them to ram into the World Trade Center in New York. Pat Talin, vice president for Amica Insurance in Lincoln, was scheduled to make a routine visit to one of the company’s branch offices on Oct. 1, but the date and the place were still too close for comfort.
“I had a ticket to Denver out of Logan, so I said, ‘ooh, I think I’ll wait,’” Talin said. “Now it’s at the end of October. I’m not looking forward to getting on that plane, but I’ll do it.”
Officially the country is still on high alert after the Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S. counterstrike on Oct. 7, but Rhode Island companies and their employees are warily feeling out ways to return to normal business, especially in terms of travel. Most companies are reluctant to push or even encourage their employees to travel while new terrorist attacks are expected, and many have come to no cohesive policy for conducting long-distance business.
Wayne Charness, vice president for corporate communications for Hasbro in Providence, said the company is concentrating on security as a first concern. “We can use audio conferencing,” Charness said. “We’ve reminded our employees to ask themselves, ‘Is it this important to be there?’”
Even Textron, producer of Cessna’s Citation business jets, has been asking its employees to limit their travel to essential meetings. Sue Bishop, spokeswoman for Textron, said employees are using more cars and trains for shorter trips.
“We just upgraded the video conferencing equipment before this happened – I think it’s ready now – and so we’ve had more Web meetings, video or telephone conferences,” Bishop said.
Talin said before the attacks, people from different offices regularly made the rounds of the company’s 41 branches nationwide, sharing ideas and checking on operations. “I would visit four or five branches a year,” Talin said. “There were always people going out. Before this, air was our main way of transport.”
That has changed during the past month. Non-essential meetings were rescheduled; even a big management conference scheduled for San Antonio this week was called off. The company has used audio and video conferences to replace some of their scheduled meetings, and Talin said employees who must travel can ask for alternative, “overland” travel on a case-by-case basis.
“I don’t think we expected anyone to fly just after Sept. 11,” Talin said. “Everyone is shaken in confidence in air travel security; people are really nervous.”
Textron employees have a bit more confidence in many of their corporate flights. Through Cessna and Bell Helicopters, Textron has several jets and small planes for company use, though Bishop said those are used primarily for executives and large groups. “We have a lot of airplanes, and they were always at pretty full capacity; now it’s even more so,” Bishop said.
Bishop said having company planes does give her and other employees a sense of security. “It’s better,” she said. “You know everyone on the plane, and you know who’s flying it.”
Other companies are looking for that sort of security, too. Bishop said Textron’s program to sell time-share-style ownership of planes has picked up since the attacks and the subsequent reduced plane routes and tighter security. “It’s a very long sales process,” Bishop said, “but we’ve received a lot of inquiries about the fractional shares process in the past few weeks.”
Charness said Hasbro has no corporate jet, but the company does hire its own private planes and pilots for some trips. Margaret Monroe, Amica spokeswoman, said the company used to have an executive jet, but got rid of it long before Sept. 11. Neither knew whether their companies would buy shares in a company jet.
“I think we’re all playing it by ear,” Talin said. “It’s going to be a few months before you can come up with any kind of permanent policy on this sort of thing.”
Todd Andrews, spokesman for CVS pharmacy stores, said the company would keep any future travel policies secret for security.
Many companies are simply telling their employees to use common sense and travel only when and how they feel comfortable, Monroe said.
And when it is practical, added Charness. He took Amtrak to a meeting in New York this week, but said it wasn’t because he was unnerved by flying. “I just didn’t want to deal with traffic,” he said.
