Consultants' Monday-out, Thursday-back: standing airport cars from Toronto

The consultant's week, in one paragraph

Consulting is the trade's most regular customer: the firm's economics are built on consultants at client sites four days a week, the client sites are often in other cities, and the consultant's time is billed to the client by the hour — which makes the airport run a weekly fixture, the car's cost a rebillable disbursement, and the consultant's ninety minutes on the Gardiner either lost or billed. Toronto's consultancies — the global strategy firms on Bay Street, the technology and implementation firms on King West and in the Financial District, the Big Four's advisory practices in their towers — book accordingly, and their patterns are the standing order, the project code and the honest use of the UP Express when it fits. This article describes the consultant's week as we see it: the Monday morning and the Thursday evening, the standing order that holds them, the client-site runs by district, the team and the partner, the project-coded statement and rebilling, the UP Express and Billy Bishop honesty, the peaks, the account, and a worked week for one project team.

Monday morning: the departure

The consultant's Monday begins at 5 or 6 a.m. with a car to Pearson for a 7 or 8 o'clock flight to Calgary, Vancouver, Chicago or Dallas — the red-eye article covers the overnight roster that serves it — or to Billy Bishop for Porter's 7 a.m. to Montreal or Ottawa, fifteen minutes from a King West condominium. On a standing order the pickup is the same time every Monday, the chauffeur the same, the flight number texted on Sunday evening (the firm's travel desk or the consultant sends it), and the terminal derived from it. A firm with forty consultants flying on Monday morning has forty standing orders on its account, and dispatch rosters the fleet for them.

Thursday evening: the return

The Thursday return lands between 5 and 9 p.m. into Pearson's evening bank or Billy Bishop's 6 p.m. cluster, and the standing order's chauffeur is at Door A or Eireann Quay on the text, with the flight tracked so that a delayed Calgary flight moves the pickup and a consultant who missed a connection texts the new number; the flight delays article covers it. The Thursday evening is the fleet's second-tightest window after the 4 a.m. one, and the standing orders are what fill it in advance.

The client-site runs

Toronto-based teams travel to client sites daily: the Financial District's banks and insurers (the executive car service article's lay-bys), the 905's head offices — the pharmaceutical companies of Mississauga's airport corridor, the auto and manufacturing companies of Oakville and Oshawa, the technology companies of Markham's 404 corridor, the telecoms of Brampton — with the 407 approved on the account (the 407 article), and the Waterloo corridor's tech clients (the Kitchener–Waterloo article). A team of four to the same client site is a Sprinter or an SUV rather than four sedans; a partner to a client's boardroom is a premium sedan.

The team Sprinter and the partner's sedan

A project team travelling together — four to eight consultants to a client site in Markham every morning for six weeks, or to Pearson for the same Monday flight — is a Sprinter on a standing order, at a fare divided by the team that undercuts four sedans and puts the team in one vehicle with laptops open; the group transfers article covers the airport version. A partner's travel — the client pitch, the steering committee, the airport — is the premium sedan, the Mercedes S-Class article's vehicle, and the executive assistants' guide describes how a partner's assistant books it.

The project-coded statement and rebilling

Every trip on the firm's corporate account carries a project code — the client engagement, or the firm's overhead code for non-billable travel — and the monthly statement subtotals by project so that the client-rebillable disbursements are ready for the engagement's invoice, with HST as its own column for the firm's input tax credit; the corporate account billing article shows it, and the firm's finance team imports the CSV into its engagement-accounting system. A client who audits disbursements sees the trip's date, route and consultant against the project, and the expense reports article covers the rare individual receipt.

The UP Express, honestly

A consultant alone with a carry-on landing at Terminal 1 at 6 p.m. bound for a Financial District condominium takes the UP Express — 25 minutes, $12 — and we say so; the UP Express comparison and the limo for one passenger article work the arithmetic, and a firm's travel policy that says "UP Express for the solo carry-on between 6 a.m. and midnight to Union" is a policy we agree with. The car is for the 5 a.m. departure, the Thursday arrival with luggage, the team, the partner, the client site in the 905 and the days the train does not fit; the corporate travel policy article has the clause.

Billy Bishop for Montreal, Ottawa and New York

Firms with Montreal, Ottawa and New York offices send their consultants from Billy Bishop — fifteen minutes from the Bay Street or King West office, Porter's frequency, an hour saved each way — and the standing orders for those routes are Eireann Quay pickups; the Pearson vs Billy Bishop comparison explains and the Billy Bishop guide covers the pickup. The Montreal office's consultants arriving in Toronto are the reverse.

The peaks: when every consultant flies at once

The Monday after a long weekend (Family Day, Easter, Victoria Day, Canada Day, the Civic holiday, Labour Day, Thanksgiving) and the Thursday before it are the consulting calendar's peaks — the whole sector on the same flights — and the fleet's 5 a.m. and 6 p.m. windows are committed by the standing orders and the accounts; a consultant who books a one-off for those days the week before is late, and the how early to book article and the long weekends article explain. The first Monday of a new project and the fiscal year's ends are the firms' own peaks.

The account's structure for a consultancy

The firm's account has the travel desk and the partners' assistants as bookers, every consultant as a traveller with a profile (home address, the front seat, the Monday standing order), the project codes as the account's cost centres, the 407 approved for the 905 client sites, the gratuity set, monthly invoicing, and the statement's CSV to the firm's systems; the corporate account billing article covers the setup and the duty of care article the reason the firm's risk team wants the chauffeurs' vetting on file for the people who carry its consultants at 5 a.m.

The new consultant and the relocating one

A new hire's first Monday is a standing order set up on their start date; a consultant relocating to Toronto from another office arrives with a family and the families with luggage article's booking; a consultant on a long engagement in another city has that city's car through the network's affiliate on the same account. The visiting clients itinerary article covers the client who visits the firm.

A worked week: one project team, one partner

Sunday 8 p.m.: the travel desk texts the week's flight numbers for six standing orders. Monday 5:10 a.m.: four consultants from the Annex, Leslieville, King West and Leaside to Terminal 1 for the 7:05 to Calgary — four sedans, four chauffeurs, all at Door A's departures curb by 5:50. Monday 6:20 a.m.: a Sprinter with a five-person Toronto team from a King West office to a Markham client site via the 407 (the 401 is red), the first of twenty mornings on a six-week engagement. Tuesday: the partner in a premium sedan from Rosedale to a Bay Street client pitch, then to Billy Bishop for the 1 p.m. to Montreal. Thursday 6:40 p.m.: the four Calgary consultants land; the tracking shows twenty minutes late; four chauffeurs at Door A at 7:15; home by 8. Friday: the partner met at Eireann Quay at 5:40 p.m. Twenty-six trips, one account, two project codes and the overhead code, the 407 on five trips at cost, and a statement the engagement accountant imported on the first of the month.

Consulting travel quick reference

Opening a firm's account

The corporate car service page opens the account with project coding; the standing orders article sets up the Monday and Thursday; the corporate travel policy article gives the policy section a firm's operations partner will want.

The operations partner's questions

An operations partner considering the firm's account asks four things, and the honest answers are these. Does the standing order really hold on the peak Mondays? Yes — a standing order is in the roster before the week's one-off bookings and is not displaced by them; the cars on the Monday after Labour Day go to the standing orders first. What happens when a consultant's client site changes for the week? The consultant or the travel desk texts the new address, and the standing order's chauffeur goes there; nothing is rebooked. Can the firm cap what a consultant can book? Yes — a booker's policy can limit vehicle class, restrict the 407, require a project code before the booking saves, and route anything outside policy to the travel desk for approval. Can the firm see utilisation? The monthly statement's CSV has every trip, and the dashboard shows the standing orders' fill rate and the one-off bookings by consultant; the corporate travel policy article suggests the policy language and the corporate account billing article the reporting.

The partner's client pickup

When a partner brings a client to Toronto — a CEO for a steering committee, a board for a strategy day at the firm's offices — the client's transport goes on the engagement's code with meet and greet and the client's name on the board, a premium sedan, the Toronto luxury hotels and the dinner the partner hosts; it is the visiting clients itinerary article's pattern on the firm's account and the firm's rebilling.

Fridays, and the week that ends early

Not every engagement is Monday-to-Thursday. Some clients want the team on site Friday; some consultants fly home Wednesday and work the last two days from Toronto; some firms have moved to a three-day travel week. The standing order flexes to any pattern — a Wednesday return is a standing order like any other, and a Friday morning departure to a client site in Waterloo is a Sprinter on the roster — and the travel desk changes the pattern by an email to dispatch rather than by rebooking. The recurring rides article explains the mechanics.

Set up the firm's standing orders