Sometimes, travel is necessary for your job – especially if you work in sales, or are an executive of a national company with a number of different locations. While travel costs can add up quickly, there are some easy ways to cut back on travel costs, whether you’re just driving to a nearby city for the day or flying a couple of provinces away for a week.

  1. Car Pool. Whether it’s the full distance to a meeting, or only part of the drive to the meeting, car pooling can cut back on the gas costs.
  2. Drive the Speed Limit. As tempting as it can be to speed your way down the highway, it’s more efficient on gas to drive the speed limit – when gas is as expensive as it has been the past few years, the more gas-efficient our driving is, the less often we actually have to buy gas.
  3. Bring a thermos or travel mug of coffee or tea instead of stopping at Timmies or Starbucks. Coffee or tea doesn’t take long to make in the morning – especially if you have a percolator with a timer. You can even get travel mugs that plug into the power adapter in your car to keep your coffee warm during your traveling.
  4. Videoconferencing or conference calls. One easy way to cut down on costs when you are on the road is to cut out the traveling altogether. If possible, meet with your clients over the phone or through videoconferencing.
  5. Schedule meetings in the same area for the same day. If you have a few clients on the other side of the country and are planning on going out to meet with one of them, why not meet with all of them? It will save having to travel back out to that area of the country at another separate point in time.
  6. Book flights in advance. Flights are usually cheaper if you book them about 3 weeks before your travel date. (Of course, they are cheapest if you try to get one last minute and are on standby, but you’re not guaranteed a seat.)
  7. Cut unnecessary hotel costs. Room service is extremely expensive, as is anything from the minibar. When possible, go somewhere a little more friendly on the pocketbook.
  8. Check out the web for hotel pricing. You can sometimes get discounts through a hotel’s website. As well, this is a quick and easy way to compare pricing between a number of different hotels in the same area and will help you choose the best priced hotel for what you require.
  9. Get a good phone plan. If you’re constantly on the road and having to make phone calls back home or to the office, make sure that you have a good phone plan for long distance minutes. One possibility is to use Skype for your long distance phone calls.
  10. If you need to rent a car, don’t rent one at the airport. Usually these cars cost more to rent – consider an off-airport location.