Mind the gap: Bridging the experience-efficiency disconnect in UK business travel

Uniting employee expectations and company priorities for the journey ahead.

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Before we set off

Ground travel is the backbone of almost every work trip, and in the UK, there’s a huge opportunity to improve it. While flights and hotels are tightly governed, everyday journeys are often a patchwork of choices and processes.

For employees, that patchwork can feel like freedom until they’re not sure which option is in policy or how much they’re allowed to spend.

For travel and finance teams, it’s the opposite: responsibility without visibility. They’re expected to keep people safe, protect budgets and align every journey with policy, but without the unified data or tools to do it confidently.

This is the experience–efficiency disconnect at the heart of modern-day UK business travel: employees navigating a landscape of options, while managers try to streamline processes behind the scenes.

But, we’re at a turning point. The gaps highlighted in this report show that ground travel is ready for transformation. With the right strategy, organisations can build a programme where freedom and productivity move in sync.

This interactive report brings together the voices of UK employees, frequent travellers and decision makers to reveal what’s really happening on the ground, and what to do next.

Let’s get moving.

Research programme: Who we heard from

This report is based on a focused research programme conducted in 2025 to understand how UK organisations design, manage and experience ground travel, from policy on paper to what actually happens on the road.

Behind every chart in this report are thousands of journeys, receipts and decisions from across the UK. Expand the sections below to see who we spoke to.

Travel headwinds

UK business travel is advancing, though ground travel remains an area for growth. As our 2025 research shows, today’s business travel experience is characterised by three main challenges, each one an opportunity to enhance the ground travel experience for both employees and managers.

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Experience vs efficiency

The employee take

62%

of employees say short wait times are a top-three priority.

31%

(49% C-level) place comfort in their top three.

82%

say comfort helps ward off fatigue.

The manager take

78%

of managers put cost savings at the top.

56%

name sustainability as a top priority.

22%

say ‘ease of use for employees’ is a priority.

Freedom vs friction

The employee take

72%

of employees want easier switching between personal and business accounts.

47%

still do expenses manually, averaging 40 minutes a month.

63%

want expenses done in ≤15 minutes.

The manager take

49%

of rides are still booked on personal accounts.

59%

of decision-makers experience ‘receipt chaos’.

54%

struggle with spend tracking (54%) and fraud prevention (21%).

Sustainability intent vs action

The employee take

65%

of employees want more sustainable options (77% C-level).

54%

want carbon tracking.

The manager take

54%

of managers now track ground travel emissions.

7%

of actual bookings prioritise more sustainable vehicles.

The road ahead

Inefficiencies in ground travel still affect both travellers and programme leaders, but there are modern-day solutions that can help organisations move faster and more effectively.

In the following chapters, we’ll explore the challenges in-depth, and map out a smarter route forward.

Key definitions

The state of UK business travel

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