Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      Cost-saving travel initiative projected to save $5M annuallyPublished May 17, 2019
                    
                    
                    Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center Public Affairs
            **JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas (AFNS) --**A new travel payment process for pipeline students, initiated by the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, is projected to save the Air Force $5 million a year.
The new process - switching which billing account is charged for travel – is a small change yielding tremendous benefits, said Darryl Hamilton, AFIMSC’s Installation Support Directorate, traffic management chief.
“We are basically switching from one card to another: a centrally billed account card to a unit card. The only difference is what card the travel management company charges when student travel is booked. It’s that simple,” he said.
When the Air Force pays for pipeline student travel with a government-issued, centrally billed account travel card, the charges include a transaction fee of nearly $67 for each student. With 30,000 to 40,000 Airmen completing basic military training and transitioning into Air Education and Training Command technical schools every year, those fees add up.
“The transaction fees assessed by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service cost the Air Force millions of dollars each year,” Hamilton said.
To save the Air Force money by reducing the number of high transaction fees, the AFIMSC Installation Support Directorate’s traffic management branch recently began focusing on driving down the number of travelers using a centrally billed account. The branch first worked with the Logistics Readiness Division of the Air Force Directorate of Logistics and the Air Force Financial Management and Comptroller Office to influence a Department of Defense policy requiring all DoD employees to use their individual travel card for official travel.
Next, because pipeline students don’t have individual government travel cards, AFIMSC began testing unit card use for their official travel in 2018.
“We’re constantly looking for ways to save the government money and make processes more efficient,” Hamilton said.
Using a unit card is nothing new. It allows transportation officers to consolidate all students with the same line of accounting to one transaction fee, but they have never been used for this purpose, said Gina Hoover, AFIMSC traffic management specialist.
“For years, different organizations – including the Air Force Band, sports teams and units with unique group travel requirements – have used a unit card to procure transportation services, but it’s never been tested on a large scale such as moving BMT graduates to technical school and technical school students to their first duty stations,” she explained.
The Air Force started testing the new process at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, in October 2018. The second phase launched April 1 at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. So far, the concept has already saved the Air Force more than $100,000, Hamilton said.
In addition to the obvious cost benefit, the reconciliation process is now a lot more streamlined and efficient, said Andrew Burton, passenger travel manager at Keesler AFB.
“We found, on the user level, the reconciliation of payment has dropped from several days to minutes,” he said.
For the AFIMSC team, the benefits of finding and implementing cost-savings extend beyond efficient travel management.
“Think of the money that can be repurposed to support more mission requirements and our warfighters,” Hoover said.
The new process is expected to be in place at all AETC locations by September.AFWN 



Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center 



AFIMSC 



travel payment 



process 



pipeline 



students 



traffic management 



chief 



unit card 



Defense Finance 



accounting service 



financial management 



Comptroller Office 



Logistics Readiness Division 



JB San Antonio-Lackland 



Air Education and Training Command 



AETC 



joint base 



AF 



Air Force Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                SecAF, CSAF, CMSAF begin Indo-Pacific trip focused on ACE
                    
                    DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fightInnovation
                F-16s arrive to be modified for autonomous testing
                    
                    AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalistsMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil