Most people prob­ably asso­ciate busi­ness travel with “real” people trav­eling to “real” places on busi­ness. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, tradi­tional busi­ness travel has been increas­ingly replaced by virtual busi­ness trips.

The fact is, though, that new tech­nolo­gies often simply cannot replace being phys­i­cally present on site. That’s why tradi­tional busi­ness trips at home or abroad are still “alive and kicking”.

General COVID-19 travel warn­ings and busi­ness travel

Travel and safety warn­ings for specific coun­tries have been in effect since October 1, 2020. The German Robert Koch Insti­tute (RKI) also provides updates on rele­vant travel infor­ma­tion.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the German Foreign Office continues to warn against non-essen­tial tourist travel to numerous coun­tries. However, some offi­cial trips are still neces­sary and are there­fore permitted.

 

 

Busi­ness travel since the COVID-19 outbreak: colleagues from Uhlmann Pac-Systeme share their stories

 

Marcus Gehring embarked on the China busi­ness trip adven­ture under corona condi­tions in October and November 2020

Trav­eling to China during the COVID-19 pandemic first entails a lot of discus­sion – and it already starts in Germany where you have to fill out the health QR code form.

In my case, it all worked out, but, to my surprise, the code remained red! Maybe it was because we did the test at the airport test center rather than at Cento­gene. “You’re barred from entry”, “You’re free to proceed”, “You’re barred from…….”, and then, as soon as the next “You’re free to proceed” appeared, I quickly scanned the ticket and crossed the cordon to board the plane. “STOP! You’re not allowed in” – “Oh yes I am, your colleague said so”, I replied, quickly disap­pearing up the stairs. And here I was at last, sitting on my plane in Germany waiting to take off for China.

During the flight, you’re checked for fever, but other­wise every­thing is as per usual, that’s if you don’t count having to wear a mask non-stop for almost 12 hours – unless you need to eat or drink some­thing.

Once you arrive in China, everyone at the airport pretty much speaks fluent English, so commu­ni­ca­tion is not a problem. You have to go through the whole proce­dure – but that only goes in one direc­tion: So you want to choose a quar­an­tine hotel? Seri­ously? The next one with a free room is yours!

Then in the hotel, no one spoke English anymore. Fortu­nately, fellow trav­elers from Germany helped me fill out another online ques­tion­naire (in Chinese only) and show the QR code to the staff.

Finally, I was inside my room. Time to take a breath of fresh air and remove my mask. Actu­ally, it wasn’t quite as simple as that. All the windows were locked! Just as well I had brought along my multi­tool and was able to open them. A glance out the window told me that everyone knew about this tool. All the windows were open.

The first meal came: no knock on the door, no phone call, no infor­ma­tion at all. All of a sudden, I just found it waiting outside my door. This happened every day and with every meal. Break­fast was served from 7 a.m. or earlier, lunch was served at 10:30 a.m. at the latest, and dinner never arrived after 4 p.m. So you either got a hot brunch or cold lunch.

Full board in this hotel meant: You get food, but if you want some­thing to drink, you have to order it your­self. That’s not easy if the staff don’t speak English and you can’t speak Chinese (Fun Fact: Coke cans were only avail­able in a 48 pack). At some point, thanks to our subsidiary, I got hold of the hotel manager’s phone number and was able to order some bottled water.

After 14 days of “deten­tion” (including video surveil­lance and secu­rity personnel throughout the premises), every­thing was back to normal. With one excep­tion: there was no longer any need to wear a face mask – except in the subway. Freedom at last! I would like to take this oppor­tu­nity to say a big thank you to our subsidiary for supplying me with different tasting foods and cleaning uten­sils.

Would I do it again? Sure I would!

And I’ll tell you why. It’s because, even though being holed up in my hotel room was tedious and stren­uous, it certainly helped me improve my chop­stick skills! Our Shanghai colleagues did their best to provide us with every­thing we needed. Our customer was aware of our situ­a­tion and was most accom­mo­dating. For example, we were allowed to choose whether we wanted Chinese or “Western” food.

And to all my colleagues out there: I hope that your next trip will be an enjoy­able and safe one again!

 

Kai Kathan orga­nizes trips and makes sure our colleagues can travel safely – even under COVID condi­tions

I am respon­sible for orga­nizing busi­ness trips and ensuring trav­elers’ safety. This so-called Travel Risk Manage­ment, which has been in place at Uhlmann since 2019, includes services like the external Travel Risk Manager, an alarm ticker, the travel agency, the travel orga­ni­za­tion, or the 24/7 helpline. We are charged with ensuring that trav­elers enjoy maximum safety during their busi­ness trips.

In this context we always apply the regu­la­tions of the state of Baden-Würt­tem­berg or those of the desti­na­tion. Since these rules can change on a weekly basis, my biggest chal­lenge is to keep up to speed with them, and also to trans­late them into a language that everyone can under­stand.

During the first two months of the lock­down, we saw a drop in the number of trips for assembly assign­ments. From May onwards, we were back to normal. For the year as a whole, the figure was maybe 15% lower than in the previous year.

The number of trips for consulting purposes and busi­ness trans­ac­tions, on the other hand, really fell dramat­i­cally, showing a decline of around 90%. Never­the­less, as travel risk managers, we are just as busy as ever, because the job of orga­nizing trips has become much more complex, which means our work­load has gotten a whole lot bigger. 

Claudia Maier provides trav­elers with infor­ma­tion on every aspect of COVID-19

 At Uhlmann I am in charge of every­thing to do with coro­n­avirus. This involves working closely with the girls from the travel depart­ment, and with the external travel risk manager and the Corona task force.
My work includes issuing infor­ma­tion to trav­elers before and after completing their trips, working with external travel risk managers, and managing the hotline number.

This is the gateway for all coro­n­avirus inquiries, like general queries on how to deal with colleagues or infected indi­vid­uals, arranging appoint­ments for in-house testing which is now avail­able at Uhlmann or external testing, queries about trav­eling to and from different coun­tries, and about any short­ages of masks or self-tests. I also manage our corre­sponding e-mail address: coronavirus@uhlmann.de.

Our hotline is also the go-to place for employees who have concerns about upcoming trips.

Mean­while, I also orga­nize the large number of cases that fall under our company’s coro­n­avirus travel policy which I put together and pass on to the HR depart­ment.

These are not easy times at the moment and each indi­vidual is affected by the pandemic in very different ways, either privately or profes­sion­ally. But I think we can all be proud of the disci­plined approach and caring spirit we share within our Uhlmann commu­nity. 

 

Last year, Peter Aubele spent November thru December working on an assembly job in Mexico

Before we set off for Mexico, we received various infor­ma­tion, for example, from the external travel risk manager and our internal travel office, including hygiene regu­la­tions and on-site quar­an­tine require­ments. You obtain a lot of details at rela­tively short notice. Overall, travel prepa­ra­tions – including the return journey – have become more stressful. The actual trip itself, though, is less arduous: the airport and the plane were virtu­ally empty. On some of these trips, there’s only two of you sitting on the plane with the whole crew looking after you.

On arriving at our hotel in Mexico, there were a few precau­tions to observe. First of all, we had to take a COVID test and then imme­di­ately go into quar­an­tine for six days. After that, we had to take another test. At least we were allowed to walk around the hotel from time to time. Every time we came back to the hotel, our temper­a­ture was taken and a bottle of hand sani­tizer provided. Safety precau­tions were also observed during meals: The break­fast buffet was cancelled, but we were able to order food to our rooms.

In our customer’s plant, we had to dine in a sepa­rate room where we were sepa­rated by plex­i­glass walls and had to leave a chair’s space between us. And restric­tions did not just apply to meals. During work, apart from wearing face masks, we were also kept strictly isolated from people working on other projects. That felt really weird.

Following a coro­n­avirus inci­dent that occurred at the customer’s site, we had to take a COVID test at the doctor’s which fortu­nately came out nega­tive. Even so, our assembly job was still termi­nated ahead of time because the other contact persons on site had to self-isolate, and so there was no one around anymore. I, myself, had to take a total of six COVID tests, i.e., prior to depar­ture, on arriving at the hotel, on the last day of the quar­an­tine, on the first day working on site, and another one due to the COVID case at the customer’s plant, and, finally, on returning home to Laupheim.

I’ll be glad when the whole coro­n­avirus crisis is over. It’s not just the extra work before, during or after the trip. You also have very few leisure oppor­tu­ni­ties to compen­sate for a long working trip to a foreign country. In Mexico, like in Germany, bars and tourist attrac­tions were closed.

And then there are the restric­tions that affect your private life: Even if you don’t have to go into quar­an­tine after your assign­ment, there’s no guar­antee that you’re absolutely virus-free. That’s why I am partic­u­larly cautious at home, espe­cially when it comes to my grand­mother.

 

From September to December 2020, Nico Schuch was in Brazil working on a customer assign­ment

 Coro­n­avirus testing has made trav­eling so much more diffi­cult: To enter Brazil, you need a letter of invi­ta­tion from the customer, a transfer letter from Uhlmann for ‘special urgency’ cases (pharma), and a nega­tive COVID test.

On arriving in Brazil, I had to take a drive-thru COVID test for 50 euros, which was fairly easy (and getting self-tested was also pretty simple back then). Initially, the test result was posi­tive. I was then tested more frequently until it turned out that it was a false-posi­tive result, because in the final anti­body test there were no anti­bodies in my blood. Then I was faced with the next chal­lenge. For my return flight, I had to get a test done that was no older than 48 hours because it normally takes 72 hours to get the results.

Back in Germany, at the airport in Munich, I was tested again and then, thanks to an agree­ment with the city of Laupheim, I was able to leave the very next day with my nega­tive result.

What I really found frus­trating was having to sit around at home on my own waiting for the test results – that is anything but fun. In the end, though, complaining doesn’t get you anywhere – you just have to move on. 

 

Before the outbreak, Reiner Mann often visited our German customers to conduct consul­ta­tions, nego­ti­a­tions or busi­ness deals

I did not travel at all during the first lock­down phase, nor during the one we currently have. Customers only want to see “trav­elers” for really impor­tant assign­ments, like for repairs or instal­la­tions. Sales activ­i­ties are carried out exclu­sively via Teams and Zoom meet­ings, or by phone/email.

In the summer months, when the situ­a­tion was less crit­ical, I was trav­eling quite normally. The only thing I had to do was wear a mask and have my temper­a­ture checked at the customer’s site. 

 

Nicola Gius­tizieri has visited several coun­tries since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic

 I have always enjoyed trav­eling. But the virus put a stop to that. My colleagues, though, were still able to travel. And that really is so impor­tant because working at our customers’ sites is crit­ical to keeping the health­care machinery up and running and saving as many lives as possible.

You need a mask, a COVID test, and, after spending a few days in quar­an­tine, it’s time to get started.

Where there is shadow, there is always light. Safety measures, which are already very strin­gent in our area, have been ramped up to ensure that everyone can continue to work as safely as possible. High­ways and airplanes are partic­u­larly empty, and travel is decid­edly relaxed.

Thanks to the possi­bil­i­ties we have to digi­tally stream­line bureau­cratic processes and convert to using smart working methods and online meet­ings, we’ve clearly moved forward.

The customers we visit are aware of the sacri­fices we all make, and even if we can’t have our usual chat over a beer at the bar, we can always be sure of a big THANK YOU for the huge team effort.

 

In 2019, Adham Elash­mawy was in charge of customer service assign­ments, including jobs in Italy

 For us, as project managers, customer service trips have always been partic­u­larly chal­lenging. First, you have to find the right customer service engi­neer or tech­ni­cian, then you have to schedule the assign­ment with everyone involved and orga­nize the trip, be it by plane, car or train. And finally, you have to find hotels in the vicinity, etc. These chal­lenges, just like the number of COVID patients, have increased expo­nen­tially.

Thanks to a “Corona Task Force” specif­i­cally set up for this purpose, approval must now be obtained from the busi­ness unit before, say, a tech­ni­cian can be sent to Milan. Care must then be taken to ensure that this person ideally does not have a partner whose health might be endan­gered by the trip, etc.

Customers must also now declare whether they can guar­antee the safety of our employees and whether they will bear any addi­tional costs incurred as a result of the coro­n­avirus pandemic. All of this has to be put down in writing. The biggest problem, however, is the govern­ment rules and regu­la­tions, which are constantly changing.

I myself had to cancel a trip to Saudi Arabia just one day before I was sched­uled to leave because of the new regu­la­tions. These are the daily chal­lenges we project managers face every day. And it’s anything but fun. But our soft­ware engi­neers and elec­trical and mechan­ical engi­neers are extremely open-minded and flex­ible when it comes to trav­eling on busi­ness – even in these times. And that deserves a very special thanks!

In these coro­n­avirus times, I managed to get to Milan faster than I have ever done before. I did the check-in online and only had hand luggage with me, so I didn’t have to go through another check-in at the airport. The airport was empty and I got through secu­rity and arrived at the gate in less than 15 minutes. The plane took off on time and even touched down 20 minutes earlier than planned. From Erbach to Milan in just 4 hours by plane – a new record for me! 

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The bottom line: busi­ness trips are not holiday trips

These inter­views and personal reports show that trav­eling in COVID times has, indeed, changed quite a bit for our colleagues:

1. There have been fewer busi­ness trips (espe­cially trips for consulting purposes and busi­ness trans­ac­tions).
2. Constantly changing regu­la­tions, red tape and health risks has made the job of orga­nizing travel more compli­cated and demands metic­u­lous plan­ning.
3. Direct contact with colleagues or busi­ness part­ners during the trip is limited, as are oppor­tu­ni­ties for personal leisure and enter­tain­ment at the weekend or after work.

There is one thing, though, that hasn’t changed: the pretty effi­cient way our colleagues manage and master their travel routines. Many thanks to all travel plan­ning and support staff at home. And special thanks also to all our flex­ible and patient “globe­trot­ters” who enjoy trav­eling on busi­ness for Uhlmann and our customers – whether in the past, now, or in the future.

 

Thank you for trav­eling!