Commercial Travel
robert pufall
Cost of commercial travel
New York to Minneapolis round trip 2 adults
South west 422$
Northwest 648$
Delta 296$
Commercial building construction costs increased 4.9 percent over the
past year, according to Turner Construction Co.
During the fourth quarter, material and energy prices declined but
labor costs went up, causing construction costs to stay flat. That
caused the Turner Building Cost Index to remain the same as in the
third quarter.
The index is determined by several nationwide factors, including labor
rates, productivity, material prices and the competitive condition of
the marketplace.
There has been a global drop in steel, copper and aluminum prices,
declining energy prices and a slower pace of construction starts.
Competition for small-scale projects has gone up.
“The decline in commodity and material costs is largely being offset
by rising labor costs which is resulting in construction costs
remaining steady,” said Karl F. Almstead, vice president at Turner.
Turner has prepared the construction cost index for more than 80
years. It is used widely by the construction industry and federal and
state governments.
Based in New York City, Turner is the one of the biggest commercial
builders in the U.S. The company has an office in Albany, N.Y.
High fuel costs hurt charter, commercial fishing
Down here in the so-called "Sportfishing Capital of the World,"
there's a saying among anglers: Even during a depression, a man has
money for beer and fishing.
By BRIAN SKOLOFF
Associated Press Writer
ISLAMORADA, Fla. —
Down here in the so-called "Sportfishing Capital of the World,"
there's a saying among anglers: Even during a depression, a man has
money for beer and fishing.
Rising fuel costs and general economic malaise, however, are putting
that mantra to the test in the Florida Keys and elsewhere where
charter boat fishing brings in millions of dollars. Across the
country, boat captains are feeling the pinch in recreational and
commercial fishing.
As of Tuesday, the average cost for a gallon of diesel was near $4.80,
according to AAA. That's up from an average of about $2.90 a gallon a
year ago.
That means boat captains are having to raise prices or add hefty fuel
surcharges to fees that before this season were already around $800 to
$1,500 for a full day.
Some in the charter fishing industry estimate that business is off
anywhere from 20 to 90 percent because customers just can't afford the
added costs.
"Some guys are just sitting on the docks waiting for business and it
ain't happening," said Steve Leopold, president of the Islamorada
Charter Boat Association. "There's people who come down and don't even
ask the price of my charters. Then there's people who ... say, 'Wow,
can you cut me a break?' I say, 'If you bring your own fuel.'"
On a recent sunny afternoon at Whale Harbor Marina in the Florida
Keys, Chris Adams, 41, had just returned from a half-day charter trip.
"We probably would have spent the whole day out but it would have been
$400 more," Adams said. His half-day trip this year cost $800, about
what a full day on the water cost last year.
There's less money to spend on vacation, Adams said, when you also
factor in how much more it cost him just fill his own gas tank for the
drive. Adams has driven down from Connecticut for the past three
years, a round trip he said would cost him about $600 more this year
than it did last year.
Pensacola Charter Boat Association President Paul Redman said even the
cost of bait has gone up because of higher fuel costs.
Redman said he charged customers $1,200 for a recent six-hour trip on
the water but $500 for fuel, $100 for bait and tackle, and $100 for
his deckhand meant his profit was a mere $300. Five years ago, it
would have topped $800.
"It's just about not worth doing it anymore," Redman said.
The charter fishing fleet generated more than $1.1 billion in revenues
nationwide, including some related sales, in 2000, the latest figures
available, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Commercial and charter fishing industry representatives from around
the country plan to meet with members of Congress on Wednesday in
Washington, seeking some kind of financial relief to help offset
losses.
Some regions are suffering from a one-two punch of higher fuel prices
and the closure or shortening of seasons for popular fish species,
said Bob Zales, president of the National Association of Charter Boat
Operators.
In the Florida Panhandle along the Gulf of Mexico, anglers come from
across the country to fish for red snapper. But combined federal and
state limits have reduced the catch allowed per charter boat and
shortened the season.
Zales said he estimates that up to half the entire Gulf charter
fishing fleet from Texas to Florida could be out of business by
December.
On the West Coast, where the federal government has closed all sport
and commercial salmon fishing off California and most of Oregon due to
a population collapse, the result has been "absolutely devastating,"
said Captain William Smith, who runs the 40-foot Riptide out of Half
Moon Bay, Calif., just south of San Francisco.
Coupled with rising fuel costs, "I'm stupid to even stay in the
business," Smith said. "But even if I was to try to sell my boat,
nobody's buying.
"Profits?" he quipped. "I'm in the hole."
Smith has diversified his business, adding trips to scatter cremation
ashes and for whale watching, and has even had to pick up work as a
handyman.
The nation's commercial fishing fleet is also taking a hit as many
fisherman can't bring in enough added catch to keep profits ahead of
fuel costs, said Sean McKeon, president of the North Carolina
Fisheries Association.
The commercial fishing industry's catch was worth about $40 billion in
2006.
McKeon said that while Americans may not see less fish in their
grocery stores, they could begin seeing more imports, not to mention
jobs lost in the industry and the resulting economic impacts to
communities.
Adding to the problem is that many boats in the commercial and charter
sectors have been on the water for decades and are not fuel efficient.
A typical twin-engine charter fishing boat uses about 10 gallons of
diesel per hour. A pair of newer, more fuel-efficient engines can cost
more than $100,000.
In the commercial industry, trawlers, like shrimp boats that drag
nets, typically burn the most fuel. Captain Louis Stephenson, who
operates an 85-foot shrimp boat out of Galveston, Texas, said the
average trawler burns up to 25 gallons of diesel an hour.
Stephenson recently reduced his fuel consumption by modifying his
trawling device to produce less drag. He said he now burns about 16
gallons an hour.
Still, with fuel prices so high, "My boat's tied up and it's not going
anywhere this year," he said. "I can't even break even so there's no
sense in going out."
The cost to upgrade commercial boats with more fuel-efficient engines
far exceeds what the industry could make given the glut of imported
shrimp and higher diesel prices, Stephenson said.
Charles Adams, a marine economics specialist with the University of
Florida, said that since early this year, profits in the shrimp
industry have dropped as much as 50 percent.
"It's gotten to the point now where many of the boats simply can't
afford to fuel up," he said.
---
Associated Press writer Kevin Maurer in Carolina Beach, N.C.,
contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Sens. John Cornyn and Chuck Schumer each spent more than $140,000 in
taxpayer money on travel in the first half of the fiscal year —
roughly 10 times as much as some of their thriftier colleagues.
Cornyn, a Republican, racked up the highest travel bill in the Senate
by spending more than $38,000 on a St. Michaels, Md., retreat for 59
staffers and by taking expensive, multicity charter flights throughout
his home state of Texas.
Schumer, a Democrat, ran up the second-highest bill by routinely
flying private charters to cities in New York served by commercial
airlines.
On Dec. 2, for example, Schumer spent $4,000 to take a private plane
from New York City to Albany and back again. Delta and US Airways both
fly that 140-mile route several times a day, with fares ranging from
around $400 to less than $200 if purchased in advance.
Asked about the senator’s use of charter flights, Schumer’s office
released a statement saying that he promised when he first ran for
office that he would visit each of New York’s 62 counties every year —
and that he’s kept that promise by using “a small, propeller plane to
make as many as five stops across upstate New York and hundreds of
visits each year.”
Chart
Transportation costs for every senator
“Sen. Schumer takes outreach to his 19 million-plus constituents
seriously, and his busy travel pace makes him one of the most
accessible members of Congress,” Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon said
in an e-mail to POLITICO.
Fallon said that Schumer usually travels with a personal aide and
sometimes with one other staffer.
Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said his boss’s Texas-size airfare
tab stems from the size of Texas itself.
“It has to do with travel around Texas ... the realistic ability to
use commercial flights to get him where he needs to be, when he needs
to be there,” said McLaughlin. “I’ve driven from Austin to El Paso,
which is easily an eight-hour drive. It’s unbelievable how far it
is.”
But other big-state senators manage to get around much more cheaply.
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison spent about $88,000 on travel in the
first half of the fiscal year; Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski spent about
$65,000 on transportation — less than half of what Cornyn spent.
The transportation expenditures are paid out of the senators’ official
personnel and office expense accounts, the $2 million to $4 million
each senator gets annually to cover the cost of travel, staff payroll
and other expenses related to members’ official duties.
These figures do not — or at least should not — include money the
senators spend on purely political trips, such as any Cornyn and
Schumer may have taken as chairman of the National Republican
Senatorial Committee and past chairman of the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee, respectively. They also do not cover trips
senators take as part of overseas congressional delegations, which are
paid for by separate funds.
Go where no man has gone before: How to game travel bidding websites
like Priceline
Jason Cochran
Apr 6th 2009 at 12:00PM
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Filed under: Bargains, Shopping, Technology, Travel
There are good reasons why some people are afraid of or unwilling to
bid on travel on Priceline.com. Its TV commercials, with William
Shatner phoning it in for a paycheck, can be plenty o' annoying, for
one. But more troubling is the idea that by using the site, you're
offering to pay money for something when you don't yet know exactly
what it is. But there are ways to get around that uncertainty.
Beating Priceline

Mark Von Holden, WireImage / Getty Images24 photos


Sites like BetterBidding.com have advice on getting the best deals
possible on blind-bidding travel site, Priceline.com, made popular by
spokesman William Shatner. For a look at the most annoying
commercials, as chosen by WalletPop readers, click through our
gallery.
(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)The concept of the site is
pretty simple. Priceline asks web users what they'd be willing to pay
for a hotel room in a certain region of a city. It deals behind the
scenes with those hotels, showing them your offer. Only the hotel that
accepts the offer is identified, after you've agreed to pay the money.
That's a good way to either unwittingly bid too much for a room or to
get a place you'd rather not stay in.
But the value of the site is solid. I have paid $29 for hotel rooms
using the site, and $17 a day for rental cars. As long as you don't
have your heart set on a single property, it can work.
Still, you should never bid on something blindly. A number of online
message boards are dedicated to revealing what other people have
gotten on Priceline. Go to a few of them when you start your search
and find out what prices worked for others, and which places they got
when they bid.
One of the bigger ones is called BetterBidding.com, which is active,
well-stocked with morsels of recent victories, and generally
welcoming. I like to start here.
A second choice is one of the longest-running and most frequently
updated sites, Biddingfortravel.com. This site has the significant
downside of being run by an abrasive administrator who incessantly
insists you earn her commissions by bidding through her affiliate
website. (Some readers report being banned from the site if they post
there without having used her website. You can simply read
BiddingForTravel, and cull recent winning bids, without being singled
out.)
A newcomer, WinningHotelBids.com, is just now getting its legs, and
BidlessTravel.com also has a smaller selection of successful examples,
but its design shows promise.
Whichever site you use, make sure your price quotes are relatively
recent. Every few weeks, Priceline's stock rolls over and so reports
much older than that won't be of use. And remember that hotels with
four or five stars also often come with "resort fees" of around $15 a
day, and parking fees that could be even higher. So the best bargains,
the ones where you'll actually end up paying what you bid, are for
hotels with fewer stars.
If you want these sites to remain useful, post your own bidding
results on them. You gotta be a friend to have a friend.
The collapse of the UK's third largest package holiday group has left
tens of thousands of Britons stranded abroad.
The decision to place XL Leisure Group into administration has also
left thousands of staff facing the axe.
Chairman Phil Wyatt said he was "totally devastated" by the failure
which has grounded XL's 21 planes. The company flies to about 50
destinations.
There are 67,000 stranded who booked directly with XL, and another
23,000 who booked via other companies.
The Civil Aviation Authority(CAA) also said the firm had 200,000
advance bookings.
'Sad day'
CAA EMERGENCY HELPLINE
Customers abroad: +44 (0) 2891 856547
Customers in the UK with advance bookings: 0870 5900927
Job fears for Welsh call centre
Flights grounded at Glasgow
Northern Irish holidaymakers hit
Passengers turned away at airport
Tourists stranded in Greece
Your experiences with XL
"We've made every effort, myself and my fellow directors, to find new
funding for the business - and it's a very sad day for me personally.
I am totally devastated," XL chairman Phil Wyatt said.
David Clover, a spokesman for the CAA, said it was making arrangements
to help customers of the four tour companies within the XL group.
"In respect of people who are currently abroad, we're making
arrangements and working very closely with the travel industry to
organise repatriation flights.
"Clearly though, with XL Airways no longer operating, we're having to
bring in substitute aircraft to bring people home."
He said package deals are covered by the CAA's Air Travel Organisers'
Licensing (Atol) scheme and those customers will be offered
repatriation flights or their money back if they have an advance
booking.
Struggling
However, those who booked directly with the airline or XL.com - who
are in the minority according to the CAA - will face a fee.
Stranded XL tourists wait at airports around the world
Anyone yet to take their flights should check their insurance
policies, and with their banks or credit card companies about refunds,
he added.
XL - which carried 2.3 million passengers last year - is the latest
travel business to face financial difficulties, as the industry
struggles with high fuel costs and an economic downturn.
But an agreement has been reached whereby Straumur Investment Bank has
acquired XL's German and French subsidiaries, which Straumur considers
to be financially viable and sustainable businesses.
They will continue operations as separate commercial entities.
Share prices in holiday firms TUI Travel and Thomas Cook were up 6%
and 7% following the collapse of their rival.
Economic downturn
"As the travel industry matures in Europe, there was always going to
be pressure on those operating in the mid-market," said Lastminute.com
chief executive Ian McCaig.
A statement on the XL group's website said: "The companies entered
into administration having suffered as a result of volatile fuel
prices, the economic downturn, and were unable to obtain further
funding."
Raj V.
earth travel. ha