Austria: ABTA holds its last annual meeting

How your company team can be equipped with their own favorite bike for the journey to the office and everyone involved can also benefit financially, on which occasion the apf (agency for passenger and passenger rights) takes action and what solution rate it achieves and how to do so The numerous guests who attended the last ABTA Business Travel Lounge of the year last week at the Hotel Best Western Plus AMEDIA in Vienna learned first-hand how negotiations can bring the right tactics into play even in seemingly hopeless situations.

After the welcome from ABTA President Roman Neumeister and Best Western Plus AMEDIA Vienna operations manager Markus Petruschan, Maria-Theresia Röhsler from the Agency for Passenger and Passenger Rights started the first lecture of the evening: The apf acts as a central service point for passenger rights in the railway sector. , bus, ship and air traffic, processes around 6.000 applications per year and does so with a very high success rate: According to Röhsler, in the aviation sector last year only 3 percent of the applications processed remained without a solution, in the rail sector the percentage of those cases, which ended without an agreement between the applicant and the company, only 1 percent. With very few exceptions, the cooperation between the transport companies and apf is exemplary, emphasized Röhsler. In terms of content, most of the proceedings in rail transport concern the issue of reimbursement, while in air transport they largely concern applications relating to cancellations.

In the second presentation, Harald Bauer, Managing Director of willdienstrad.at, explained the advantages that can arise for a large number of those involved when purchasing company bicycles. The company has been active on the Austrian market for around three years and has created a real win-win situation for companies and cooperation partners, taking into account all aspects of employee wishes, administration, funding and taxes. The system works like this: Employees choose their personal bike of choice for their journey to work (and are also allowed to use the bike for private purposes without restriction, note), the employer purchases it on a leasing basis and invoices it into their salary without any benefits in kind. For larger companies, a specially designed administration interface is provided for uncomplicated processing. Both input tax deduction and subsidies are possible as part of the purchase. After a term of 48 months, the bike can be purchased at the residual value (16 percent, note). As a rule, employers do not incur any costs, but rather financial advantages - keyword: salary conversion model - and employees purchase their bicycles at very attractive conditions. According to Bauer, this can mean savings of up to 40 percent on the regular purchase price. His team already works with more than 250 specialist bicycle dealers throughout Austria and can therefore offer comprehensive service.

Business coach Roman Brauner then explained to the invited guests how one can achieve a good result even in very tricky negotiations. First, he invited people to a historical excursion into the times of Theodore Roosevelt, whose campaign team negotiated very smartly and even got out of an impending photo legal dispute with a bonus payment from the photographer. He then guided the audience very insightfully and using numerous examples through the key negotiation points of power, interests and tactics and showed how, for example, you can best set your personal “anchor” when negotiating financial matters.