Duty of care travel management is the employer's obligation to take reasonable steps for the safety of an employee away on the company's business, made operational. In a large company a security function does it; in a company of two to a hundred travelers it is the office manager with a register and a policy, and that is enough if the register is current and the policy is specific. This page sets out what duty of care in travel means for a small company, what reasonable steps look like at that scale, and how the register in Perdiemo Pro and the free travel risk management policy worksheet meet it.
What the employer owes
Under the OSH Act's general duty clause an employer must furnish a workplace free from recognised hazards, and a traveler's workplace for the week is the destination. Travel duty of care is the application of that duty to the trip: know where the traveler is, know what the destination's risks are, brief the traveler on them, have a way to reach them and a plan if you cannot. Duty of care corporate travel programmes in large companies add insurance, evacuation cover and a 24-hour line; a small company adds what it can and writes down what it does.
Reasonable steps at small-company scale
Classify the destinations against the State Department advisory and the CDC notices; brief travelers going to elevated-risk ones; require enrolment in STEP for international trips; set check-ins and an escalation route; keep emergency contacts current; keep the register. Duty of care business travel at this scale is those six steps, and the worksheet counts what they commit the office to (the check-ins a year, the briefing hours, the escalation contacts) so the policy promises only what will be done.
The register is the mechanism
Business travel duty of care fails at the moment the news mentions a city and nobody in the office can say whether anyone is there. The register answers that: every traveler away, the destination, the hotel, the flights, the emergency contacts, the check-ins made. In Perdiemo Pro it is a view of the trips rather than a list someone maintains, so it is current because the trips are. That is the single most useful thing a small company can do for duty of care travel.
Write it down, and review it
A duty of care that exists in the office manager's habits is not a duty of care the company can show it met. The travel risk management policy worksheet produces the document: destinations, classification, pre-trip, in-trip, emergency, insurance reference, review. File it, read it against the destinations once a year, and keep the register. That is duty of care travel management for a company that has no one whose job it is.
Questions people ask about duty of care travel management
What is duty of care in business travel?
The employer's obligation to take reasonable steps for a traveler's safety while away on company business: know where they are, know the risks, brief them, be able to reach them, have a plan.
How does a small company meet its travel duty of care?
Classify destinations, brief elevated-risk travelers, require STEP enrolment abroad, set check-ins and escalation, keep contacts current, keep the register. Write it down as the risk policy.
Is a register enough?
It is the mechanism everything else depends on. With a specific policy and current contacts, a register kept from the trips is what a small company can reasonably do and show it did.