Agency
Guidance
Notes
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Agency Accreditation Guidance Notes
OVERVIEW
ATOC is the Association of Train Operating Companies. It is an unincorporated trade body
for the 25 companies which run scheduled Passenger Trains on the rail network managed by
Railtrack plc.
The current members of ATOC are shown in Appendix 1.0. ATOC was formed to support
the new rail operators emerging from the government’s rail privatisation programme.
The following pages will give more detailed information which may help you in the
completion of your application to become an ATOC Licensed Travel Agent.
NOTE.
ATOC will not normally visit your premises prior to successful accreditation. On arrangement
you might wish ATOC to facilitate contact with the Sales Manager of the Train Operating
Company which will be most important for your sales to discuss your individual business
plan.
Q.
As an ATOC Agent what rail products can I sell?
A.
ATOC Agents can sell the full range of National Rail Products which are made
available by all Train Operating Companies.
Q.
What Rail Products can I NOT sell?
A.
Season Tickets, local promotions, short term promotions, certain types of tickets
which include entrance to Theme Parks or exhibitions and special fares introduced by
TOC’s from time to time.
Q.
How will I obtain Ticket Stocks?
A.
When you are appointed as an ATOC Agent, you will be given an account code
which will entitle you to request rail ticket stock from ATOC’s approved suppliers.
Q.
What if the Agency is not IATA approved?
A.
If your agency is not IATA approved, your application will still be considered, you
may be required to provide a Bond or Banker’s Guarantee for the maximum
value of two consecutive periods projected sales volume. The minimum level of any
Bond is £5000 or you may be asked to consider joining the Travel Trust Association.
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Q.
What costs are involved?
A.
There will be an initial set up fee of £300 plus VAT. This is a non-refundable charge.
A Bond or Banker’s Guarantee may be requested in which case your bank might raise a
charge for this service. If you need to send members of your agency sales staff on a
course for the Quality of Service certificate you will need to pay the fees raised by
ATOC’s Approved Training Suppliers.
Q.
How long does the licensing application procedure take?
A.
A completed application, where you have a minimum of two members of staff with
Quality of Service Certificates, appropriate financial security and a robust Marketing
Plan could be complete in around two weeks. All applications are referred to Train
Operating Companies for their endorsement. If you have to send staff on training
courses or apply to other organisations for qualifying factors, then the procedure will
be extended and could take a little longer.
Q.
What level of Commission will my agency earn?
A.
Currently, the basic rate of commission is 7%. This may be changed from time to
time. Any incentives over and above the basic rate of commission must be negotiated
with individual train operating companies who may agree a specific proposal, based on
their company’s level of sales at your agency.
Q.
Is there a minimum level of rail sales turnover needed before a licence will be
granted?
A.
As a guide the minimum requirement in the first year’s trading should be between
£25,000 and £50,000. Consideration may be given by ATOC if the circumstances
were that the agent was in a rural geographical area and revenue expectation was less
than £25,000.
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SECTION A.
A1.
REGISTERED NAME & ADDRESS - This is the formal legal name & address
under which your company is recorded at Companies house.
REGISTRATION NUMBER - This is the legal number under which your company
is registered at Companies House.
TRADING NAME - This is the name that your company is using as its “brand
name” on shop signs, letter heads, brochures etc. A copy of your letter headed
paper will help here.
CONTACT NAME - who is the person in your company with whom ATOC’s
Travel Trade Administrator should deal?
CONTACT POSITION - What is the Job Title or Job Role of the person, whom
you have designated as the Contact Name.
OFFICE HOURS - If your office is open just Mondays to Fridays or Mondays to
Saturdays, then tick the box to the right of the appropriate days. Please show the
hours e.g. 09-00 to 13.00/14.00 to 18.00 when your office is open.
A2
If you have ATOC rail licenses at other branches of your business, this will help to
support this application, so please list the Licence Numbers. If you currently sell for
other rail companies such as Eurostar, then indicate the name of the Rail Company and
the appropriate account number.
A3.
Agency organisations can differ, so please list the principal directors of your
organisation, who would be responsible for the rail business.
A4
If you are an IATA (International Air Transport Association) approved agent this will
help with your application to become an ATOC licensed travel agent. Please give your
IATA number and also the name and address of the Bankers who will be processing
the business payments for the agency, for which you are applying for a licence.
Please include all of the details including your Bank’s postcode and the sort code.
The sort code is normally shown in the top right hand corner of your cheques.
If your agency is not IATA approved, your application will still be considered you
may be required to give a Bond or Banker’s Guarantee for the maximum value of
two periods’ sales volume or take membership of the Travel Trust Association. The
minimum level of any Bond is £5000.
A5
All Agencies must have suitable security arrangements, which should include a safe
and burglar alarms.
A6
The Rail Quality of Service Certificate is a mandatory element of criteria for obtaining
your ATOC licence. Agents must have a minimum of two staff or 20% of the staff
engaged in selling rail products, whichever is the greater with Rail Quality of Service
Certificates in order to receive your rail licence,with at lease one of it’s permanent
members of staff having attained the Advanced Training Certificate within 12 months
of a successful application. Training courses and examinations are offered by the
Travel Training Company (Tel: 01483 727321).
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A7
RAIL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS
There are two distribution systems available to you:
1)
ELGAR
ELGAR provides Galileo, Sabre, Worldspan and Amadeus users with the benefits of a
fully integrated information, reservation, ticketing and accounting system. ELGAR
users will issue tickets through ATB2 printers, with the following options available:
a)
A dedicated rail ATB2 printer.
b)
A shared air/rail ATB2 printer (assuming your combined ticket volume is at an
appropriate level to do this).
c)
If you are a branch who cannot justify the investment in ATB2 technology you can
book through ELGAR and pass your booking details to a central site within your
company where an ATB2 printer is in position.
If you need more information about the purchase of these matters please contact your GDS
account executive.
2)
AJENTS
AJENTS is an alternative stand alone system enabling rail tickets to be issued
electronically with a ticket image displayed and completed on the PC screen. For
further information please refer to Appendix 2.0.
A.8
OFFICE EQUIPMENT
Please define what office equipment is available at the location to be accredited.
A9
SET UP FEE
There is an initial non-refundable set up fee which is currently £300 plus VAT.
This fee should be paid before the licence is approved.
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SECTION B :
MARKETING PLAN
The information you give in this Section will be important in supporting your
application.
B.1
BACKGROUND
Enter the date that you began business as a travel agent at the location for which you
are applying for an ATOC licence and enter your Gross company turnover for the last
five years as annual figures
If you currently acquire rail tickets for your customers show if you get these from a rail
station or another agency.
Enter NO to both if you DO NOT currently supply rail tickets to your customers.
Enter the approximate annual value of the rail tickets that you anticipate supplying to
your customers based on current demand or the acquisition of a new customer.
In the Section headed Significant Business Developments including future plans, show
events such as: Acquisition of new business account worth £2m etc.
B.2
TARGET MARKETS
You have potentially two markets to target: one for business travel and one for leisure.
Many of your potential customers may fall into both categories. The total of both
Business and Leisure should be shown as a percentage split of your total potential rail
business.
B.3
RAIL REVENUE PROJECTIONS (FIRST YEAR OF OPERATION)
As a guide for ATOC you must show that you will produce a significant amount of
new rail business to support your application as a sales agent. An annual rail revenue
of £50,000 would equate to £3,500 in commission calculated on a base rate
commission of 7%.
You then need to indicate how you expect this to grow in the second year of your sales
operation.
B4
MARKETING ACTION PLAN
This section is very important and you may want to produce separate documentation.
You may already have prepared a business plan and can simply attach it to your
application. You need to indicate what business actions such as Promotional events,
advertising in the media, television, joint promotions with tour operators etc. at which
you will be able to promote the rail business for which you are now seeking a licence.
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ACCOUNTANCY
Travel Agents are required to submit accounts on a 4 weekly basis.
The Agent will receive a Passenger Sales Return (PSR) at the end of each four weekly period
and the return must be completed and returned within 10 days to the Travel Trade and
Warrant Service in Stevenage.
Payment is by Direct Debit. Your account will be debited by the amount due 19 days after the
period end. Further details will be sent to you upon the licence being granted.
PENALTIES
Applying for an ATOC agency should be seen as a mutually viable business activity. You
will be entering into a legal contract with ATOC on behalf of the Train Operating Companies.
As well as the benefits that this will bring, it is important to remember that any breach of
clauses in the legal agreement will incur financial penalties.
If you do not submit your account within 10 days of the end of an accounting period you will
be subject to a reduction in commission of 1% per period for up to six periods.
Late payment will incur a penalty of 4.5% above the current bank base rate per day and may
be subject to additional administration charges.
PUBLICATIONS
Agents are supplied with Avantix Fares CD-ROM, GDS user guides (if appropriate ), and an
ATOC Rail Directory for Agents as the basic material.
Other items such as product brochures are supplied by the individual train operating
companies directly on request.
Requirements for these documents, which are in excess of the initial supply, will be subject to
additional charges to the agent.
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APPENDICES INDEX
1.0 Train Operating Companies
2.0 Rail Distribution Systems
2.1 ELGAR
2.2 AJENTS
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APPENDIX 1
OPERATORS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Northern Rail Limited
Arriva Trains Wales/Trenau Arriva Cymru Limited
c2c Rail Limited
Central Trains Limited
CrossCountry Trains Limited
First/Keolis TransPennine Limited
Gatwick Express Limited
London Eastern Railway Limited
Great North Eastern Railway Limited
Great Western Trains Company Limited
Hull Trains Company Limited
Island Line Limited
Merseyrail Electrics 2002 Limited
Midland Main Line Limited
First ScotRail Limited
Silverlink Train Services Limited
South Eastern Trains Limited
New Southern Railway Limited
South West Trains Limited
First Great Western Link Limited
Thameslink Rail Limited
The Chiltern Railway Company Limited
Wales and West Passenger Trains Limited
West Anglia Great Northern Railway Limited
West Coast Trains Limited
11th January 2005
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APPENDIX
2.1
ELGAR
THE ULTIMATE IN FULLY - INTEGRATED RAIL TICKET SYSTEMS
Overview
ELGAR is an integrated Ticket Issuing System which accesses the full inventory of GB Rail
Industry Reservations, Timetable information, Fares and issues ATB2 ticketing. ELGAR is a
flexible option for those travel agents who use the airline Global Distribution Systems (GDS)
and require a “back office” accountancy hand off.
Features




Networked or Stand alone terminal
Issues on zero value ticket stock
Issues full range of travel tickets
Uses ATB2 tickets
Benefits







A fully integrated information, reservations and ticketing system.
Rail ticketing access through the existing hardware.
Enables Eurostar, GB domestic transactions to be produced on one terminal with separate
accounting records
Electronic access to fares and timetable information.
Streamlined accounting
Booking procedures similar to airline processes.
Back office links for accounting and invoicing.
Technical detail and costing
An ATB2 ticket printer is essential to utilise the fully integrated ticket system. Please contact
your GDS account executive for details of technical specification and costing.
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APPENDIX
2.2
AJENTS
A PC BASED SYSTEM FOR NON-GDS USERS
WHAT WILL THE SYSTEM PROVIDE?
A simple software application for use on a Personal Computer (PC), which will enable
rail tickets to be issued electronically with a ticket image displayed and completed on
the PC screen. Tickets are produced on a simple dot matrix printer (specification
shown below). Continuous feed tickets are provided with tractor feed holes.
Information on station names, ticket types and validities are held on local look-up
tables, allowing fields on the Journey Input screen to be added using short codes.
Fares are not generated automatically but a limited number of “top 50 fares” can be
stored in the programme memory.
FEATURES





Stores fares for Top 50 best sellers
Speeds up ticket issue
Ticket issue is completed on screen and reduces the risk of issuing
errors
Stores details of all your travel ticket stock on disk
Allows you to transfer your automated rail sales to Rail Settlement
Plan via e-mail to [email protected]
WHAT EQUIPMENT IS REQUIRED TO OPERATE THIS SYSTEM?
The PC and printer you will need to provide to the following specification:
Operating System:
Microsoft Windows 95/98 or NT.
Processor:
Minimum 300MHz
RAM:
Minimum 32MB
Hard Drive:
Minimum 1GB
CD ROM Drive Monitor: Colour,15” recommended.
Communications:
56kbps modem.
Ticket Printer:
Dot Matrix, 24-pin medium duty for high usage outlets or
light duty for low volume sites. You will need a printer which provides for a
minimum 80 carriage width. The printer will need to be EPSON-compatible. The
EPSON LQ-300 (Light Duty) or the EPSON LQ-570+ (Medium Duty) would be ideal.
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HOW WILL RESERVATIONS BE MADE?
Reservations will be made through NRS – National Reservations Service which accessed via a
private managed network.
Contracts to supply NRS through a direct access link to travel agents have been signed with
Ntl and Telewest using their Traveleye and Endeavour products respectively. Additionally,
agreement has been reached to allow customers of Voyager Systems, Vertical Group, Comtec,
Ramyses, and Galileo Leisure link to access NRS through Ntl.
From time to time Ntl and Telewest are approached by other system suppliers for
connectivity, should your system supplier not be included in the above please provide details
to enable the necessary security checks to be undertaken.
As NRS Uses latest technology and software, in order for it to function fully the minimum pc
specification you will need is set out below:
Processor:
Operating System
RAM:
Browser:
Hard Disk:
Graphics:
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Pentium or equivalent (233 Mhz CPU or higher).
Windows ME, 2000 or XP.
Recommended operating system memory plus:
64 Mb RAM dedicated to browser and plug-ins over and above other
application requirements.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.
Operating System requirement plus 17Mb.
1024*768 resolution with at least 256 colour.