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How Bolt scaled travel for work with Perk
Operating in over 600 cities across 50 countries, Bolt aims to reduce the need for private cars worldwide. From Cape Town to Copenhagen, Bolt offers a better alternative to every purpose a private car serves: ride-hailing, car rental services, scooter and e-bike sharing, and food and grocery delivery.
Founded in 2013, Bolt's team has grown rapidly. Headquartered in Estonia, the organisation has expanded to 51 offices worldwide, including major hubs in Germany, Romania, and Poland. As Bolt ventured into new markets, traveling for work became essential to its operations.
Bolt staff trips include inter-office meetings, regional summits, and annual group events to stay connected and inspire collaboration. In 2018, Bolt was in an exciting period of hypergrowth. As the team grew rapidly, it became clear that they needed to ditch inefficient, manual processes and find a better way to book their work trips.
Hyper-efficiency for hypergrowth
Managing an increasing number of travellers presented many challenges, from coordinating itineraries to optimising travel budgets. These years of hypergrowth and extensive travel for work required the team to be hyper efficient. Bolt's leadership was looking for a solution to simplify their workflows and decided Perk could optimise their work travel operations.
Perk streamlined the booking process by allowing travellers to book their itineraries in just a few clicks. Rather than scanning several websites, Perk gives Bolt's employees a single user-friendly platform where they can browse an extensive inventory of accommodations, flights, and ground transportation.
With Perk, travel managers can integrate company policies into the booking process. In just a few minutes, users can outline parameters that mean employee searches always generate compliant options. These trips can be instantly greenlit, saving department leaders from drowning in travel requests and meaning employees can secure the best price for their plans. But if an itinerary requires an out-of-policy element, it is flagged for approval and sent instantly to the relevant team members.
From mundane manual tasks to easy integrations
Today, Bolt employs over 4,000 people across five continents. Team members have taken 27,000 work trips in the past seven years and travel 7,000 times a year on average. In 2024, Bolt booked around 11,000 services for 2000+ staff members traveling for work.
However, the benefits of Perk extend far beyond the booking process. Perk allows companies to integrate with various platforms and apps to streamline other work travel workflows. For example, Bolt uses the AI platform Workday for its HR needs. Initially, Bolt's tech team connected Workday and Perk via API. Integrating Workday into Perk made their admin easier thanks to an automatic employee data process. Keen to evolve and improve functionality for their clients, Perk integrated fully with Workday, simplifying Bolt's HR tasks even further.
Integrations that automate tedious manual tasks stop data entry errors and save administrators time. Bolt's teams no longer have to cross-reference employees' information across systems, giving them time to focus on other tasks.
Comprehensive reports boost compliance
Kerttu finds Perk's detailed reports invaluable when assessing Bolt employees' travel data. Filters let users easily adjust reports to explore costs by department, destination, or employee.
Greater visibility means Bolt can better understand staff travel habits and preferences and optimise their travel policy to reflect this. Having comprehensive data to hand enables Kerttu and Laura to increase their travellers' well-being and improve compliance.
Utilising Perk's integrated policies and automated approvals has significantly impacted Bolt's bottom line. Since partnering with Perk, the team has reduced its travel spend by 10%. Plus, thanks to comprehensive reporting and support, it's easier to spot where future savings can be made.
Tailored support for Bolt’s work travel
Since the beginning of Bolt's partnership with Perk, dedicated account managers have been on hand to support their journey. From providing training to actioning the team's feedback to enhance functionality and add features. Perk's teams also offer round-the-clock care. Travellers can get assistance 24/7, 365 days a year, via email, phone, or chat.
By using Perk to implement automation and optimise their processes, Bolt could scale their work travel program without the stress. With Bolt's success still on the rise, Perk's solutions continue to free up time for their staff to focus on more important tasks.
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