Scheduling a fly-in, fly-out shift roster is no easy task for Australia’s mining companies.

Forget the basic logistics of staffing shifts and covering sick leave and holidays.

Getting people from, for example, Sydney to the Pilbara in Western Australia involves the mining version of Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

Throw in a delay or a flight cancellation and the flow grinds to a halt.

What happens at the other end of the journey? What if a machine is waiting on your skills for a shift to operate?

Disruption to production costs dollars.

On the homeward journey, any delay could mean miners missing the start of a family vacation or function.

You get the picture. It’s a complex task, to say the least.

Different companies will have different methods for managing their schedules.

The ultimate aim is getting people to where they need to be, at a time they need to be there.

Business travel company Serko believes it has found the optimum solution to FIFO scheduling.

The firm, founded in New Zealand, has launched its mass booking schedule for Serko Online, its online booking tool for clients.

It promises to “dramatically reduce the time, cost and complexity involved in managing fly-in, fly-out rosters”

“The new module gives travel administrators the ability to book an unlimited number of flights simultaneously, directly from their desktops using Serko Online flight booking functionality,” the company said.

“By eliminating the need to manually process bookings one by one, which is an expensive and labour-intensive process, organisations can reduce transaction costs, minimise admin overheads and simplify FIFO roster management.”

Serko chief executive officer Darrin Grafton said: “In today’s world, administrators responsible for moving groups of people to and from site have to book flights and accommodation on a person-by-person basis because none of the existing tools support the functionality to book en masse.

“Our new Serko Online module is proven to save Serko customers who operate a FIFO workforce significant amounts of time, money and pain.

“Of course, mass booking isn’t just limited to the energy and resource sectors.

“There are a number of other industries including ‘MICE’ – meetings, incentives, conferences and events – and the media and entertainment industry that we see benefiting from this new functionality.”

Travel administrators across the country will be celebrating.

Booking an entire group, as opposed to the painstaking task of loading individual bookings one-by-one, is nothing short of a quantum leap in terms of efficiency.

And we know how much mining companies value efficiency in the current climate.

Serko added: “In a recent real-world study, a large Australian company that delivers support services to the energy and resource sectors was able to reduce the administration overhead associated with their 21/7/300-person rotational roster by more than 70 hours a month.”

Accountants everywhere will be reading this and rubbing their hands.

FIFO workers will be pleased too, if Serko’s system improves efficiency and reduces the challenges associated with going to work in the most remote regions of Australia.

The Serko mass booking module is available to Serko Online customers.

If it delivers what it promises, there’ll be no shortage of clients from the mining industry.