WASHINGTON -- ARC said travel agents who wish to use optical
storage for their agent's coupons must fill out a one-page request
and send it to ARC's field investigation department.
ARC previously announced that agents who report sales
electronically have the option of printing the agent's coupon of
each ticket on nonaccountable paper or capturing the image on
optical storage media, effective immediately.
Still applicable is the ARC rule that requires agent's coupons
to be retained for two years from issue date.
The purpose of the new policy is to reduce agents' need for
accountable ticket stock and, if optical storage is used, to go
paperless.
In response to questions after the policy was announced, ARC
said it can give some advice but does not "provide the tools or
systems" to switch agent's coupons from accountable stock.
Translation: It's up to agents to figure out how to do it.
Agents who report electronically can print the same data that
appears on the agent's coupon on nonaccountable stock such as a
"mini-itinerary document or plain paper," said ARC.
Alternatively, optical storage such as CD-ROM, laserdisc,
magneto optical disk, DVD, microfiche or microfilm may be used.
"The optical storage media must use a write once and read many
(WORM) technology which will prevent overwriting of the stored
data," ARC said.
Unacceptable devices are computer hard drives, zip drives,
floppy disks, magnetic tape and other magnetic media.
A reader and copier must be available at the site where the
optical copies of the agent's coupons are stored, so the data can
be viewed and reproduced by an ARC auditor.
The one-page request to maintain agent's coupons on optical
storage asks for the type of device, the address(es) of agency
location(s), type of reader and copier and name of any third party
used.
Complete instructions and the request form are in the ARC
handbook, section 70.0, pages 1 and 2.