Protecting staff when travelling needs to be a big priority for companies that do business regionally, interstate or overseas.
It’s vital to be as prepared as possible, particularly when you think of the many potential issues you may face, and they might just strike before you’ve even left the airport.
Just pause to think for a second about what lost or stolen luggage, a delayed or missed flight or even illness might affect a carefully planned business trip.
Business trips are costly endeavours, often because of set times for meetings and conferences, and ensuring that employees travel back home safely. The ramifications if something goes wrong, can be even more costly. If you have clients approaching you for their business insurance needs, corporate travel insurance should absolutely be something you should be discussing with them at the same time.
If Murphy’s Law strikes and everything that can go wrong, does, a carefully selected policy can save thousands in out-of-pocket expenses from everything from medical costs and travel accidents to rental car issues and lost baggage.
There are a few different options at your disposal when it comes to corporate travel insurance and it’s important to make sure you’re selecting the right one for your client’s business needs. To aid you in this process, we’ve put together this handy guide that will help you address some of the likely questions your clients may pose to you.
What is corporate travel insurance?
So you have a business client who has just told you that they engage in regular business trips to attend trade shows both nationally, and internationally. They need corporate travel insurance!
But just what is corporate travel insurance and what does it cover a business for?
As with all insurance types, all policies and policy providers will have slight variations in their product offerings, so it’s always vital to ensure that you’re selecting the right policy for your individual corporate needs.
Generally speaking, however, corporate travel insurance is designed to cover a business owner or their employees on business trips for a range of eventualities including:
- Medical expenses due to injuries or illness sustained on a work trip
- Evacuation costs in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency
- Reimbursement for expenses caused by interruptions or cancellations in flights
- Coverage for lost, stolen or delayed baggage
If you consider the fact that businesses almost always insure their assets, one of a business’s most important assets is always its employees so it makes good sense to make sure that they are adequately insured too!
It’s also imperative to remember that it doesn’t matter what size of business it is - whether it is a multinational corporation or a small business, travel insurance is a necessary expense.
Not only does it protect a business from losing money by means of delayed or cancelled plans, but it also helps protect business owners from a wide window of liability when it comes to potential medical expenses from an injured or ill employee.
Pack a better policy: The benefits of having corporate travel insurance
The benefits of having corporate travel insurance in place offer clear advantages to both businesses and their employees.
When discussing corporate insurance policies with business owners, it’s important that you make them aware of the dual-purpose nature of this kind of coverage.
When the right coverage is in place, from a business perspective, you have the knowledge that any surprise expenses, or liability issues that arise during a business trip may very likely be covered. As an employee travelling for work, you can rest easy knowing that you too are covered for any unforeseen expenses that may pop up from travel delays, illness, injury and more.
Forbes has written an excellent article discussing how to go about finding the best insurance for business trips. If you have a client who is considering corporate insurance and wondering if their regular travel insurance policy will cover them, make sure you tell them to think again.
Business travel insurance is quite different from normal travel insurance. Most importantly, it covers costs such as sending a substitute employee if the planned employee can no longer attend or has to cut their trip short; covering employees' families if something untoward happens in their absence; and personal liability benefits that can be used to cover any potential worker’s compensation claims.
If the company has employees that travel regularly for work, it is also worth asking them to consider taking out annual and/or group policies which will almost certainly save their business money in the long run.
Some insurance options (like AFA) even provide incidental leisure travel within a business trip, giving employees (and their employers) peace of mind when they decide to take personal trips outside of their corporate events.
AFA Insurance: The passport to the best corporate travel insurance
As a broker, you already know that there are a lot of different insurance options on the market but AFA currently offers one of the most comprehensive Corporate Travel Insurance packages available.
We are completely committed to providing personalised travel insurance to organisations across a broad range of industries and business sizes and can adjust packages depending on travel and staff requirements.
Some of the coverage highlights of our corporate travel insurance include:
- Unlimited overseas medical expenses
- Personal accident and sickness cover whilst travelling
- Loss of deposits, cancellation, and curtailment
- Lost, stolen or damaged baggage
- Kidnap and Ransom
- Emergency Evacuation expertise
- AFA Assist by World Travel Protection – 24/7
- COVID-19 medical expenses cover
- COVID-19 loss of deposits and cancellation cover
Another key feature is that this coverage also includes incidental leisure travel within a business trip.
Our unique eBind system also makes the process as quick and easy as possible for you, the broker and your clients. eBind allows you to quote, tweak, bind, endorse and renew all within the portal. It’s available at the click of a button, 24/7. Since its launch in 2006, it is still one of the most successful business tools used by Australian brokers.
At the end of the day, no company wants to have a business trip result in it costing more than it gained.
Corporate Travel insurance is imperative for all companies, large and small, whose employees engage in any form of business travel. Without it, you leave your business wide open to a whole range of costs in potential lost travel expenses and liability.
As with all insurance policies, it’s very important that you know and understand what your clients require, and what each individual policy covers you for.
If you have business customers seeking Corporate Travel Insurance, you can hop on to our eBind portal and one of our underwriters will be able to send through terms straight away for you to discuss and lock in with your client.
You can also contact us to speak to a member of our underwriting team to iron out more details.
