P&O Business Travel signs insurance deal

Many UK business travellers journey abroad without their employers making adequate insurance arrangements for them, P&O Business Travel has warned.

Failure to obtain sufficient cover, a lack of procedures for notifying insurers about trips to potentially dangerous destinations and insufficient practices for looking after travellers requiring medical repatriation are among the deficiencies highlighted by the travel management company.

The caution came as the company and insurance provider Endsleigh produced an insurance scheme aimed at business travellers.

It includes a specialist corporate travel insurance for all of a corporate client’s employees from Endsleigh Business Insurance Services plus low-cost single and annual multi-trip policies for individual travellers.

Travellers can be covered for leisure time added on to a business trip, so long as the business element of the journey is longer.

The TMC’s managing director Alan Coles said: “One of the first things our client performance managers ask new clients about is their insurance arrangements. We are often disturbed to discover there is no comprehensive strategy, which leaves travellers exposed if they run into trouble during a business trip.

“Our managers are trained to help clients plug the gaps by introducing a properly organised insurance programme. As an extension of that initiative, we have joined forces with Endsleigh to launch a product which directly addresses the needs of the often-overlooked business market.’

Endsleigh account manager Jonathan Moxham added: “Business travellers expect a professional service, excellent levels of cover and competitive rates. With our long-standing experience of providing independent insurance for career people, we are naturally positioned to work with P&O Business Travel to meet those expectations.’

P&O Business Travel and Endsleigh advice for companies on how to put together a well-managed travel insurance strategy:

1. Devise a coherent programme:

Travel insurance can be overlooked by companies because the responsibility can fall between departments such as travel, human resources and legal. Your TMC and insurance company should be able to advise you how to build a strategy. Once a programme is created, ensure it is systematically maintained and updated.

2. Track your trips:

Working with your TMC, track the destinations visited by your travellers plus the average and maximum number of days per trip. This helps the insurer assess risk exposure and improves the precise tailoring of your policy to your travellers’ needs.

3. Deal with dangerous destinations:

Check your cover to see if you need to inform your insurer routinely of travel to potentially risky destinations. Advise your TMC as well. All bookings to those destinations should trigger an enquiry to your insurer.

Be aware that not all policies are worldwide: some do not cover especially risky destinations. Even where policies are worldwide, insurers can still refuse to pay out if a traveller has visited a dangerous destination without first giving notification. The definition of a dangerous (or, in the parlance of insurance companies, ‘disturbed’) destination varies. However, for most British insurers, the yardstick is whether it appears on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office lists advising against ‘all travel’ and ‘all but essential travel’ (www.fco.gov.uk).

If a destination is not covered by the existing insurance policy, extra cover can sometimes be obtained for an additional premium. Companies should also check whether their policy covers travellers for kidnapping.

4. Prepare travellers for emergencies:

This includes ensuring they submit an itinerary for their trip before departure and giving them a wallet-sized travel information card. The card should include contact details for the insurance company, a medical assistance emergency helpline and a TMC and company emergency contact.

5. Appoint and train an emergency contact within your own organisation:

A single point of contact is extremely beneficial for serious incidents when insured travellers are unable to handle necessary arrangements themselves. The contact, in liaison with the insurance company, should deal with issues such as treatment, repatriation and travel and accommodation for relatives.

6. Check travellers are insured for added leisure time:

It is becoming increasingly common for travellers to tack some leisure travel on to the end of a business trip. Not all company insurance policies cover them for this. In the case of the all-employee corporate travel insurance offered by EBIS under P&O Travel Insurance provided by Endsleigh, travellers can be covered for the leisure element of a trip, provided the business element of the trip is longer.

7. Remind travellers they are not fully covered by their credit cards:

The cover provided by credit cards usually falls well short of what is offered by a stand-alone business travel insurance policy such as P&O Travel Insurance provided by Endsleigh. Generally, cards do not cover business trips or business equipment like laptops and mobile telephones.

8. Ensure travellers obtain a European Health Insurance Card:

The EHIC (formerly E111) enables travellers to receive free or low-cost emergency medical care in many European countries. Some insurers insist on travellers having an EHIC if they are to pay a claim in full.

P&O Business Travel will distribute information on the new insurance offerings at the Business Travel Show which at London Olympia on  January 31- February 2.

Report by Phil Davies