Business Travel Insurance: Assessing Your Company's Needs

Business travel insurance protects both your business and your employees when they are engaged in work-related travel. This includes a short trip to pick up a catered lunch or a business meeting across the world. The different claims covered will depend on your policy. To determine which policy is best, you should ask a series of questions about your business.

What Activities are You Involved In?
You likely have workers' compensation policies that are specifically related to your industry. Business travel insurance should also cater to the specific locations your employees travel to. For example, if you employ environmental consultant who survey factories, you will need a line for hazardous material exposure. If you your employees review construction sites, you will need hazardous conditions coverage. Legal consultants will need higher coverage for lost or stolen baggage which may carry confidential papers. Any previous claims you have incurred during business traveling will be an indication of the type of business travel insurance line you should pursue.

Where do the Activities Take Place?
If your employees are traveling into a non-English-speaking country, business travel insurance can be designed to cover costs for an English-speaking attorney. Similarly, it can cover lost or stolen passports and necessary travel documents. Your employees can be covered for access to medical care in locations where access is not always easy. Even if your employees are simply traveling across town, consider your location. Will they be driving over mountains? Along the coast? In a dense urban area with a high accident frequency? If one of your employees is stranded in the Rockies with a flat tire, your business travel insurance can cover the incident. Take stock of the locations where you and your employees frequently travel.

How do You Get There?
The biggest factor in mode of transportation is usually whether it is by air or by car. Air transit will lead you to seek coverage for delayed or cancelled flights, lost or damaged luggage and other airline-related damages. Company airplanes or private flights can require highly-specialized lines. You may want to consider what would happen if a plane with two of your top executives crashed. Would you be covered? If your employees travel mostly by auto, accidental death and dismemberment is a bigger concern. Make sure your employees are covered for roadside assistance wherever they may be. Renting cars additionally poses unique challenges. For example, you will need to make sure you are covered if a car breaks down and you miss a return flight. A business travel insurance broker or agent can assist you in considering these factors.