Business Travel Insurance - Insure and Go with Peace of Mind

Lea Barton
Business travelers are big business, spending billions of dollars each year on airfare, trains, car rentals, buses, taxis, hotels, and meals out. Whether you're a "road warrior" who spends 50 weeks a year traveling, or a less-traveled small-business owners or workers who spends a week or two on the road each year, at some point you need to consider buying busines travel insurance to cover issues directly related to business trips.

Business Travel Insurance

Business travel insurance is different from personal travel insurance - most business travelers have business equipment with them when they take a corporate trip, Your laptop, any projectors, business phones, and so forth are all company property - and if you lose them, they break, or are stolen, your personal insurance might not cover them.

In addition, accounts are on the line with business travel. You're not attending that trade conference for fun - someone in your company assumes that there is a productivity value to sending you there. Meetings with clients are typically billable - or all about landing a huge, new account that brings in revenue. If you become sick, if a plane malfunctions, or if mission-critical materials are stolen, lost or destroyed, that productivity or revenue takes a hit. Having business travel insurance mitigates those costs.

Insure and Go for Corporate Trips

Which types of business travel insurance should you buy for corporate trips? Make sure any policy includes coverage for stolen, lost or broken equipment - and be sure you have full coverage for replacement value for items.

Look for policies that cover trip interruption. If you or a valuable team member becomes incapacitated or sick, your insurance policy should replace productivity costs to the corporation. Ditto for acts of nature - it's not your fault that tornado grounded your entire business development team and led to the loss of a big account. Finally, consider the client - how could the client's actions jeopardize your company financially? A client that no-shows for a big trip, or goes bankrupt suddenly, can cause serious economic harm to your business.

Business Travel Coverage

In the end, you have to look at different travel insurance companies to know how to insure and go with peace of mind. The worst thing you can do, though, is to skip the business travel coverage - the one time you do, Murphy's Law will kick in and you'll kick yourself for not being careful.

Published by Lea Barton

Published in newspapers, magazines, newsletters, on websites, and in academic reference guides since 1986, I have more than 2,000 articles, reviews, and columns as part of my portfolio.  View profile

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