Helix Abroad

By Newman, Andrew

As one who voluntarily gave up the wondrous pleasures of modern air travel (for leisure, that is) several years ago, it has nevertheless been sad to note that things have since got a lot worse, with mountains of lost luggage surrounded by queues of passengers. In these very pages our revered Consultant Editor related how on his return to Heathrow from New Zealand last summer it took two hours (!) to get from plane to car park. Business flights are another matter, and opting out is not so easy. For instance I recently asked managing director Colin Johnson and director Mike Palmer of Helix UK about their air travel experiences. Their ‘On the Road’ reinsurance run-off activity takes them to places that alternative transport cannot reach, such as New York and Chicago.

This conversation led on from the report of the encouraging start for the Helix broker replacement concept for reinsurance collections, almost one year on from the appointment of Helix by Duncanson and Holt Syndicate Management to replace eight original brokers previously handling reinsurance service and collections. Mike Palmer says, “Our staff have worked extremely hard to recreate records and completely transform this account into a professionally managed set of reinsurance receivables. Much progress has been made in this first year, most importantly we have been able to collect a very significant value of reinsurance asset for DHSM.”

Colin Johnson

He confirms that while DHSM continues to use a claims management company to handle the inward account, plus the principal reinsurance functions and administer the general handling, no difficulties arose in this additional broker replacement project with DHSM having two independent and separate service providers working together. “Quite the reverse in fact. A key part of this success has been the co- operation between the two service providers,” he says. “It really has been a pleasure to see what can be achieved when two organisations work hand in hand.”

Mike Palmer

Getting back to the air travel dilemma, Mr Palmer recently found himself in New York during the crucial stages of the Rugby World Cup. The problem is that most American sports bars prefer to show their own versions of football and rounders, and it was only a few of the Irish pubs that were showing the England game and these were naturally packed to the rafters.

And I gather the crowding at some airports is just as bad. With the likelihood of the new Airbus A380 decanting nearly 500 passengers in one go on those good people at the US “Stand behind the white line!” immigration desks, the time wasted in non-flying captivity seems destined to extend even further. So how are the Helix duo coping with the airport chaos?

“We do our best to avoid Heathrow or Gatwick,” says Mr Johnson. “That means avoiding British Airways and opting instead for the smaller airlines running out of Stansted or Luton.” MAXjet is one airline they use. “Of course they don’t have a large fleet of planes, so that if an incoming flight is delayed then you have to wait, but that’s more than made up for by the absence of long queues and baggage problems” (Mr Palmer recently had to wait three weeks for his luggage to turn up at Heathrow).

Of course, when a job like an audit and reconciliation turns up in Mexico, then there’s no alternative but to bite the bullet, travel as light as you can (i.e. no baggage) and brave the queues.

Copyright Insurance Publishing & Printing Company Dec 2007

(c) 2007 Insurance Brokers’ Monthly and Insurance Adviser. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.