On Call’s mission has always been helping travelers in their time of need, every day, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been no different. The pandemic presented some interesting challenges, unique barriers and some extremely nuanced complications amid our efforts to return people home, but nothing that our Global Assistance teams couldn’t handle.
It was a true group effort as our Medical, Security, and Transportation teams worked diligently behind the scenes to provide support to travelers during a time of truly unprecedented circumstances. As border closings, travel/transportation restrictions, and quarantine mandates became the ‘new temporary normal,’ many travelers found themselves stranded amid an escalation of mandates from local, national, and global authorities.
This pushed On Call’s Global Assistance teams into overdrive as we leveraged our expansive network of global resources, intelligence capabilities, and logistical expertise to help support our commitment to helping our travelers when and where they need it most.
While On Call International typically manages hundreds of operations every month, the COVID-19 outbreak boosted operational activity and intensity significantly. Here’s a snapshot of assistance services we provided to our travelers and clients amid the height of the pandemic:
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Total phone calls: 26,806
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Total emails: 38,751
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Total active cases: 8,057
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Average active cases per day: 300
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We helped 1,824 people get home
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Here’s what some of our clients and travelers said in response to the assistance they received from On Call during the COVID-19 pandemic:
“I wanted to thank you for getting me home, back to the USA. You and your team were amazing. It was absolutely insane, and horribly stressful with all of the cancellations and quarantine restrictions. I will forever be grateful for your prompt help, and your cheerful positivity through it all! I don’t know how you do it all the time! You were a warrior and the reason why I got home to the USA before everything closed. Thank you so so very much. You guys are gold. Wish I could thank you more.”
“Thank you for your time and help. I have safely made it back to the US [and] I greatly appreciated the help of your security team…Please, let them all know that I deeply appreciated their support.”
“It was a pleasure speaking with you. You did a terrific job answering all my questions and were able to put my mind at ease during this difficult time.”
For over 25 years, On Call International has provided fully-customized travel risk management and global assistance services protecting millions of travelers, their families, and their organizations. Contact us today and watch our video to learn more. You can also stay in touch with On Call’s subject matter experts by signing up for our quarterly Travel Risk Management (TRM) newsletter.
