North Carolina building contractors have many insurance needs, from general liability insurance to workers compensation insurance as well as insurance for their vehicles.  One area that is often overlooked is equipment insurance .  This breaks down into coverage for heavy equipment and coverage for tools.  If you buy tool coverage in North Carolina, there is one catch you’d better know about.

I want to start with a quick look at the types of equipment coverage for contactors in NC.  This protection is referred to as inland marine coverage in insurance parlance but since that term makes no sense to the average consumer, I won’t use it in this discussion.  Usually the process of insuring your tools and equipment breaks down into two sections.  The most common coverage is the equipment coverage.  This protection is for your larger types of equipment from cranes all the way down to the lowly bobcat.  When you purchase this type of policy you will list each piece of equipment with a limit of coverage for each item.  The rates for this protection are lower than that for hand tools.

Tool coverage is the other option when you purchase your inland marine policy.  This is protection for loss to hand tools that you use in your business.  This type of coverage is normally set up with a total limit for all of your tools rather than an item by item listing.  The rates for tool coverage are much higher as you can imagine since the risk of theft loss is much greater for hand tools. 

If you insure your hand tools, be sure to be aware of the theft loss exclusion.  This exclusion says that if your tools are stolen from a vehicle, then the vehicle must have been locked and there must be some evidence of forcible entry into the vehicle.   I once had a contractor client of mine take his work van to a movie theater and forgot to lock the van.  When he came out of the movie, many of his hand tools were gone.  He was unable to collect for this loss on from his insurance company because there was no evidence of forced entry to his vehicle.

Insurance policies are full of twist and turns that can get the novice in trouble.  That’s why it is so important for you to always purchase insurance for your construction operations from an agent who specializes in contractors.  At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping contractors all over North Carolina with their insurance needs.  If we can help you in any way with your construction insurance policies, please call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

Used car dealers understand that their garage policy is one of their big expenses in their annual budget.  But few dealers understand how simple it can be to control the costs of auto dealers insurance.  Here are two quick and easy steps you can take that will significantly reduce your garage insurance policy rates over time.

To start at the beginning, the rate that each dealer pays for garage insurance is in large part a direct result of that dealer’s insurance loss history.  Our garage policies have available good experience credits of up to 40% of the policy premium.  That means a dealer with excellent loss experience can pay as much as 40% less for the same coverage than a dealer with a loss or two in their garage insurance loss history.  So, if you can find a way to reduce the number and severity of losses against your policy, you not only will have an easier time maintaining insurance coverage, you will be able to access the best rates out there. 

One of the biggest contributors to loss history for a dealer is the accidents that happen while a prospect is test driving one of their cars.  First of all, the car is unfamiliar to them, secondly they want to test out all the features so they are fiddling with the stereo, the navigation system and other features and this increases the likelihood of an accident.  So how can you reduce these types of claims against your dealers insurance policy?

The first step each dealer should take is to make sure that their garage policy form is one that forces the test driver’s personal auto insurance policy to step in and pay the claims caused by the test driver of their vehicle.  Not every garage insurance policy is created the same, but there are policies out there that state that as far as protection for your customer are concerned, your policy only pays if your customer doesn’t have a policy.  There are two big advantages for you as a dealer to make sure that you have this type of policy.  First of all, if the test driver can’t file claims on your policy, your claims will go down and you will have a better loss history and access to the best rates out there.  Secondly, if your policy does not have to build in enough money to pay for test driver losses, you will find that your rates will be lower in the first place.  To learn more about these types of policies, read my blog here.

Once you have the right kind of garage insurance in place, you need to make sure that all of your test drivers have their own auto insurance policy in force.  It will be impossible to do this with 100% certainty but at the very least you should ask them if they have auto insurance in force now.  Then ask them the name of the insurance company that they use just to sort of check on their honesty.  If you want to go a step further, you can ask to see a copy of their insurance id card in their glove box.  One more important question you should ask them is if they have collision coverage on their current policy.  If not, then you will probably have to file a claim against your dealers physical damage coverage on your own policy if they wreck your car.  This will be the only way to collect for the damages to your vehicle.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we write insurance for hundreds of used car dealers all across NC, SC, GA, VA, and TN.  If you would like for us to help you with your garage insurance, please call us  at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com.