ATTENTION CONTRACTORS!!!!

A new law requires a safety course for contractors who do PUBLIC WORK where the total cost of all work performed under the contract is at least $250,000. The law takes effect in July 2008, and requires all workers to be certified as having completed OSHA's 10 hour safety course prior to performing any work on the project. It is believed that this new law will improve the general safety and health of all labors, workers, and mechanics by directing them to take the safety course. The ten hour course provides employees with the proper safety methods to be used during construction, reconstruction, maintenance and repair of public work. The basis of the bill is that accidents on the job site will decrease when employees are aware and apply the proper safety measures during work.



The implementation of these safety recommendations can also help to REDUCE your insurance costs by reducing the number and severity of job site injuries and accidents. If you need more information on the safety course here is the OSHA website: http://www.osha.gov/

WE ARE FINALLY GOING GREEN!!!

I am ashamed to say that ever since 2002 we have been trying to create a completely "paperless" office. We have debated how scanning all of our documents would effect or workflows, transactions, and most important our comfort level. In the insurance world everything is driven by paper. Many insurance companies claim that they have gone paperless, when in fact they have just passed the paper, along with its costs and work, down to the agent. There is nothing worse than seeing stacks of paper that need to be manually put in each client's corresponding file piling up for weeks on end until someone gets so sick of seeing it that they put it away. In a perfect world it would be put away the same day that it was recieved and transacted; however, who works in a perfect world?





So last month we finally decided to purchase a heavy duty scanner, revise our workflows, and finally set off into the paperless world. It created a lot of apprehension within the office, but it needed to be done. As the younger generation in the office it sounded like a no brainer to be able to access every piece of information and with of a click of the button have it show up on your computer screen. No more stacks of papers, no more broken nails from filing, and no more ugly filing cabinets... We recieve the paper, scan it into our computer system, and then shred the paper. We are happy to report that after working out the kinks and scanning for the past three weeks it has been nothing but a success. Looking back at all of our worries and concerns is now comical because it HAS worked so well...

SHOULD YOU PURCHASE RENTAL CAR INSURANCE??

I saw this great article on CNN.com today regarding whether a consumer should purchase the insurance coverage that is offered by rental car companies. Please read the article and if you have any questions contact us or your credit card company.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/traveltips/02/21/good.question.ap/index.html

Are Workers Compensation Costs "Hurting" Your Bottom Line

Many businessowners believe that all of their insurance costs are out of their direct control. Well you may be wrong if this is what you believe. One type of coverage that the businessowner can control or influence is their workers compensation costs. Workers compensation reforms of 2007 enacted by Governor Spitzer have driven down the cost of workers compensation insurance. How can your business take advantage of the reduced workers comp costs?? Understnding loss-sensitive premium elements is the first step. Two key factors determine workers comp. premium: manual rates applied to your payroll, and your company's individual accident experience rating modification ("mod"). The experience rating method takes into account that although similar employers pay the same basic manual rates, they have different loss histories and may not have similar commitments to safety. The plan adjusts for those differences by modifying the overall premium paid by the businessowner. If when your losses are calculated and are less than average for your type and size of business the workers comp. board applies a Debit or Credit "mod". Of course a debit means increased premiums and a credit means a lower premium.

Three ways to control your experience mod and lower your premiums are: Make Accident Prevention Your Strategy, Pay Small Claims, and Develop a Formal Safety Plan. The Labor Dept. says that it takes four complete policy years for the experience mod to benefit from reduced claims and better safety. The key to reducing your workers compensation costs is to develop and implement a safety plan for your business. Start small with: machine guarding, housekeeping and OSHA compliance. Most importantly be PATIENT. It will take time to see results, but if done correctly it can results in thousands of dollars of premium reductions!!!!

The Crazy World of Insurance

As a young third generation insurance person doing business in the ever changing insurance world, where consumers have many different avenues with which they purchase insurance, I think it is time to bring our agency out of the dark ages and into the blogging world. Insurance is not the most exciting topic to read (or write about) for that matter; however, from our agency's perspective, we believe that an educated consumer is key to solidifiying the need to maintain a relationship with an agency (a human) as opposed to a Gecko or a person in Bangledesh speaking broken English who could care less if you have the proper insurance coverage. With over 5,000 customers, we believe that we can continue to provide any client with the most comprehensive coverage at a competitive price as we have been doing since 1928.



I will do my best to update the blog daily to include the latest insurance news, new products, and even feature some of the customers that we have provided great service and coverage for. As this is also a blog for a business, I may even be able to point out a coverage that you may have not even thought of and make a sale as well.