Has your business started delivering? Are you covered?

by | May 17, 2020 | Commercial

Delivery Services

The COVID-19 virus has been a struggle for us all.  I’ll spare you the small talk on the social, political, medical, and economic side effects of the shutdowns because I’m pretty sure everything that can be discussed has already been said 10 times over.  If you are like me you’ve probably heard enough about it already anyway! 

My goal with this article is to make sure that small businesses do not make quick decisions to try and save their business without consulting their insurance agent.  Many businesses have been forced to drastically alter their methods with many turning to delivery, and online sales.   This seems like a great idea until one of your young employees who barely can afford their car insurance before the crisis gets in an auto accident while on the clock.   Your business is on the hook for their actions while on the clock, so you must make sure you have the proper coverage to protect yourself.

Having your employees deliver products in their personal vehicles can pose some difficult insurance hurdles.  

3 things you should do today before making deliveries in your business:

  1. You must to check to see that your liability insurance covers you for hired and non-owned vehicles in order to extend your coverage to an employee in a personal vehicle.  If your not sure, give us a call. We can help you review your policy and confirm if it covers you.  We have some great options that can most likely help you to reduce your insurance cost.  
  2. You must make sure you check and verify that your employees meet state minimum insurance requirements, and that their policies provide coverage for delivery (most personal insurance policies do not).  They must have a commercial policy that allows delivery which is much more expensive.  For this reason most do not have it.  
  3. Be sure you are providing adequate PPE to your employees to keep them safe on the job.  Gloves, masks, hand sanitizer etc could all keep an employee safe, and prevent future claims for work related injuries and sickness.

We want everyone to stay safe and make wise decisions to keep your business running until we all get back to our normal routines.  We have many great insurance companies who have put together billions of dollars to help their clients through these times by providing forgiveness, decreased rating factors, delayed payments and more.  Give us a call if you are struggling to pay your insurance bill and need some ways to save.