Ep. 511 Four Ways Tree Care Companies Can Strengthen Their Insurance Profile
Rancho Mesa’s Marketing & Media Communications Specialist Megan Lockhart sits down with Rory Anderson, Partner with the Tree Care Group, to talk about several ways tree care companies can strengthen their insurance profile.
Show Notes: Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter
Host: Megan Lockhart
Guest: Rory Anderson
Producer/Editor: Jadyn Brandt
Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “Breaking News Intro” by nem0production
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Transcript
Megan Lockhart: You’re listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne™ podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive.
I’m your host, Megan Lockhart, filling in for Alyssa Burley today and I’m joined by Rory Anderson, Partner with Rancho Mesa. Today, we’re going to talk about several ways tree care companies can strengthen their insurance profile.
Rory, welcome to the show.
Rory Anderson: Megan it's great to be here thanks for having me.
ML: Glad to have you. Now when it comes to insurance the broker like yourself is responsible for representing the client's business to the marketplace. Will you quickly explain why it matters how the client's business is presented to the marketplace?
RA: Yeah certainly so if you're an underwriter and you're receiving two submissions, the first submission is just a basic submission with basic information. So that's going to be loss runs and accord and an application. And the second submission that you receive has those things plus additional information, like a full picture of their operations that really explains the good things that this business is doing from a safety standpoint and why they're a good risk, you can imagine which submission is going to get the better attention and the better pricing.
ML: Okay, so in the eyes of the underwriter, what helps the client's business stand out or what specifically are they looking for when deciding whether or not to offer terms?
RA: Yeah, so really as a tree care business owner, you should be aware of four specific areas that you want to focus on. Number one would be safety culture and documentation. So this could be your injury and illness prevention program. It could be your fall protection program. Anything that's documented on company letterhead that really shows your safety involvement and your documentation; it could be signed toolbox talks and things like that.
The second would be fleet management and driver oversight. With how challenging the commercial auto insurance market has been lately, those are going to be things that the underwriters are going to want to see. So if you have invested in Telematics, we want to know what is that program that you've implemented and how it's impacted your overall risk on a commercial auto. And then for driver oversight we just want to know how you know how are you selecting drivers and what does that look like.
The third thing would be claims history and potentially anything that you have learned from those large claims. So if there's any large claims whether that's general liability or workers’ compensation—maybe just some details on those claims because we know that there's a story that can be told right and so we want to know you know some details on those claims. And then maybe some things that you've done or implemented to sort of improve that risk and mitigate it from occurring again in the future.
And then the fourth thing would be industry credentials and professional involvement. So if you're a member of TCIA or ISA we want to know that and also if you have any specific certifications or credentials within those associations, so certified arborists, certified tree care, safety professional, things like that. Those are big things that the underwriting team wants to know.
ML: Yeah, having an established safety culture is great but you know it does need to be documented too and our SafetyOne platform makes that really easy to administrate and track all the weekly tree care toolbox talks, online safety trainings, so the records are available at any time and it really allows you as the broker to back up your narrative with actual documentation and when advocating for the client with the carriers.
And then I also wanted to mention that we have many tools available to help clients with fleet management and driver training through the SafetyOne Mobile app and website. We have multiple online driver training courses, digital vehicle inspection forms, and accident reports all designed to help clients manage their fleets and ensure their drivers are properly trained.
So what do you recommend clients do to ensure they're represented well in the marketplace?
RA: That's a great question and I always say this to the tree care business owner. You've got one broker to really go behind the curtain and negotiate for you and advocate for you on your behalf to the marketplace.
So, you know, you would ideally choose an experienced broker who really understands the tree care industry. Because if you have somebody who really understands the business versus a generalist insurance broker who doesn't necessarily understand the business and understands the insurance business certainly, but maybe not the specific tree care industry, you can imagine again going back to that, you know, who's going to get the better pricing, who's going to get the better conversation. You could imagine that it's going to be the experienced broker who understands the tree care business. So that would be my big thing there.
ML: Yeah, that makes sense. So working with a broker who understands your business is who's best to represent you in the market.
So Rory, if listeners have questions about how they can strengthen their insurance profile, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
RA: Yeah, just give me a call, 619-486-6437 or you can shoot me an email at randerson@ranchomesa.com and we'll make sure to connect.
ML: All right well Rory thanks for joining me in StudioOne.
RA: Have a great day thanks for having me.
ML: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne. If you enjoyed what you heard please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.