Rancho Mesa's Media Communications & Client Services Manager Alyssa Burley and Account Executive Casey Craig discuss ways business owners can cut down on the cost of inland marine coverage, help insulate themselves, and mitigate losses.
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Director/Host: Alyssa Burley
Guest: Casey Craig
Producer/Editor: Jadyn Brandt
Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence
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transcript
Alyssa Burley: 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, Alyssa Burley, and today I’m joined by Casey Craig, Account Executive with Rancho Mesa, he specializes in painting, plaster, and drywall contractors, and we’re going to talk about mitigating inland marine losses.
Casey, welcome to the show.
Casey Craig: Thanks for having me.
AB: Thanks for being here. Now, when I first started working with insurance professionals, I heard the term inland marine, and I remember thinking this must have to do with shipping or cargo ships, or something like that. So, in case we have listeners who may not be familiar with this type of insurance coverage, will you give a brief description of what an inland marine policy is actually covering?
CC: Absolutely. Yeah, this sometimes can be a forgotten line of insurance for our construction companies. It covers your materials, your equipment, and your tools once it leaves your guy's office. So anything that's in transit or at a job site. Sometimes insurance feel they have coverage through their property insurance, but once your equipment, material, or tools leave your premises, inland marine is going to be the line of insurance that covers that.
AB: Alright. So, has inland marine coverage historically seen fewer losses, about the same, or more than other lines of coverage?
CC: Historically, yeah, there were fewer losses. However, this has changed in recent years with bolder criminals stealing larger equipment and materials from job sites, breaking into work trucks to take more expensive tools, and vandalism.
AB: So, claims are increasing more and more. What are some ways business owners can cut down on the cost of this coverage and help insulate themselves or mitigate losses?
CC: Good question. You can start with utilizing new technology to track where you are storing your materials and equipment overnight and investing in security measures. You can help prevent claims and reduce premiums. With theft on the rise, it is a good time to make sure you are storing your materials and equipment in the best way possible. Placing air tags or similar GPS tools on larger equipment is extremely helpful in recovering stolen items and tracking where they're being stored. If leaving equipment at job sites, removing batteries is also helpful, but if possible, try not to leave equipment at job sites at all. Train your employees to properly secure and store equipment if they are taking it home in their work trucks. Most theft or vandalism are crimes that result from convenience or opportunity. The harder it is to commit the crime because of preventative measures, the less likely the crime will happen.
AB: So, those are great physical ways to help prevent materials and equipment from being stolen or vandalized on a jobsite. What do you recommend a contractor do if they’ve taken that advice but they still want to make sure that they’re getting the right kind of coverage?
CC: Yeah, first you want to ensure you have proper limits for your equipment and materials with your carrier. When reviewing and insuring your tools and equipment it is important to understand what is considered miscellaneous tools. Typically, this might be tools with less value than $2,500 thus necessitating the need to schedule equipment above the value. Oftentimes we see insurers who have aggregate miscellaneous tools limits much higher than needed and then also include those tools or equipment on the scheduled equipment list.
AB: Yeah that sounds like something that might happen quite frequently, do you have an example of that?
CC: Last year I had an insured that we went through when we had our whole pre-renewal meeting. They had an extensive scheduled equipment list and after they renewed they had decided to upgrade and they bought a ton of new equipment but they didn't let us know. Coincidentally they had their truck broken into and when it was broken into all of the new equipment that they had was in that truck. So they had miscellaneous limits that were pretty high you know 20,000 or so but the equipment that they had bought was 10 to 15 thousand dollars per and they ended up having to self-insure a lot of that.
AB: So it’s really important to make sure that you’re keeping on top of stuff like that. All right so switching gears a little bit specifically, when we’re talking about materials on a jobsite, is there a difference between if a loss occurs in transit opposed to on a jobsite?
CC: Yes, it’s important to distinguish between the limits for materials in transit, at a jobsite or temporarily stored. These limits should be specific to your actual needs and not necessarily always the same values – this is a common mistake. These vital discussions can help you save on premiums and ensure you are properly insulated from exposures.
AB: So, is inland marine coverage expensive?
CC: Inland marine isn’t typically one of your more expensive insurance items in your portfolio, but it is something needs monitoring to keep costs down and make sure frequency of losses stay low. With rising costs in both auto and property insurance, it is becoming more important to make sure you are insulating your company from risk as much as possible to keep your controllable exposures down.
AB: It sounds like discussing your inland marine coverage with your insurance broker regularly can help keep premiums and losses down because they can help you figure out if your digital equipment is correct and all of that. So Casey, if listeners have questions about their inland marine policy or any other of their coverages, what’s the best way to get in touch with you?
CC: You can email me at ccraig@ranchomesa.com, or you can give me a call at (619) 438-6900
AB: All right, well Casey, thank you for joining me in StudioOne™.
CC: Always a blast, thank you guys.
AB: 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.
