Restaurant Insurance And Your Company Cars - What is DOC coverage and do you need it?

One of the wonderful things about owning your own business is that it offers you opportunities for tax savings and other lifestyle options that you would never have as an employee of that company. Often, one of the first perks a restaurant owner gives himself often is the company car. There are tax breaks associated with buying a car in your company name. But there are also some lesser understood insurance coverage issues that go along with this choice and this blog will help you understand one of them.

When you insure a vehicle that you purchase in the name of your company, you will need to purchase a business auto insurance policy. For the most part, this policy looks and acts a lot like the personal auto insurance policy that you are used to. But there are significant differences, one of which has to do with the problem of who is a named insured on the policy. With your personal auto insurance policy, the named insured is you of course. With a business auto policy, the corporation or business entity is the named insured. The subtle message here is that there are some protections that are afforded to a named insured on a policy that are not extended to the driver. By trading in your personally owned vehicle for a company owned vehicle with its associated business auto policy, you are giving up some protection for yourself.

I think an example might help point this out better. Let’s say one of your good friends comes and dines at your restaurant. After dinner he hangs around at the bar to watch a ball game and before you know it he is closing the place down. Your realize that maybe he shouldn’t be driving and so you agree to drive him home and you have your spouse follow you in the company car. Now, let’s further assume that on the way home you make an error of judgment, have an accident that is your fault and now face damages in that accident of $500,000. Your friend’s insurance company will pay most of the claim, but now they want to subrogate against you since you were liable for the accident in the first place (as the driver). So here’s where it gets tricky. If you have a North Carolina personal auto insurance policy and you are the named insured, then your personal auto policy will come to your aid and serve as excess coverage over that provided by your friend’s insurance company. But, if you have only a business auto policy, no such excess protection exists. And the real danger for most restaurant owners in this situation is that they just assume it would.

So what is the solution to the coverage gap? It’s pretty simple really. Just add DOC (stands for Drives Other Cars) coverage to the business auto policy. This endorsement will put you in the position of a named insured on your business auto policy. The policy can now list you and your spouse on your business auto policy and extend protections to you when you drive cars other than those listed on your business auto policy. Now I want to make it clear that if you are driving a company car and you still keep a personal auto insurance policy in force on your personally owned vehicles, that this coverage isn’t needed. But if the only cars you have are owned by your company, then call your agent today and make sure that this coverage gap is closed.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston-Salem, NC, we specialize in helping restaurant owners all across North and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance needs. We want all restaurant owners to be informed insurance consumers. We understand every restaurant is different from all the others and we know that you don’t want to buy protections that you don’t need or worse yet, miss out on the ones that you do need because you were lumped into some overly broad category of restaurant insurance. That is why we have created 5 distinct restaurant insurance programs. We have a special restaurant insurance package for fine dining restaurants, a unique restaurant insurance program for casual dining restaurants, a fast food restaurant insurance package, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a special insurance program for caterering companies. If you would like help with your restaurant insurance questions, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantStore.com.

You can find the source article for this essay along with other restaurant insurance articles at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Company Cars and Your Employees

Many restaurant owners out there have vehicles that are owned in the corporate name. This can run the gamut from personal cars for the restaurant owner to vans used for pickups and deliveries. These vehicles, titled in the business name should always be insured on a commercial auto policy in the same business name. There is a wrinkle in the coverage protection in this instance that can leave an injured employee without any coverage and could perhaps, leave your restaurant vulnerable.

I’m not talking about DOC protection which of course is another dangerous wrinkle when your restaurant has company owned cars. To learn how to protect your personal assets from that particular coverage gap, watch my DOC for restaurant owners video.

The problem that I want to address in this particular blog really relates to the risks of injuries that could occur to one of your employees. Sure, you have workers compensation insurance in case one of them gets injured. If not, read my blog on why you need to buy that coverage even if the law doesn’t require it. But the problem that can occur with a company owned vehicle and your employee is best described with an example.

Let’s say you send out an employee to make a delivery and since it is the last one of the night, you tell them to just drive the van home and bring it back when they come to work tomorrow. Now, assume that on the way home, after the last delivery was made, they have an accident that is their fault. Also assume that your employee is injured in this accident. Many restaurants do not offer health insurance to their employees so now where is this employee going to get the money to pay for his or her medical bills due to this accident? Well, the simple answer would seem to be that you just file a workers compensation claim for those injuries. After all, the employee was on the job. Wasn’t he? Well, in North Carolina we are seeing that type of claim denied by insurance companies. The argument is that when the employee is using the vehicle for personal use (in this case driving home from work), then that employee is not covered by workers compensation.

Now what are the downsides for you, the employer? First of all, your employee may face overwhelming medical bills and may not be able to afford the help needed to get back to work as quickly as otherwise might be the case. Also, there is some risk to you, the employer that a sharp attorney may find a way to drag you into a long, drawn out legal case due to the fact that your vehicle was involved. The final result for you is unclear and difficult to prognosticate but suffice to say, this is a situation that you want to be aware of and avoid if possible. I don’t have an insurance solution for you except to say that if your employee has life insurance, health insurance and disability insurance then most of the gaps will be covered. If not, the best advice is to make sure that you don’t provide company owned vehicles for your employees’ personal use.

Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC is an agency with a niche specialty in helping restaurant owners in both North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance needs. We have developed specialized programs for several different types of restaurants so that you don’t have to buy a one size fits all policy for your restaurant. We have a specialized insurance program for catering companies, a fast food restaurant insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program, a unique fine dining insurance program and a casual dining restaurant insurance package. If we can help you with your restaurant insurance questions, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557, or visit us online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

This article was created from source material which can be found online at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – What Does Facebook Have To Do With Your Insurance Rates?

Most savvy restaurant owners know that it is no longer enough just to have a web page. You need to have a mobile version of that page and for sure you had better have a place on Facebook. In fact, most people under age 25 are more likely to do a Facebook search for your restaurant than they are to search on Google. And the Facebook platform really allows restaurants to keep an open, flowing and connected form of communication with their clientele. But very few restaurant owners have taken even a moment to consider how their Facebook site might affect their insurance rates.

Let me start by saying that if you are leaving your restaurant insurance with the same company year after year and never shopping your restaurant insurance policies in the marketplace, then it may take much longer for the ensuing discussion to apply to your restaurant insurance policy. While it is true that some insurance companies will do reviews of restaurants prior to renewing their existing policies, this renewal review process is much lighter duty in general and affects a small percentage of restaurants in any given year. But what about the day you decide to switch agents or switch companies either for better service or a better product or just to save money? Well, when that day comes you don’t want your Facebook page to bite you in the butt.

Restaurant insurance pricing, just like most every other commercial insurance policy is pretty fluid. Sure, the companies will file their base rates on their product with the state authority. In North Carolina, rates are filed with the NC Insurance Commissioner’s Office. But they also file a list of schedule credits, which are just credits that they can choose or not choose to apply to their policies. In truth, very few restaurants are paying the full filed rates on their policies; most enjoy some level of scheduled credits that reduce their rate by some percentage from the base rate. And most important of all for the restaurant owner, is that the application of these credits is based on the underwriter’s comfort with how you are running your dining establishment.

In the old days, before the internet, all an underwriter had to go on was the application submitted by the agent, and perhaps a photo or two. But then came the internet and the underwriters started verifying the application information with the information found on the restaurant website. All of that worked pretty well and could actually work in the restaurant owner’s favor. Then came Facebook. And let’s face it, Facebook is a social media platform and the key word here is social. So many restaurants use their Facebook page as a way to show how much fun it is to visit their place of business. But it is important for the restaurant owner to understand that insurance underwriters are visiting there as well.

If you, as the restaurant owner, are not actively involved in operating your Facebook page, then you may be leaving yourself vulnerable to higher insurance rates on your restaurant insurance policy. Now, it may be worth it to show people dancing on the tables or having a big time at your establishment, if it brings in more business. But there may be a future hidden cost in your insurance policy that you are not counting on. My advice is to maintain your Facebook page in a way that won’t scare off a stodgy underwriter’s personality. If that makes the page to banal for your tastes and ambitions, then just be sure to recognize that you may see higher restaurant insurance rates in the future.

Clinard Insurance Group, Inc, is an independent insurance agency located in Winston Salem, NC. We specialize in insuring all types of restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina. Since not every restaurant has the same insurance needs, we have created 5 distinct restaurant insurance packages. We have a fast food restaurant insurance program, a bar and grill insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, an insurance program for fine dining restaurants and even a specialized insurance program for caterering companies. If we can help you with your restaurant insurance questions, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557, or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

When writing this article, we pulled extensively from a source article which can be found on our restaurant insurance blog site at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.