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 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 – Before You Buy, Qualify Your Agent

Restaurant insurance is a complex and wildly variant contract. Each restaurant has its own quirks and operational differences from the kinds of food that may be offered to how it is prepared to how it is served. And all of these variables make insuring a restaurant a complex and highly interactive process when it is done correctly. These factors point out the need for a specialist.

Restaurants are not cookie cutter businesses. They vary widely in scope and design and they have some really unique risk factors that, if overlooked, could prove catastrophic to the business itself. So, as a restaurant owner, whether you like it or not, you are going to need to have some working knowledge of the insurance industry. Now for someone starting a new restaurant, the path of least resistance would be to call up the insurance agent who handles your car insurance or your homeowners insurance and ask for a quote on your restaurant. And here’s the scary part: This agent could give you a quote and most likely write you a policy. Why is that scary? Well, let me highlight that with an example. Imagine if you had a rare disease and your family practice doctor would or could take a crack at trying to heal you instead of sending you to a specialist who understands that rare disease. Now that’s a scary thought isn’t it? Well, not protecting your restaurant business by hiring a specialist should be just as scary a proposition.

Doctors will give referrals to specialists, but unfortunately for you, most insurance agents wouldn’t dream of referring on business of which they are not well qualified to insure. They don’t want to give up the commission. So how do you, as a restaurant owner, protect yourself from this risk? Well, start by asking your agent how many restaurants he or she currently insures. If they give you a number under 10 you should be worried, as they can’t have accumulated the combined experience and wisdom needed to understand your business if they just insure a handful of similar businesses. A better number would be more than 100 though. You see, unlike the patient with the rare disease, these agents’ lack of knowledge might never be exposed unless and until there is a large loss. So even they may not know what potential problems are lurking there for their current clients.

Do your research online. Take a look at their website. Do they seem to specialize in restaurants or do they look more like a generalist? Have they been blogging about restaurant insurance issues? Do they o present themselves to the public as a specialist that can really help you uncover the root issues that you may have with your insurance program?

Restaurants are a unique and interesting niche out there for insurance agents. As a result, there are many who do specialize in helping restaurants manage their risks in the most effective ways. You can find them without having to do hours and hours of research and in this case Google can be your friend. Take a moment to check up on your current agent and make sure that you are dealing with a specialist. It won’t cost you more to hire the best to help you and in fact the irony is that, unlike most professions, with insurance you can hire the specialist for your business and pay less at the same time. It’s a real win win for restaurant owners and you can take advantage of this situation with less than an hour’s worth of research.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC we are one of those agencies with a specialty in restaurant insurance. We insure more than 50 different restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina. We know that each restaurant is different from the others and so we have developed 5 different restaurant insurance programs to help make a better custom fit for our clients. We have a bar and grill and tavern insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a dynamite insurance package for fast food restaurants and even a specialized insurance program for caterers. If we can help you with restaurant insurance questions, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this blog can be found in full at the blog located at http://www.restaurantinsuranceguy.com/.

Restaurant Insurance – Equipment Breakdown Coverage Revisited

In the past I have blogged about equipment breakdown coverage for restaurants and I have discussed one of the more obvious reasons for needing it – breakdown of heating or air conditioning systems. However, with rapid technological changes in the restaurant industry, there are new areas of concern that give new weight to the value of carefully considering adding this protection to your restaurant insurance policy.

Specifically, I want you to think of the new technologies that you may have added to your restaurant in the past 5 years that you now rely on for smooth day to day operations. Which of these could you do without for an extended period of time? How much would it cost you to replace lost income due to the breakdown of this equipment? For instance, many restaurants now use sophisticated, computer based cash registers that integrate with point of sale software systems. What losses would you face if this system broke down? Could you stay open?

Another area of consideration for your equipment breakdown coverage is your commercial grade sound system if you have one, or your inventory scanner system or even your time clock and payroll system that might be run from your computerized register. If these systems go down, your restaurant could be crippled and the lost revenue while you struggle to get your systems running again could be substantial.

All of these new electronic systems are at risk for power surges and electrical arcing. Unbudgeted losses from breakdown of these systems can be significant enough that for some restaurants equipment breakdown coverage should no longer be considered an optional coverage but rather a critical one. Take a moment to check your restaurant insurance policy and see if you have equipment breakdown coverage. After the systems break, it will be too late to go back then and add the coverage.

Restaurants are a unique kind of business and they present unique insurance challenges. If you own a restaurant then you should take the time to seek out an insurance agent who specializes in restaurant insurance. Don’t trust your protection to a generalist. You will likely save money and be better protected if you find an agent who understands restaurants and insures dozens or even hundreds of them.

Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC is an independent insurance agency that specializes in restaurant insurance. We write insurance for more than one hundred restaurants in North Carolina and South Carolina. Our understanding of how each restaurant is different from the others has led us to create 5 distinct restaurant insurance programs. We have a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food restaurant insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a specialized insurance program for catering companies. If we can help you with your restaurant insurance needs, or if you simply need a professional second opinion on any restaurant insurance issues, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

You can find the original source material for this article at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – UL 300 System Part 2

In part one of this two part series we discussed ways to identify if your current system is a UL 300 system or not. If you have discovered that you are using an older system, then what should you do about it? Well our advice is to replace your old system with a new one that is UL 300 approved.

Before we get to the replacement question, here is a list of situations where most local governments will require the use of a UL 300 system.

Use of vegetable based oils in frying.

Any addition or change or any appliance from the original installation.

Any change to the hood or duct system.

The suppression system can no longer be maintained as required for 6 month maintenance due to the lack of available replacement parts or the servicing company refusing to service the out of date unit.

In addition, it is important to note that all dry chemical units are non-compliant as are the following wet chemical units unless modifications have been made:

Ansul R-102, all sizes 1988- 1995,

Ansul Steel tanks (red in color), all sizes 1988 – 2001,

Kidde Aqua Blue, all sizes 1988 – 1995,

Range Guard, all sizes 1977 – 1995.

Many of these UL 300 wet units can be upgraded, but the difference in cost between a new one and a retrofitted one is rarely more than 15% so most restaurants opt for the new system.

One last note about changing your system: If you do so, please remove any dry chemical fire extinguisher from the kitchen area as their interaction with the UL 300 liquid agents will serve to spread the fire rather than extinguish it. NFPA 10 requires that only K rate fire extinguishers be kept in your kitchen area.

In part 1 of this blog I mentioned that you there are ways to have someone else pay for the cost of replacing your old, noncompliant system with a newer UL 300 system. So how does that work? It’s simple really. There are many insurance companies out there that understand the value of the UL 300 system and as such will provide huge discounts for restaurants utilizing this newer system. We have seen these discounts more than pay for the upgrade of systems in our work. If your agent isn’t currently giving you the full discounts for your UL 300 system, you should choose an insurance company that values this safety feature and is willing to cut your insurance costs because you have it installed.

Clinard Insurance Group, Inc., is an independent insurance agency, located in Winston Salem, NC. We specialize in helping all kinds of restaurants all across NC and SC. If you need help with your restaurant insurance questions, or if you would like to see how much money you can save with our specialized restaurant insurance programs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com. We have several specialized insurance programs for the different types of restaurants out there so we should be able to find a solution that best suits your needs. Our special programs include our fine dining insurance package, our casual dining insurance package, our fast food insurance package, our bar and grill insurance package and our special insurance program for caterers.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – UL 300 System And Your Restaurant – Part 1

Older fire suppression systems for restaurants may no longer be enough to extinguish restaurant fires today. That is because of new cooking media and newer cooking methodologies that can generate higher temperatures and lower flash points. This 2 part series will look at the new UL300 standards and help you understand what you have now and what you may want in the future.

So what is UL300? UL 300 is the standard for testing of fire extinguishing systems for protection of restaurant cooking areas. Underwriters Laboratories, Inc, referred to as UL, is an independent, not for profit product safety testing and certification organization. How do you know if your current system is UL 300? According to Underwriters Laboratories, the only way to know is to check that the model number on your fire suppression system is UL 300 compliant. If so, then you must verify that all components have been installed as specified by the manufacturer’s manual.

The best place to start is to look for the UL300 label on the systems extinguishing chemical tank. Another indicator is the type of discharge nozzle located over each cooking surface. All UL 300 compliant systems use a wet extinguishing agent. Discharge nozzles for the older, dry chemical systems are fairly large, usually around 2 inches in diameter. Wet system nozzles are narrow, typically ¾ inch to 1 inch in diameter and are typically covered with red, orange or yellow plastic caps to keep them clean.

You may have to ask the fire protection company that is offering the ongoing service and inspections on your system. You can identify them by finding the service record tag. This tag is normally attached to the manual pull box for the system.

Here are some red flag indicators that your system is not UL 300 compliant:

Installed prior to 11/21/1994.

No UL label on the cylinder.

Dry chemical extinguishing media.

Dry chemical discharge nozzles – large size – 2 inches in diameter

System uses water spray to protect appliances.

System uses a single nozzle to protect multiple appliances or multiple cooking surfaces.

So what if your current system is not UL 300 compliant? In that case I would recommend that you replace it with a UL 300 system. In part 2 of this 2 part series I will show you how to go about that and how to get someone else to pay for it.

Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC, is an insurance agency that specializes in insuring restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina. If you have a restaurant in NC or SC and would like our help answering your restaurant insurance questions, please call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com. We know that not every restaurant is the same, so we have developed 5 specialized restaurant programs to meet your specific needs. We have a fine dining restaurant insurance plan, a casual dining restaurant insurance plan, a fast food restaurant insurance plan, a bar and grill and tavern insurance plan and a special insurance program for caterers.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Part 10 Liquor Liability

This is the final installment of our 10 part series on buying restaurant insurance for NC and SC restaurants. This installment covers the often overlooked but almost always needed protection for liquor liability. Now if your restaurant doesn’t sell any alcohol, then you will not need to purchase this protection. But if you do sell alcohol, then this is a coverage that you can’t afford to do without. Skipping this protection could force you to sell your restaurant and lose most of what you have worked for all of your life. Yeah, it’s that important.

Liquor liability protects your restaurant against 3^rd party claims for those injured by an inebriated person who consumed some or all of their alcohol at your restaurant prior to the loss. The loss most often comes in the form of a car accident. Hold on you say, you would never serve someone who is drunk, or let a drunk leave your bar with his car keys in hand. But the liability issue doesn’t work that way. Here’s a real world example. One of our clients had a claim several years ago that cost their insurance company over $750,000 and that was less than 1/3 of the total damages. You see, they had served a customer a couple of drinks with dinner. This customer left their restaurant about 8:30 pm and then visited two bars before finally killing another person in an auto accident around 2 am. This customer was not drunk when he left our client’s restaurant, but because they had served him alcohol, our client was dragged into the lawsuit and forced to defend themselves and ultimately forced to share in the damages.

Hopefully now I have your attention and you understand how important it is to have this protection. Now let’s talk about buying this coverage. There are two ways liquor liability insurance is sold. One is as a standalone policy and the other is ad an add on to your businessowners or package policy for your restaurant. Stand alone policies are generally more expensive and are most often used for true bars and night clubs as opposed to restaurants. If you own a restaurant and your liquor liability is a standalone policy, then this should be an immediate red flag that you need to evaluate your current policy and your insurance agent as you may not be using a true restaurant insurance specialist.

Rates for liquor liability vary widely from one insurance company to the next and also from one program to the next offered by the same company. There are several factors that can drive your liquor liability rate. First of all is the ratio of alcohol sales to food sales. Get this ratio above 30% and you are going to start falling out of the most preferred rate plans. Get above 50% and you may find yourself kicked out of the businessowners add on coverage and be forced to purchase a standalone liquor liability policy. Another factor is the type of alcohol that you sell in your establishment. If you sell only beer and wine and no hard liquor, then you should have a reduced rate. If you are selling no hard liquor at all, then you need to check with your agent to be sure that he or she knows this and that this is reflected in your rate. Past claims will also play a big part in what rate you pay and whether or not you are able to add this protection to your businessowners policy or if you have to purchase a standalone policy. The last factor that can impact your rate is the type of safety training and safety programs that you are running in your restaurant to help prevent a liquor liability claim from happening.

One last tip that should be mentioned relates to bar and grill and tavern type restaurants. Often these types of restaurants are discriminated against in their liquor liability rate and get classified as night clubs. This is often unfair and you should know that there are a few programs out there that recognize this and have special rates for bar and grill type establishments that don’t treat them as night clubs. For more information on the bar and grill liquor liability issue, please read my blog on this topic by clicking here.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping restaurant owners with their insurance needs. We understand the importance of using an insurance specialist for your industry and we work hard to fill that need for our clients. Our specialty with restaurant owners is so broad that we can usually help you with every type of policy that you buy for your business and for your family, including your family auto insurance, your home insurance and your life insurance and retirement planning. We also understand that not all restaurants have the same insurance needs and as such we have developed 5 different restaurant insurance programs so that you aren’t subsidizing add on coverages that you don’t need. We have a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food restaurant insurance program, a bar and grill and taveren insurance program and a special insurance program for catering companies. If we can help you with your restaurant insurance in either North Carolina or South Carolina, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantStore.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found in their entirety at www.RetaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Part 6 – Business Auto Insurance

This is the 6^th part in a 10 part series on how to insure your restaurant. This article deals with auto insurance for your business and discusses a few of the pitfalls that restaurant owners need to wary of when setting up their restaurant insurance program.

Business Auto insurance is an easy one to overlook when you are setting up your restaurant and planning your insurance needs. Often the restaurant owner will tell me that he doesn’t have any cars in the company name, so why worry about business auto insurance. This seems reasonable on the surface. But the problem is that you don’t have to own any vehicles to get yourself into a world of hurt with an auto loss for your business.

Here’s the problem. At some point in time, and probably more often than you may at first imagine, someone, be it you or an employee of yours, is going to be out there running errands on behalf of the business. Let’s say your employee is taking a deposit to the bank and runs a red light and severely injures a mother and two children. Now, assume the costs of the injuries from this accident run in excess of $500,000. Well, you didn’t cause the accident so why should you worry? The problem will stem from the fact that it is unlikely that your employee who caused the accident will have high enough insurance limits on his or her personal auto policy to cover these losses. And since the errand was run on behalf of your restaurant, your corporation or partnership or LLC or whatever entity owns your restaurant can be held liable for the excess losses that are not covered by your employee’s personal auto insurance policy. And in this case, if your employee has only $100,000 of auto insurance bodily injury protection and no real assets to speak of, then your business is now the deep pocket in this event and that puts you on the hot seat.

So what do you do about this? The solution is wonderfully simple and also inexpensive. What you need is a business auto insurance coverage called nonowned auto coverage. If you do have a business auto policy because you have vehicles titled in the company name, then you can add this coverage to that policy. The cost is usually under $100 per year. While you are at it, you may as well add hired auto coverage as well since the cost of this coverage is also very low. In fact you may already have this coverage. To find out, take out your business auto policy and check the symbol showing beside the liability section. If you see a symbol 1, or a symbol 9, then you already have nonowned coverage. If you don’t have a business auto policy already, then most restaurant business owners policies will allow you to add both hired and nonowned auto insurance to that policy. If neither of these is possible, then you can simply purchase a standalone hired and nonowned auto policy, usually for under $250 per year.

There is also a second problem that occurs very often with restaurant owners. Often I see that the restaurant owner chooses to re-title all of the family cars in the name of the restaurant. While this is often a good tax strategy, it leaves the restaurant owner vulnerable to a coverage gap that I call the DOC trap. Basically this is a situation where all of the insurance protection is written in the name of the corporation or LLC and the individual family members don’t have a personal auto insurance policy with their names listed on the policy as named insureds. If you find yourself in this situation, and then you have an at fault accident, then the protected entity is the owner of the car, in this case the corporation. After the insurance company pays the claim on behalf of the corporation, they then own the claim as it were. This means that the insurance company has the right to subrogate this claim against you, the individual. With no personal auto policy in your name anywhere, you have nowhere to turn for your protection and now you are forced to pay this clam out of your pocket. The solution to this problem is to add DOC or (Drives Other Car) coverage to your commercial auto policy in the name of the restaurant. This endorsement will name each person who needs the coverage extended to them. The cost generally runs under $200 per person per year but without it you are out there riding without a spare so to speak. To learn more details about the DOC trap, visit my blog here.

There are so many different things that a restaurant owner has to worry about, just to keep the doors open. The last thing you need is a policy with holes in it that you only find out about after a loss. Take the proactive step of finding an agent who specializes in writing NC restaurant insurance. It’s just not worth the risk to do otherwise.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance needs. We understand your business and we speak your language. That’s because I have owned 4 different restaurants myself in the past. We understand that not all restaurants are the same on they don’t all need the same coverages. To help prevent you from buying a package of coverages that includes things you don’t need, or one that leaves out important coverages you do need, we have developed 5 different restaurant insurance programs. We have a fine dining insurance program, a special insurance program for casual dining restaurants, one for fast food restaurants, a unique bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a caterers insurance program. If we can help you with your restaurant questions, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article can be found in articles located at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance Part 4 of 10 – Spoilage Coverage

This 4^th part in a 10 part series deals with spoilage coverage and what you need to know when purchasing it. As you will see, there are a couple pitfalls here that you will want to avoid.

Spoilage protection is coverage that almost every restaurant owner should consider purchasing. Of course, like all insurance coverages, you should consider the need and weigh that against the costs, but in most cases spoilage protection is fairly inexpensive and could be a real help if you lose your cooler, especially if it goes out at a time when it is full of prepped work for a large function. But as I mentioned, there are a few pitfalls to avoid when purchasing this coverage.

Spoilage protection is coverage that is typically added to your businessowners policy. And while that is a great convenience, it leads to our first pitfall – coverage limits. Take a few minutes to calculate your worst case scenario with a loss of the use of your cooler and make sure you know how much money you stand to lose if this happens at the absolute worst time. Now, make sure that you have at least that much spoilage coverage on your policy. You see, with add on coverages like this, often times the insurance company that designed the program simply has a flat amount of protection, say $5000 or $10,000 worth that comes with the spoilage coverage. But it is very important that you take the time to evaluate what you need here and then make sure that you can add that amount of spoilage coverage to your policy.

So what is the other pitfall? Well, this one is a bit more insidious and will take more research on your part. You should take a moment to read over the policy wording on your spoilage coverage to understand what requirements are being put on you in order for the protection to trigger in the event of a claim. Many of these spoilage endorsement forms require that you have a refrigeration maintenance agreement in place and that your refrigeration units are inspected at defined regular intervals. Failure to do so could make this coverage void so you see how important it is to know what you are dealing with in this area.

All of this points out just how important it is for you, as a restaurant owner, to purchase your insurance from an agent that specializes in restaurant insurance. There are just too many small print items that can come back to bite you.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, restaurants are our specialty. We insure many different types of restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina. We know that there are many different kinds of restaurants, each very different from the other and each with widely different needs in terms of risk management, marketing and protection. This is why we have created 5 uniquely different restaurant insurance programs. We have a fine dining insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance programand a special insurance program for caterers. If we can help you with your insurance needs or simply answer a question for you, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this blog can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance Basics – Part 3 of 10 – Business Income Insurance

Part 3 in our 10 part series discusses Business Income insurance and how to use it to correctly protect your loss of income after insured disasters.

Business Income, sometimes referred to as business interruption insurance is often overlooked when the restaurant owner sets up his or her restaurant insurance program. This is because with most businessowners policies, this coverage is now included automatically. This is of course a great convenience for those who might overlook this protection in the first place. But this automatic protection does not remove the need for you to take the time to understand this coverage and make sure that it will respond in the way you expect after a large loss.

Before this coverage was simplified and added into the businessowners policy coverage, it was sold separately under the name business interruption coverage. If you still have a package policy as opposed to the businessowners form, then you will probably need to add this coverage by endorsement. Either way, there are several different elements to this protection and you should understand each clearly.

Before I tackle the different elements of business income protection, it is important to note that business income coverage is a consequential loss form. That means, the losses that you incur which are to be covered by this part of your insurance policy have to be the consequence of an insured peril in the first place. For instance, if a fire burns your building down, then the fire loss is covered by the businessowners policy and so therefore, the business income coverage will apply. If, on the other hand, you have a flood loss to your restaurant, then that type of loss is not covered by the businessowners policy so you will not have protection for your lost income.

To understand these elements of this protection, I will focus on the most common form of policy, the businessowners policy. Bear in mind that these are generalities and you should discuss your specific form with your agent if you have difficulty understanding it. First of all, business income is usually defined as net profit or loss before income taxes that would have been earned or incurred if no physical loss or damage had occurred. So, we are talking about lost profits here. But what else should be considered? Well, the form usually also includes normal continuing operating expenses. These are expenses that will continue on even when you are shut down and out of business. They might include rent, electricity, water etcetera and most importantly payroll. If you can’t pay your employees while you are shut down, you might lose them. Often though, the coverage for payroll can be limited in both time and scope. Many common forms only include payroll for 60 days past the date of the physical loss that triggered the business income coverage. In addition, most forms exclude payroll for owners, executives, department managers and employees under contract. Also, you should check your policy form carefully to see if any of the following are included or excluded in the definition of payroll: employee benefits, fica payments you pay, union dues you pay, and workers compensation premiums you pay.

One additional element of this protection deals with extra expense. Extra expenses are those that you must bear in order to get your restaurant back in business more quickly. You may have to expedite shipments or rent another location to get in business while your old one is repaired. You should put together a firm and clear disaster plan for what you would do if your restaurant is destroyed by fire and then be sure that your business income protection will respond in a way that works well for your plan.

I think that the business income section of your policy is a place that points out just how important it is for you to deal with an agent and company that specializes in insuring restaurants. There is too much to lose here and you can’t fix it very easily after the big loss has occurred. Take the time to make sure you have hired the professionals that you need to make sure you don’t lose your livelihood in an accident that is compounded by poor disaster and risk management planning.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance consumers become better informed buyers. Insuring and helping restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina is our specialty. We even have ways to help you gain and keep more customers. For one example of that type of program, visit our partners page. We also know that not all restaurants are the same. That’s why we have created 5 different restaurant insurance programs so that you can choose a program more tailored to your needs. We have a fine dining insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a special insurance program for caterers. If you need help or advice for your NC restaurant or your SC restaurant, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com. Don’t trust your livelihood to an agent that doesn’t specialize in restaurants. There is just no need to take that risk.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com

Restaurant Insurance Basics – Part 2 of 10 – Liability Insurance

This is the second in a 10 part series on the how to’s of insuring your restaurant. In this article we discuss liability insurance, what it is and what issues you should consider when purchasing your liability insurance.

Generally speaking your liability insurance will be a part of your package policy that also includes property insurance. For help on property insurance issues for your restaurant, check out part 1 of this series by clicking here.

Your liability insurance for your restaurant is generally divided into two kinds of protection. They are premises liability and products liability. Premises liability insurance provides protection for your restaurant for damages caused by accidents for which you can be held liable that happen on your premises. The easiest example of a premises liability claim would be a customer who slips on a wet floor and is injured as a result. Products liability insurance provides protection for your restaurant for injuries or property damages caused by the products that you make and sell; the food in your restaurant. A common example of a products liability claim would be a broken tooth when a customer bites down on some foreign matter in their entrée.

The liability section of your restaurant insurance policy should provide you with both premises and products liability. When you look at the limits of coverage provided by these different liability coverages you will usually see a per occurrence limit and a general aggregate limit. The per occurrence limit is the most that the insurance company will pay on your behalf for any one occurrence of that type. The general aggregate limit is the most that your insurance policy will pay in any one policy year. So, each claim that you have in a policy year will reduce the amount left on your general aggregate limit. Pay very close attention to these limits and make sure that you are comfortable with the limits on your policy. Generally I would advise you to purchase the highest liability limits that you can afford. The reason is that liability exposures, unlike property exposures, are unlimited. For example, if you own your restaurant building and it burns down, you know how much you will lose and what it will take to rebuild it. But with liability claims, you really can’t predict in advance how high the damages will go. For that reason the most prudent approach is to purchase the highest coverage limits that are available.

Liability insurance is rated based on a factor that helps anticipate your exposure to risk. Some seem like better predictors than others to me. Most common these days is to tie the liability rate to the property insurance costs, using a sliding scale or a flat amount for the different levels of liability coverage. This approach is most common in the businessowners policy form and is more about simplification than anything else. Other policy forms will have a rate per $1000 of gross sales to calculate your liability insurance premium. These types of formats will often require an audit at the end of the policy term to determine your actual gross sales for that time period. If you overestimated your gross sales, then you would be due a refund, if you underestimated them, then you would owe more money. If you have this type of policy form, be sure to read my blog on avoiding the audit trap.

Take the time to really think about your liability insurance limits and make sure that your policy is set up correctly so that it will respond the way you want it to in the event of an accident. If you are not using an agent who specializes in insuring restaurants, you should seriously consider doing so. Ask your agent if he or she insures at least 25 restaurants and if the answer is no, you may want to consider using an expert to protect your largest investment and your livelihood.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we want all insurance consumers become better informed buyers. Insuring and helping restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina is our specialty. We even have ways to help you gain and keep more customers. For one example of that type of program, visit our partners page. We also know that not all restaurants are the same. That’s why we have created 5 different restaurant insurance programs so that you can choose a program more tailored to your needs. We have a fine dining insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a special insurance program for caterers. If you need help or advice for your NC restaurant or your SC restaurant, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com. Don’t trust your livelihood to an agent that doesn’t specialize in restaurants. There is just no need to take that risk.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com

Restaurant Insurance Basics - Part 1 Property Insurance

This article is the first in a 10 part series that will cover the basics of insuring your restaurant. Our goal here is to give you a bird’s eye view of the options and issues that you, as the restaurant owner, should consider as you go about evaluating your current insurance coverage or as you tackle the job of insuring your restaurant for the first time. Part 1 covers the property insurance needs that you will have.

Let’s start by touching on basics of the property that you need to insure. Some of this is obvious and some of it less so. The most obvious items here are the building, if you own it or are responsible for insuring it, and the contents in the building such as tools, equipment, inventory, dishes, tables etc. There are also a few less obvious property items to insure. The first of these would apply to restaurants who don’t need building coverage but who have invested in fixtures and remodeling that is permanently attached to the building. For these items you need tenant’s betterments and improvements coverage. Bear in mind that this coverage is added at the building insurance rate but will only apply to items that you actually did pay to install. If your lease requires you to insure the air conditioners on the roof but you didn’t actually pay to install them in the first place, your tenant’s improvements and betterments coverage will not help you out if they are hit by lightning and destroyed.

This brings me to another issue that is often overlooked by restaurant owners. It is very important that you take the time to read your lease carefully to see just what you are agreeing to in terms of insurance requirements. You may be required to insure things that don’t belong to you and this may force some extra work and research on your part as you set up your property insurance coverage. For more detailed help on this, read my blog about leases and their impact on restaurant owners’ insurance policies.

One of the sub categories of property coverage deals with the valuation of the items that you are covering. In general, there are 2 choices of valuations, actual cash value and replacement cost. Actual cash value is defines as replacement cost coverage minus depreciation. Replacement cost coverage is the cost that it will take to replace that item with a new one at the time of loss. Most policies are written on a replacement cost basis and in general that is what I would recommend. But there are some situations, for instance with older buildings, when you may want to consider using actual cash value as your valuation method. For more detailed information on this situation, read my blog here.

The valuation decision is an important one in that it will help you decide how much insurance to buy for the building and contents and betterments. You should always insure for the full value (either replacement value of actual cash value) of the item or items you are insuring. That is because most policy will have a coinsurance clause. Coinsurance is the tool that insurance companies use to make sure all of the policyholders carry full value. The reason that is important to them is that most losses are partial losses and some people would prefer to reduce their insurance costs by insuring for only part of the value of their assets. If this were to happen, then those who insure for full value would be heavily subsidizing those that purchased partial insurance. To remedy this problem, most all property insurance policies have a coinsurance clause. This clause imposes a penalty at the time of loss on those who did not carry full value insurance. The coinsurance clause is a bit complicated but important to understand so please read my blog about coinsurance here.

The last consideration that this article will cover regarding your restaurant insurance property coverage is your deductible. Your deductible is the amount of money that you will spend in the event of a loss, before the insurance money kicks in. Since insurance is best used for large, catastrophic losses, it is generally felt that you should carry the highest deductible you can comfortably pay without a huge disruption to your cash flow. Always evaluate the deductible you choose against the savings it provides on your insurance policy costs. You can evaluate it by considering how many years you would have to go without a loss to break even on the additional deductible costs versus the amount you are saving by moving up to that deductible level. But remember, when it comes to restaurant insurance, your deductible will apply to each and every loss all over again. This is not like health insurance which generally has a per year deductible.

Taking the time to evaluate all of your property exposures and carrying full value replacement cost protection on them will pay off in spades should you ever experience a property loss to your restaurant. Understanding your lease requirements and evaluating your deductible value will help you make sure you have the appropriate coverage and can afford the policy and the loss should it happen. In part 2 of this series we will take the time to study liability insurance and its implications for the restaurant owner.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we work hard to help insurance consumers become better informed buyers. We specialize in helping restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance. We understand that not all restaurants are the same so we have designed 5 different restaurant insurance programs so that you can have a program more tailored to your needs. We have a fine dining insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a special insurance program for caterers. If you need help or advice for your NC restaurant or your SC restaurant, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com. Don’t trust your livelihood to an agent that doesn’t specialize in restaurants. There is just no need to take that risk.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com

Restaurant Insurance – Have You Read Your Lease?

Not every restaurant owner owns his or her building. And not every lease is the same. But if you have not taken the time to make sure that your lease requirements match up with your restaurant insurance policy, then you may be leaving yourself open to an uncovered claim and as a result, potential downtime or a huge hit to your cash flow.

Consider the case of James, the owner of a small family restaurant. James signed his lease with his landlord but did not really study it carefully. One of the stipulations in his lease was that he was responsible for all repairs to the heating and air conditioning units on the roof. Two years into the lease, lightning strikes the roof units and destroys them. The cost to replace them is $24,000.

Here’s the problem. James has a businessowners policy which covers the contents of his restaurant - so everything not attached to the building. In addition, James did think ahead and had his agent add coverage for betterments and improvements to this policy. This betterments coverage is for items that are part of the building, which the tenant added – could be paint on the walls or even attached booths for the diners. The problem for James is that he didn’t add the rooftop air conditioning units to the building so technically they don’t fall under the tenants betterments and improvements coverage.

So how could James have protected himself? Well, for those air conditioning units he would need to add building coverage to his policy. The problem is, there is a coinsurance clause on the building coverage that would reduce his claim payment. (For more help with coinsurance clauses, read my blog about it by clicking here.) The answer is that James should have added an Agreed Value Building coverage endorsement to his policy to cover the HVAC equipment. This Agreed Value form should be written with no coinsurance penalty.

There’s one more area of concern in James’ claim that needs to be addressed. Without the air conditioning units he is going to be in trouble keeping his restaurant open. He needs mechanical breakdown coverage to protect him from the loss of earnings he will suffer while he is waiting on his HVAC system to be repaired. To read my blog about mechanical breakdown coverage, click here. To see a short video about mechanical breakdown coverage, click here.

This real world example shows how important it is to take the time to review your lease and make sure that your restaurant insurance policy seamlessly integrates with that lease. When choosing a restaurant insurance policy it is very important that you select an agent that specializes in restaurant insurance. At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we do just that. We write insurance for over 100 restaurants all across NC and SC. We understand that each restaurant is different and that they don’t all need the exact same coverages. For that reason we have developed 5 different restaurant insurance programs to help you find the program that best suits your needs. We have a Fine Dining Restaurant Insurance Program, a Casual Dining Restaurant Insurance Program, A Bar and Grill Insurance Program, A Fast Food Restaurant Insurance Program and a Catering Insurance Program. Visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com or call us toll free at 877-687-7557 and find out how we can help you find the coverage you want and a price that will astound you.

The source information for this blog was taken from blog articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance Guy Tip – Manage Those Reviews

Most of my blog postings here are designed to help you navigate the ins and outs of your restaurant insurance program. And inherent in that plan is the concept of managing risks. But there is one risk out there that insurance cannot manage for you and you need to take proactive steps to protect yourself right away. If done right, this form of risk management can turn a big risk into a huge reward.

I’m talking about Google reviews. You should know by now that your customers and even your competitors can hurt or help you with the reviews of your restaurant that they post on Google. So you must begin the management process by making it a point to read those reviews regularly. You must know what your clients are saying about you and you must address the negatives in the way you manage your restaurant.

The quickest way to see your reviews is to type in the name of your restaurant , followed by your city name and state in a Google search. Then find the Google maps page link and read the reviews. If no reviews are posted, then you are working with a blank slate. That’s a good thing. Think of Google reviews as search engine gold. The more of these that you have, the higher your ranking with Google and the easier it will be for your clients to find you amid all the internet clutter of competing restaurants.

Now, the next step is to stuff the review box full of positive reviews. You might be tempted to open up a bunch of different Google accounts and do your own reviews. Don’t fall for this. When Google catches you at this game the punishment will be severe and quick. You will probably see your search engine rank drop off the face of the map pretty quickly. Rather, put in place a way to ask for these reviews from your clients that love you, your friends and family and your customers who tell you something good about your restaurant. Make sure that all of your employees have a system for asking for these reviews from customers who tell them how much they enjoyed your restaurant. Once you have set up this plan you need to make sure everyone is on the same page for getting it implemented and you must follow up to check to see that the reviews are being posted.

Now you probably think of your current insurance agent as the guy who sells you a policy and hopefully gives you advice about what policies you should buy. But is your agent taking the time to help you understand what you need to know to survive and prosper in the new digital age? What is your agent doing for you to directly increase revenue and sales opportunities? If you like the information in this blog, you may want to check out another feature that we offer to our clients at no charge at all. This is a coupon posting page on our web site called the Clinard Insurance Partners Program.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping all different types of restaurants with their restaurant insurance policies. We work hard to help them become informed insurance consumers and we also know that not every restaurant is the same. We don’t want you to be put into a restaurant insurance program that lacks the special coverage your type of restaurant needs, or one that forces you to purchase coverages you will never need. To that end, we have developed 5 distinctly different restaurant insurance programs: A Fine Dining Restaurant Insurance Program, A Casual Dining Restaurant Insurance Program, A Fast Food Restaurant Insurance Program, a specialized insurance program for Bar and Grill and Taverns, and finally a Caterer Insurance Program. If you need help with your restaurant insurance questions, or if you feel that your agent isn’t working hard to help you develop more top line revenue, then please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on line at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at our restaurant insurance blog at www.restaurantinsuranceguy.com.

Restaurant Owners – What Are Your Customers Saying About You On Yelp?

If you own a restaurant, you know your lifeblood is in the words and statements your clientele says to their friends and family. Most of this you will never know, but there is a place to find out what some people are saying publicly about your establishment. I’m talking about a web site called yelp. If you don’t know about it, you should take the time to find out.

Your digital marketing strategy must include monitoring what people are saying about you to others. Not only that, you simply must have your best customers, your raving fans, help you out in this area. Take the time to visit the yelp web site and poke around in there. Is your restaurant listed? Have you been reviewed? Is the review favorable? You just cannot afford to be ignorant about these types of digital feedback sites. Remember as more and more people begin to rely on their smart phones for help, directions and advice, restaurants are on the cutting edge of businesses most affected by these changes. Take the time to make sure that you are on the leading edge of this huge technological and cultural shift in consumer habits. Then ask your best clients and your friends for help in giving you positive reviews on Yelp.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping dining establishments all across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance policies. But we don’t stop there, we want our clients to be successful businesses. For that reason, we have developed our business partners page to help generate inbound traffic to our customers’ businesses. If we can help you with your restaurant insurance, or if you would like to know how we can help drive more customers to your restaurant, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance Help – Slip And Fall Issues And Cheap Ways To Prevent Them

As a restaurant owner you know the importance of minimizing risk to prevent downtime and lost time out of work. But what you may not know is that there are some very simple changes you can make that will not only reduce your risk of loss but can also save you money on your restaurant insurance policies. This article talks about one of the most common sources for claims in the restaurant business and the simple techniques you can employ to help prevent these claims.

The most common restaurant workers compensation policy claim comes from slip and fall claims. These claims can really haunt the restaurant owner because they happen so fast and often happen out of site and can often result in long recovery times. These long recovery times can really kill your insurance costs. The resulting disability payments to your employee who is out of work and recovering will all count against your experience modification factor and drive up your rates for many years to come.

Slip and fall risks in a commercial kitchen are high because of the cluttered and slippery floors with oil water and food on the floor. Also, your employees putting away inventory are at risk because they often can’t see where they are walking while carrying large boxes or sacks. In addition, severs and bussers are at risk while carrying trays and operating in subdued lighting environments.

So here is a short list of what you can do to help protect your employees from this risk. All of the items on this list are FREE, you just have to implement them.

1. Have your employees wear non-slip, waterproof shoes.
2. Do not allow running in the restaurant.
3. Properly store all supplies and equipment and eliminate clutter
4. Apply de-icing products to exterior walkways to protect both employees and customers
5. Clean up any spill immediately.
6. If your employees must carry stacked items, you must have a rule that they can see over the top of the items that they are carrying.
7. Keep and eye on all rugs and carpets and make sure they stay in their places and all corners lie flat.

This next list is of some other things you can do to reduce injury to your employees. This list may involve some minor expense but the cost savings are dramatic compared to the costs of a long term workers compensation claim.

1. Provide two double swing doors with windows at the entrance to the kitchen so that people on both sides of the door can see what is going on before they push through.
2. Install wall and ceiling outlets so cords aren’t left running along the floor. Also, make sure floor plugs are not in areas where spills are common.
3. Stretch or re-lay any carpet that is bulging or bunched up.
4. Use nonslip floor mats and non skid floor waxes on surfaces where water could be spilled.
5. All floors where water is spilled or used to clean must have adequate drainage.
6. Place convex mirrors at blind corners.
7. Immediately replace any broken or damaged drain covers.

Following these recommendations will help you reduce and even nearly eliminate the slip and fall hazards to both your employees and your patrons. This will help hold down the costs of your workers compensation insurance and your restaurant insurance program.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping all kinds of restaurants across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance policies. We understand that not every restaurant is the same, and that is why we have created 5 specialized restaurant insurance programs. We don’t want you to be the round peg jammed into a square hole that so often happens with restaurant insurance. We have a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program as well as a specialized program for caterers insurance. If we can help you with your restaurant insurance needs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article can be found in articles at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.