# Insurance help needed



## kb9snp (Nov 17, 2010)

I'm in southern Indiana and this is my 4th year plowing. I like plowing, it's fun... most of the time. For the last 2 years, I have been wanting to get a couple parking lots or other commecial jobs, but everytime I price Insurance, it is ridiculous. I'm not exactly sure if I am even getting quotes for the proper Insurance. One vehicle policy quote was over $1200/year. I have a sqeaky clean driving record, 31 years old, I would have thought it would be cheaper than that. I think I had a quote last year that was around $800. It is frustrating that the insurance has to be for a full year, I have no plans to cut grass, I am way too allergic to grass anyhow. 

Any help or advice is much appreciated.

Brandon


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## Spool it up (Oct 30, 2012)

its rediculous. imagine adding workmans comp and bonding . then add the 15% for uncle sam . sharks eat the guppies . its sort of a food chain thing .


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## kb9snp (Nov 17, 2010)

What a shame. I kind of liked plowing snow. Seems like everything I do, 50% goes to someone else. Anybody want to buy a plow truck? Southern Indiana. 812-545-9055


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## Phil T. Brun (Dec 28, 2012)

Hello gentlemen. To begin, this is not a solicitation for customers, I was sent this link by a member of this website that is a fellow member with me on a different forum. I am a commercial insurance broker with a focus on the commercial auto/transportation industry and he thought I may be able to provide some insite in this case.

Insurance is always going to be more than you want it to be, which is why I encourage people to do two things when it comes to insurance: 1) Have a good relationship with an insurance professional; & 2) Have a realistic budget for your insurance concerns. It is rare that ever a person says to me, "You know, this is very fair. I am paying a fair price for an insurance company to provide X amount of protection to me for my possible negligence or that of uninsured third-parties that cause my property damage."

First of all, from the OP's post, it seems as though the insured is only interested in purchasing a Commercial Auto Liability policy. A limit of liability is not specified, nor is it specified whether or not Physical Damage coverage (Comp/Coll) is also included. Regardless, a prudent businessperson is going to budget for far greater than $1,000/annually per unit for business auto insurance.

Also, the insured does not mention anything about purchasing a General Liability policy that includes coverage for Snow Plow Operations (the commercial Auto Policy only provides coverage for direct physical loss/damage to property or person). What the OP may not have been informed by the person assisting them with insurance procurement, is that should a person be injured due to the actions of the plow truck operations, but not directly by the truck, there is no coverage present unless a GL policy has been purchased and the snow plow endorsement been added (CG 22 92 12 07) that does not exclude Completed Operations performed by any "auto" used for snow plow operations.

As Spool It Up mentions, there are other risk exposures that become present as an operation grows, so does its risk as well as its cost to manage not only its risk, but the operations in general such as administrative costs associated with having employees.

Revenue generation is the key to success with any industry which relies heavily on vehicles, insurance is nothing more than a tool to help provide financial stability to a person/company when bad things occur. Failure to purchase insurance does not prevent bad things from happening, it just means that the at-fault person/company is now self-insuring their losses from the first dollar on.


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

something is not right. You have a truck and if you weren't plowing you don't carry auto insurance? But if you do have insurance ,your cost would only be the difference between regular insurance and commercial insurance. And yes you need GL insurance too.


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## shovelracer (Sep 3, 2004)

kb9snp;1549755 said:


> What a shame. Seems like everything I do, 50% goes to someone else.


Actually it is more than that. An average business would be lucky to pull 20% profit margin in this economy.


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